Old Blood Noise Dark Star

The Old Blood Noise Dark Star is a lo-fi pad reverb: a pedal built around a long, dark reverb voice and aimed at slow attack and pad generation rather than at realistic room or hall sounds. Where a conventional reverb pedal tries to place your guitar in a space, the Dark Star treats the reverb itself as raw material, then chews it up with pitch shifting, delay or bit crushing depending on which of its three modes you pick¹.

The original mono Dark Star is no longer made. Old Blood Noise Endeavors retired it in early 2024, though the maker says it is still available through dealers worldwide¹. The circuit survives in the Dark Star Stereo, released in 2024, which keeps the same three effects but lets you run them all at once instead of choosing between them².

A dark, lo-fi pad reverb

Old Blood Noise describes the Dark Star as "a lo-fi reverb aimed at slow attack and pad generation"¹. In practice that means the pedal is tuned for sustained, washy textures: hold a chord and the reverb blooms into a pad of its own. Delicious Audio's Christopher Scapelliti wrote that "It shines in creating long and cavernous reverbs, with an optional lo-fi character"³.

The pedal found its audience among ambient players. Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio notes that the original "became a go-to pedal for many ambient guitarists for its ability to create a wide range of original reverb sounds full of character and interesting textures"⁹. Pedal of the Day summed up its voice as "Dark Star's dark pitch shifted, delayed, and bit crushed reverb voices"¹⁰.

Premier Guitar's reviewer took the description a step further, framing the pedal as less an effect than an instrument¹¹:

Pitch, Delay and Crush modes

The original Dark Star is a three-algorithm pedal. A three-way toggle selects between Pitch, Delay and Crush modes, and each mode introduces its effect "to the core voice of long, dark reverb"¹. Two knobs, CTRL 1 and CTRL 2, shape the unique elements of whichever mode is active¹.

The rest of the control set is shared: a Reverb knob sets trail length, and a Volume knob handles output level¹. The pedal has two footswitches, Bypass and Hold³, with the bypass switch being a soft-touch true bypass design for minimal switch noise³⁸.

On the Dark Star Stereo, the mode toggle disappears. The Stereo version "greatly expands the original's sonic palette by allowing the three original algorithms (Pitch, Delay and Crush) to interact with each other", so you can run pitch shifting, delay and crushing together rather than choosing one⁹. Guitar Pedal X described the change as combining "Pitch, Delay and Crush elements together with more options and a far higher degree of granularity than the compact original"².

Dark Star, Dark Star V2 and Dark Star Stereo

The Dark Star line has three stages. The original mono Dark Star came first, followed by a Dark Star V2, and then the Dark Star Stereo in 2024¹¹⁷. Guitar.com's reviewer noted that the enclosure, packaging and manual of the Stereo name only "Dark Star", because "that was the name of the old mono version"⁵.

The Stereo is a much deeper pedal than its predecessors:

• Stereo in and out, routable in mono, stereo, or mono-in/stereo-out, with both jacks single TRS⁸¹¹
• Analog dry through, with trails or true bypass switching⁸
• Dedicated controls for Pitch 1 and Pitch 2, each an independent shifter with a two-octave range in each direction, plus Lag, Crush and an extra Filter knob⁹¹²
• Crush offers either sample rate reduction or overdrive⁸
• Lag works as pre-delay, introducing additional delay to the reverb⁸²
• Multiply sets feedback, Decay sets the main trail length, and Stereo Spread widens the image¹²⁸
• Three presets plus manual mode, toggled by a button or the assignable second footswitch⁵
• Expression control over every knob, and MIDI control over every element, with MIDI In and MIDI Out⁸²
• Colors: Blue (standard), Black and Pink, with enclosure art by Jon Carling⁸

Guitar.com's Richard Purvis found one behavior worth knowing about: the second footswitch's sustain mode locks new playing out of the reverb circuit, so "anything you add is locked out of the reverb circuit and will therefore be bone-dry" unless you have another reverb on your board⁵.

How much did the Dark Star cost?

The original mono Dark Star listed at $209¹. The Dark Star Stereo lists at $329⁸. At the Stereo's 2024 launch, Guitar Pedal X reported it at $299 in the US and £299 in the UK and called it "pretty well priced" at that figure²; the maker's current price is $329⁸.

Who uses it

Delicious Audio credits the original with becoming a go-to pedal for many ambient guitarists⁹. One documented player is Sarah Lipstate of Noveller, who told Guitar World she uses the Dark Star, "which boasts a reverb modulated by pitch, delay and bit-crusher", and that "it's pretty easy to tell the difference by ear between the two Dark Star modes: delay and pitch"¹³.

Related Old Blood Noise pedals

When the original Dark Star was retired in early 2024, Old Blood Noise kept part of its circuit alive in the Dark Light dual reverb, which the maker describes as carrying on an option of that original circuit⁶. The Dark Star Stereo is the direct successor, and the Dark Star Stereo Soundscape Reverb is its special-edition form.

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