Keeley Electronics Hydra melts smooth reverbs and flexible tremolos into a new feature-rich stereo pedal that creates moving atmospheric textures.
Synthesizers and effects pedals go perfectly together. Once started, they are addicting at the same level. Especially when there is a new special reverb pedal, the alarm bells go off for me.
With the Hydra, not Hydrasynth, Keeley Electronics has released a new reverb + tremolo pedal.
Keeley Electronics Hydra
Keeley Electronics’ new “feature-rich blue box combines high-fidelity stereo Reverb and Tremolo to add space and dimension to your guitar, bass, or keyboard signal. The reverb engine incorporates three different reverb algorithms: spring, plate, and room. You can control these with the Dwell, mix, and color knobs as well as with the footswitch. Hydra is capable of creating infinite hold reverb trails on the fly, without internal dip switches. That’s sounds tempting.
In addition to reverb, the pedal also has a tap-tempo enabled tremolo section. Three types are available with a press of a button here: harmonic, vibrato, or sine wave tremolo. The rate and depth knobs and footswitch on the left give you full control over the tremolo.
User Interface
The interface is very user-friendly and not overloaded with features. All functions are directly available without diving into menus. You can easily change the order of effects or the character of the tremolo/reverb with the new smart alt controls. The ability to assign an expression pedal to any knob is an amazing feature.
Then, it has three preset locations, there aren’t many, but at least you have them to store sounds. It can be used with pro remote switching systems and offers both TRS Expression Pedal and External Tap-Tempo inputs. Further, it can switch between true-bypass or trails modes and runs via an external 9v power supply.
Features
- Stereo high-fidelity Reverb and Tremolo effect pedal
- Dreamy and accurate sounding Spring, Plate, and Room Reverbs
- Vintage-voiced Harmonic, Vibrato, and Sine Tremolo
- 3 Preset locations
- Onboard or Remote Tap-Tempo
- Smart Alt Controls for Shimmer, Spring Age, Room/Hall Size
- Infinite Hold for Reverb trails
- Expression pedal can be assigned to any knob
- Effect Order, Reverb or Tremolo first, switchable on the fly
- True-Bypass or Trails switchable on the fly
- 9 Volt DC, 115mA ultra low-current design
- Made in Edmond, USA
In the first sound demo, Hydra sounds very smooth. I enjoy the sounds that use both effects because you hear nicely how the tremolo draws vibrations/movements in the reverb clouds. A bit like reverb waves.Very nice pedal with its own character. Probably also nice in combination with synths.
Keeley Electronics Hydra is available in 2-3 weeks for a price of $249 USD/299€.
More information here: Keeley Electronics
Available for pre-order at our partners:
Thomann
Be the first to comment