Keeley Aurora Reverb

Keeley Electronics introduces the Aurora Reverb pedal, featuring three essential reverb modes - Room, Hall and Plate.

Instead of going for modern versatility, this pedal focuses on traditional reverb and aims to reproduce each of the three modes as close to studio rack boxes as they possibly can.

The Keeley Aurora Reverb pedal is the company's entry into the psycho-acoustic processing reverb market. It is designed to be intuitive to allow for quick setups while still carrying enough depth for customization via the selected parameter controls, all of which are easily accessible on the front fascia of the pedal.

The official description says, "At Keeley Electronics, the Aurora Reverb had to meet certain specific criteria. It had to be affordable with no compromise to audio quality. It had to be easy for guitarists to use and be inspiring. And it had to offer the essentials for tailoring your tone without a dozen knobs to learn. Now achieved, we are proud to offer a true bypass, 100% dry analog path, low noise, 24 bit, high-fidelity reverb processor."

Right at the center of the pedal is a toggle switch that lets you change the reverb mode of the pedal. Switching to Hall mode will let you achieve cathedral-like resonance, which you can shape to your liking. Plate mode gives you small to big sheet-metal resonance, ideal for slapback style reverb. Finally, Room mode gives you room decays that cover various sizes from a small broom closet to a big close barn. It is said that by adjusting the room settings, you can also get resonance that gets close to spring reverb, which will come useful if your amp does not have a spring reverb tank installed.

Complementing the toggle switch are four knobs for adjusting reverb, slapback, warmth and bend. These will let you shape the virtual space on which your guitar signal will bounce off, and allows you to customize the reverb for both live and studio situations.

The Decay knob adjusts the amount of time it takes for the reverberated sound to disappear. The company describes the decay range as covering close-quarters reverberation to a "walk-away-and-come-back" signal that carries with it harmonically complex and ringing sonic reflections.

The Slapback knob lets you adjust the "predelay", which essentially creates the distance by which your guitar signal will bounce on. By tweaking this knob, you get to control how early or late the first reflection will be. You can use it to make the reverb wait a moment before joining the dry signal, or you can also use it to make the reverb and dry signal play simultaneously. The range of time that it covers is zero to 100 milliseconds, which is said to be ample considering the size of the pedal.

The Warmth knob behaves in the opposite manner to most tone controls.. It is actually a dampening control that increases the warmth, resulting in a more vintage style reverb sound. The brightest setting is achieved by dialing down the knob.

Finally, the Blend knob lets you adjust the mixture of the reverb and your dry signal. The lowest setting will give you subtle delay while dialing it up will give you wet delay sounds. Because of this knob, you can place the Keeley Aurora Reverb pedal at the end of your pedal chain and simply tailor the sound via blending.

The Keeley Aurora Reverb is now available for preorder, with a price tag of $179. Head over to Robert Keeley Electronics for more information.

Related Articles:
Keeley Gold Star Reverb
Keeley Electronics Multi Echo ME-8
Keeley Seafoam+ Chorus Pedal
Keeley Caverns Delay Reverb
Keeley DynaTrem
Seymour Duncan Shapeshifter Stereo Tremolo
EarthQuaker Devices Levitation Reverb

Our Best Reverb Pedal Recommendations