Old Blood Noise Endeavors Rever

The Rêver is a reverse delay and reverb pedal from Old Blood Noise Endeavors, built in collaboration with the Brooklyn band Datachoir. Premier Guitar described it at launch as "a uniquely collaborative combination of modulated reverb, delay, and reverse," pairing the sonic ideas of Datachoir with Old Blood Noise's pedal building knowledge¹. It plays your signal backwards, then feeds that reversed signal through delay and reverb sections you control separately.

It is not a conventional time-effects pedal. Pedal of the Day put it plainly in their review: "Be forewarned: this is not your regular, standard delay (or reverb) pedal"². The pedal was sold only in limited runs, and it is no longer in production, so it now lives on through the pedals Old Blood Noise built from it.

A reverse delay and reverb in one pedal

The Rêver splits its work into three blocks: a reverse section, a delay, and a reverb. The reverse section can be momentary or latching, switchable via a toggle on the back of the pedal, so you can either reverse your signal only while you hold the switch or leave the reverse engaged³. A front toggle sets the order in which the blocks feed each other, which changes the character of the effect considerably³.

Guitar World's launch coverage described the pedal as combining modulated reverb, delay and reverse in one collaborative unit⁴. The delay and reverb sections each get their own control set, so you can dial in repeats and ambience around the reversed signal rather than treating the whole thing as one fixed effect.

The controls: reverse, delay and reverb sections

Each section of the Rêver has its own knobs, and the press coverage laid them out consistently across sources²³.

The reverb's Modulation control is worth noting for players who have not met a modulated reverb before: it adds movement to the reverb tail rather than to your dry signal, the same idea Old Blood Noise uses across its reverb pedals. The delay section's Feedback control determines how many repeats you hear, from a single echo toward self-oscillation territory at high settings²⁶¹.

Two further controls live outside the knob set. An expression jack allows external control of the Reverse mix, so you can sweep the reversed signal in and out with your foot while playing¹. And inside the enclosure, an internal trimpot controls the overall output level³, which is how you match the pedal's level to the rest of your rig.

Reverse first or reverse last

The front toggle switch sets the order of the blocks, and Guitar.com explained what each order does to the sound³:

• Reverse first: with the reverse at the start and the reverb and delay after it, the sound tends to feel washier and the reverse is smoother. Premier Guitar described this position as giving an ambient wash¹.
• Reverse last: with the reverse after the delay and reverb, the reverse becomes more pronounced and choppy, with a glitch-like character. Premier Guitar called these glitchy textures¹.

That single toggle effectively gives you two different pedals. Players after ambient, washy backgrounds will want the reverse feeding the time effects; players after the stuttering, backwards-tape glitch that reverse delays are known for will want it last, chopping up an already reverberated signal³¹.

A collaboration with Datachoir in limited runs

The Rêver came out of a collaboration between Old Blood Noise Endeavors and Datachoir, a band from Brooklyn². Premier Guitar framed the partnership as Datachoir supplying the sonic ideas and Old Blood Noise the pedal building knowledge¹.

Its release history is unusual. The pedal was originally released in a very limited US batch in 2018³, and by January 2019 it was already showing as out of stock on the Datachoir website, which Gearnews attributed to the previous year's limited run⁷. It returned for 2019, shown at Winter NAMM that year⁷, with additional features and improvements over the 2018 version³. The 2019 version was available for $229 direct from Datachoir in a limited colorway, or from participating dealers in the standard colorway, beginning February 15, 2019¹⁴.

Even after the 2019 re-release, the pedal never became a standard catalog item. Gearnews noted in November 2019 that the Rêver "has been available twice in the past, but only in limited editions runs of the unit"⁵.

What came after it

Old Blood Noise carried the Rêver's ideas forward in later pedals. In November 2019 the company announced the Minim, a reverse reverb and delay pedal that Gearnews reported was based on the Rêver⁵, with a Blend control for the reverse section⁵⁸⁹. The Minim has since sold out on the Old Blood Noise site¹⁰.

The reverse delay section of the Minim then became the core of the BL-44 Reverse, a real-time reverse delay that Guitar World reported was built from that circuit¹¹. The BL-44 has itself since sold out and been succeeded by the Setback reverse pedal, so the Rêver's reverse concept runs in a direct line through Old Blood Noise's catalog.

What reviewers said

Published coverage of the Rêver was limited alongside the pedal's limited runs, but Pedal of the Day gave it a full review in September 2019, covering the pedal's options and sounds in a demo video². Their verdict centered on the pedal's character:

The same review confirmed the practical details a player would want: the expression pedal control over the Reverse mix, the three-section control layout, and the internal trimpot for output level². Launch coverage from Premier Guitar, Guitar World, MusicRadar and Guitar.com was consistent on the pedal's feature set, with no dissenting published verdicts recorded.

Videos

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