Old Blood Noise Endeavors BL-44 Reverse

The Old Blood Noise Endeavors BL-44 Reverse is a real-time reverse delay: it constantly reads backwards what you play into it forwards, so the reversed copy follows your playing live rather than waiting on a loop¹. Old Blood Noise describes it as "simple in control and surprising in sound," and the whole effect rests on four knobs and one footswitch¹. It grew out of the reverse delay section of the maker's Minim pedal, released as a standalone stompbox that MusicRadar called the BL-44 Reverse Variable Clock Effector²³.

The BL-44 Reverse is a compact reverse effect pedal from Old Blood Noise Endeavors. Its single Mix knob sets the effect blend anywhere from 100% dry to 100% wet¹. It runs on a 9V DC center negative power supply through a 2.1mm jack, drawing 110mA, with no battery option and no supply in the box¹.

How it works: clock manipulation

The BL-44 is based around clock manipulation, the same idea behind wobbling the speed of a tape or a digital delay line⁴. The Clock control affects the timing of the entire system: turned up, the delay time is fast and the repeats stay faithful to what you played; turned down, the delay time slows, the sound degrades, and noise creeps in as the knob reaches the bottom¹. MusicRadar quoted the maker saying the Clock control allows players "to change the clock speed of the entire sonic system"².

Because the pedal reads your signal backwards in real time, the reversed copy is playable rather than a fixed sample. MusicRadar noted that the BL-44 puts the guitar into reverse gear and adds pitch-shifting effects and tape-style degradation².

The controls

Four knobs set everything: Clock, Speed, Mix and Volume¹.

The Speed knob is where the pitch character lives. Because it changes how fast the reversed audio is read back, slower settings drop the pitch and faster settings raise it, giving pitch-shifted reverse guitar sounds to play with². Mix covers the full dry/wet range, so the pedal can work as a subtle layer under your dry tone or as a fully wet, backwards-only effect¹⁴.

A single soft-touch bypass footswitch switches the effect in and out with true bypass and minimal switch noise¹.

Power and setup

From the Minim's reverse section to a discontinued BL pedal

The BL-44 began as part of another pedal. Old Blood Noise's Minim, launched in 2019, combines reverse, reverbs and delay in one unit, with a Blend knob for the reverse section and separate Reverse and Bypass footswitches⁶⁷⁸. For the BL-44, Guitar World reported, OBNE took the reverse delay section from the Minim as the core of the build³. MusicRadar likewise described the BL-44 as having evolved out of the Minim reverb/delay ambience unit².

The BL-44 sat in the maker's BL line, a series of compact experimental pedals¹. Delicious Audio placed it alongside OBNE's earlier textural reverse-effect pedals, the Rever and the Minim, but called the BL-44 "a quirkier and experimental beast"⁴. The enclosure art is by Brandy M Patterson¹.

At launch the BL-44 was priced at $179², and the maker's product page still lists it at $179.00¹. In mid-2023 Gearnews recorded it at retail for $206.00 at Thomann⁹.

The series ended in 2026. Guitar Pedal X reported in April 2026 that OBNE had discontinued the BL series, including the BL-44 Reverse Playback Pedal, noting that it had four controls: Mix, Volume, Speed and a Clock Slider¹⁰. Delicious Audio put it more bluntly: "OBNE killed the BL-44"¹¹. The maker's BL series page marks the run as 2022 to 2026⁵².

What replaced it

Old Blood Noise Endeavors gives the BL-44 a single Mix control, blending from a fully dry signal to fully wet reverse effect¹. Power comes from a 9V DC center negative supply with a 2.1mm jack, and the pedal draws 110mA; the supply is not included, so it needs a dedicated power source rather than a battery¹.

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