Flux Effects Liquid Ambience Polyphonic Reverb

The Liquid Ambience Polyphonic Reverb is a reverb pedal from Flux Effects that combines two circuits: a hall reverb and a polyphonic octave generator¹. Because the octave side is polyphonic, it tracks the notes of a chord rather than a single line, so the octave content is generated inside the reverb from everything you play.

The pedal grew out of the earlier Liquid Ambience, an atmospheric reverb that Pedal of the Day reviewed in December 2015 and found "capable of a wide array of sonic textures and gorgeous soundscapes"². The 2018 version keeps the same control set and adds the polyphonic octave generator and an on-board effects loop¹.

Controls and what they do

The control layout covers both circuits, with the reverb and octave sides each getting their own knobs.

The Evolve knob is where the pedal moves past a straightforward octave-plus-reverb. Delicious Audio's buying guide explains that it "adds a dynamic effect by recirculating some of the output back into the pedal, resulting in shimmers on super octaves and super fifths, synthy sounds on octaves, crystals on fifths, and reverbs that melt through the frequency spectrum on suboctaves and sub-fifths"³. The More footswitch has a second use: with the Evolve knob set to zero, it becomes a manual control of that setting, letting you determine exactly how the effect behaves².

Polyphonic octave generation and Bend mode

The octave generator is what separates this from a standard reverb pedal. Where a monophonic octave pedal tracks one note at a time, the polyphonic circuit handles chords, so the octave content follows your harmony rather than breaking up when you play more than one note¹. The Voice knob sets how much of that generated octave you hear and in which direction, up or down¹.

There is also a Bend mode that swaps the octave generation for a slightly detuned note. Delicious Audio's 2018 coverage describes it as "a slight detune effect, like a chorus or flanger"¹, and the buying guide calls the resulting tone "syrupy-thick"³. Players after that kind of modulation texture can read more on the Chorus Pedals and Flanger Pedals pages.

Effects loop and the stereo version

The pedal includes an on-board effects loop, which Delicious Audio described as being "for conjuring any sound you can imagine"¹. In practice, a loop on a reverb pedal lets you feed another effect into the reverb's path, so delays, drives or filters placed in the loop color the reverb tail itself rather than sitting after it.

A stereo version of the Liquid Ambience is also available, which adds an expression input for either pedal or control-voltage control of the Voice knob³. Players using an expression pedal can sweep the octave blend in real time; see the Expression Pedals page for how those connect.

Where it came from

Flux Effects first built the Liquid Ambience as an atmospheric reverb pedal, reviewed by Pedal of the Day in December 2015²⁴. That review documented the same core controls, the Mix, Evolve, Space and Voice knobs and the More footswitch². In September 2018, Delicious Audio covered the pedal as the Liquid Ambience Polyphonic Reverb, with the octave generator and Bend mode added to the hall reverb¹. Flux Effects also makes the Liquid Tremolo².

For players comparing this against other reverb pedals, the Reverb Pedals page covers the type generally, and the Octave & Pitch Pedals page covers octave circuits on their own.

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