Walrus Audio Melee

The Walrus Audio Melee: Wall of Noise is a distortion and reverb combo pedal that, in the maker's words, "unapologetically uses a joystick to meld reverb and distortion into one massive blaze of sound"¹. Instead of separate gain and mix knobs, a single joystick sets both at once: push it up and down for more or less distortion, left and right for the reverb mix²³. An order switch then decides whether the distortion feeds into the reverb or the reverb feeds into the distortion, which changes the character of the whole pedal¹.

Walrus Audio launched the Melee in January 2023 at $299⁴⁵, pitching it at players who want an instant wall of shoegaze noise without building a large board. Both the standard version and the Onyx Edition are listed as sold out on the maker's site as of October 2026¹².

The controls

The control set is deliberately small. MusicRadar reported at launch that Walrus Audio "went for a less is more approach to the pedal's controls; more fun and creativity, with less tinkering"⁹. Besides the joystick there is one knob and three toggles⁴:

The sustain switch works two ways. Press and hold it and the reverb trails ramp up, then ramp back down to wherever the decay switch is set when you release. Press and release quickly and it latches, capturing and sustaining the current reverb decay for long pad-like sounds in all three programs; press again to let the trail taper off⁸. Guitar.com's reviewer found one quirk: with sustain latched and the LED flashing, anything played over the top has no reverb at all⁸.

The joystick itself drew one ergonomic criticism. Guitar.com's Richard Purvis noted it sits in a circular gate and wondered whether a square gate, with edges and corners to feel for, would be more intuitive¹².

Three reverb modes: Ambient, Octave and Reverse

The Melee runs one of three reverb programs, changed by simultaneously pressing the bypass and sustain footswitches¹:

Reviewers found real differences between them. Premier Guitar described the ambient setting as "more cave-like in its reflections" and mostly free of cloying high-octave tonalities¹¹, while Guitar.com called it, with long decay, "a classic soundscape reverb: deep, smooth and immersive"⁸. The octave-down algorithm "delivers doomy, fractured textures and haunting, dolorous foghorn tones" in Premier Guitar's words¹¹. Of the reverse program, Premier Guitar wrote that "unlike a lot of reverse reverbs, the Melee's feels fluid and cohesive," and noted many settings uncannily evoke My Bloody Valentine¹¹. Guitar.com described the same algorithm's behavior: the reverb builds from silence over about a second, then repeats to fade⁸.

Modulation can be added to the wet signal by holding down the bypass switch and moving the decay toggle: left is no modulation, middle is slight, right is high¹. Guitar.com characterized the effect as "pitch vibrato rather than blended chorusing," with a woozy up/down sway that "can feel less than tasteful"⁸.

Changing the order: distortion into reverb or reverb into distortion

The order switch is where the Melee earns its "Wall of Noise" name. In the conventional D>R position, distortion feeds into the reverb, the familiar dirt-then-wash arrangement. Flip it to R>D and the reverb feeds into the distortion, so the distortion acts on the reverb trail itself¹⁴. Pedal of the Day described the two routings as producing "vastly differing results" and suggested experimenting with the toggle to hear how the three reverb programs react in front of and after the distortion³.

Guitar.com's reviewer saved his strongest words for the reversed order, calling it "absolute carnage" and "exactly what we came for," an all-engulfing inferno of extraordinary intensity⁸. The same review found the pedal touch-sensitive in this territory: play gently and it pulls back to near-normal reverb, dig in and it goes wild again⁸.

Where it came from

Walrus Audio announced the Melee in January 2023, available at walrusaudio.com and through authorized dealers worldwide¹². Delicious Audio noted the design is reminiscent of the company's early Janus stompbox, which similarly blended two effects, fuzz and tremolo, using joysticks¹³. The enclosure art is by David Hüttner, on a bright pink finish¹³. The pedal returned in limited Black Friday 2024 editions, including a Floral Series version in glossy neon pink and an Onyx Edition made in collaboration with Onyx Coffee Labs¹².

The distortion side has a family resemblance to earlier Walrus pedals. Guitar.com reports it is "apparently based on the Walrus Iron Horse," describing it as "a warm and throaty kind of dirt, becoming increasingly fuzzy, but not harsh, as we bump up the gain"⁸. Premier Guitar's reviewer was more effusive about it: "The distortion is remarkable. It's articulate and communicates individual string detail clearly, even at high-gain settings"¹¹.

What reviewers said

Reviews were positive across the board, with caveats about the joystick and the modulation. Guitar.com rated it 9 and concluded: "Instant hugeness in a range of rich flavours, a highly addictive soundscape generator"⁸. Guitar World's Trevor Curwen wrote that "the Melee's unique blending of dirt and ambience in one pedal is tremendously nutty but really works," calling it perfect for an instant shoegaze experience but capable of many more genres⁴. Pedal of the Day's verdict was that the pedal "has to be heard to be fully appreciated, no matter how rad the enclosure's graphics might be"³.

The criticisms were specific rather than broad: the circular joystick gate⁸, the vibrato-style modulation that can feel less than tasteful⁸, and the mono output, which Guitar.com felt did not matter here even though it had held back the earlier Lore⁸.

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