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The Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Max is an easy-to-use, stellar-sounding reverb pedal. The Holy Grail Max delivers four types of studio-quality reverb: Spring, Hall, Plate, and Reverse all designed for the discerning guitarist but also great with other instruments on stage or in the studio. Included is an analog wet and dry control that provides a constant volume curve as you turn the Blend knob from fully dry to fully wet while also keeping your dry signal analog through the pedal. Controls Reverb Switch Knob chooses the reverb mode. From left to right, the modes are Spring, Hall, Plate, and Reverse. Time Knob adjusts the decay time, or reverb length and size, for the Spring, Hall, and Plate reverbs. In Reverse mode, the Time knob sets the length of time between striking a note and the reverb fade-in. While in Plate mode, when Time is set to its maximum position, the reverb decay is over 30 seconds creating a lush reverb wash with each new note. Blend Knob controls the wet and dry mix from 100 percent Dry (counter-clockwise position) to 100 percent Wet (clockwise position). Your Dry signal remains analog from input to output through the HG Max. The Footswitch selects whether the HG Max is engaged or in True Bypass mode. When the effect is engaged, the LED is lit. It has 1/4-inch Input and Output jacks.

The Soft Focus patch was widely used in the ‘90s by early shoegaze bands, most notably Slowdive on Souvlaki. With its roots in that patch, the Catalinbread Soft Focus is intended to be an instant shoegaze button, while addressing the most glaring issues of the original unit: no mix control, a sub-par preamp, and a ghastly tone-sucking bypass signal. At its heart, the Soft Focus is a heavily modified plate reverb with adjustable time, which is subsequently split into three paths. One path contains a multi-voiced chorus modulator, another features a well-appointed octave-up mixed in with the reverb, and the third path leaves the reverb untouched. The Mod knob controls the rate of the chorus on path one, and the Symphony knob controls the level of the octave on path two. All controls are coupled to the tone of the reverb to give users an expansive playing field of sounds to discover and fine tune. The Soft Focus is not an exact recreation but was exhaustively compared with the FX500; the difference is that a fairly generic fixed-time digital delay is present on the Soft Focus patch. We found that leaving this feature intact ate into the circuit’s memory just a little too much for such little payoff, so we leave that addition to you and your favorite delay.Symph(Symphony)This mixes in a slight octave effect on the wet reverb signal. While subtle, this shifts the mood and character quite a bit. This is also tied to some frequencies in the reverb for more harmonic content.ModThis parameter controls the rate of the multi-voiced chorus and changes some of the frequencies in the reverb oscillation.VerbThis controls the decay time for the reverb.SpatialSpatial pedals include delay and reverb. This is where the Soft Focus could go. Typically, delay comes before reverb because natural reverb occurs after the sound is produced or mechanically within amps, which is typically the last stop for your signal before it hits your ears.OtherYour compressors, filters, synth emulators, pitch shifters and other things like this go here.ModulationThis is where your choruses, flangers, vibratos, tremolos, etc go. Modulation pedals notoriously accept very hot signals with ease, including effects loop outputs, so running them after dirt just makes sense. Order within this category is completely subjective, so try different stuff until you dig it.