Old Blood Noise Endeavors Sunlight Dynamic Reverb

The Sunlight Dynamic Reverb is a reverb pedal from Old Blood Noise Endeavors, released in August 2021¹. What sets it apart from a standard reverb is its additive hold function: when you stop playing, the freeze effect holds the reverb trails in place, sustaining a pad under whatever you play next². Gearnews described it as "a dynamic reverb with an additive hold function, which allows you to freeze a note and hold it"².

MusicRadar called it an "envelope triggered multi-mode reverb," designed as an early chain pad reverb, meaning it is built to sit near the front of your signal chain and generate sustained pads that react to your playing dynamics³. The circuit was inspired by OBNE's Dark Star reverb³.

A dynamic reverb with a freeze hold

The core idea is that the reverb responds to how hard you play and then locks its trails in place when you stop. As Gearnews put it, the freeze "freezes the reverb trails when you stop playing, and creates some super interesting tones"⁴. The Decay knob controls the reverb feedback, which can be pushed into enveloping infinite reverbs².

The pedal carries three reverb algorithms that were new to the OBNE lineup at launch⁵, and reviewers have grouped their character as "Sunlight's bright modulated, comb filtered, and bandpassed reverb voices"⁶. Delicious Audio summed the pedal up as "a pedal that requires and invites exploration"⁵.

The controls

The front panel has five knobs: Rate, Depth, Mix, Decay and Input³. Rate and Depth behave differently depending on which of the three modes you are in, while Mix and Decay work the same way regardless of mode.

Alongside the knobs, an Alt footswitch lets you quickly snap to a particular knob setting, so you can jump between two control positions without bending down mid-song²⁵.

The Tape, Comb and Pass modes

A mini toggle switch selects between three modes, each of which layers a different extra effect onto the reverb²⁵.

• Tape applies a wobbling vibrato to the reverb⁵. Rate adjusts the modulated warbles³.
• Comb adds stacked resonant delays to the reverb⁵. Depth sets the feedback of the delay section, allowing you to dial in some heady resonance³.
• Pass gives random step filtering of the reverb⁵. Rate sets the timing of the sample-hold and the range of cutoff frequencies³.

MusicRadar described the three modes as foregrounding modulation, comb filtering and resonant bandpass filtering respectively³.

Expression pedal control

The Sunlight's functionality can be extended by an external expression pedal³. The external Expression control works with a standard expression pedal and adjusts the Input, Decay, Rate and Depth parameters on the fly², which is useful for swelling the pad or sweeping a filter while both hands are busy playing.

Bypass and power

The pedal uses soft-touch switching with true relay bypass, so it will not mess with your tone when not engaged²⁵. Power comes from a 9V DC center negative supply with a minimum of 80mA².

Where it came from and what reviewers said

Old Blood Noise Endeavors released the Sunlight in August 2021¹, with MusicRadar reporting it priced at $209 and available at launch³; Gearnews gave the European RRP as EUR 219². By December 2021 Gearnews listed it at $244.00 at Thomann⁴.

At the end of 2021, Gearnews named it in their year-end roundup, calling it "another stand-out effect this year" and a good pick for players looking for something new⁴.

The Sunlight sits in an OBNE reverb family that includes the Dark Star line that inspired it, along with pedals like the Procession and the later Dark Light dual reverb, which shares the Sunlight's bright modulated, comb filtered and bandpassed voice concept⁶.

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