Californian pedal builder Meris, born from a rib of Strymon, has been one of the most interesting pedal builders to emerge in recent years – we even wrote a profile about them here! The Mercury7, one of their earlier designs, is stereo, a pro-audio quality modulated reverb that recreates and expands the reverb section of the Yamaha CS-80 synth.
More specifically, its algorithms are inspired by the reverb used by Vangelis in the score to the 1982 film Blade Runner. You can choose from two reverb modes: Ultraplate, lush plate-style reverb with fast buildup; and Cathedra, a massive, ethereal, and slow-building reverb.
Notwithstanding a rather stylized appearance, the Mercury7 is a very deep pedal: each knob has an Alt Function, allowing direct control to a host of parameters including decay, pre-delay, Modulation Depth and Speed, Lo/Hi Frequency, Density, Vibrato Depth, Swell, and Mix – just to mention a few.
Among all the controls, the Pitch Vector knob is the most unique, introducing 6 modes of “intra-tank” pitch shifting:
• Octave down,
• Slight pitch up,
• Slight pitch down,
• 5th up,
• Octave up.
Decay, Pitch Vector Mix & Hi/Lo Freq controls all interact to sculpt the intra-tank pitch regeneration.
Check out the videos of the Meris Mercury7 Reverb. We added it to our list of the Best Reverb Pedals for Shoegaze and Ambient Music.
Here’s a video from a few months ago by Pedals and Effects.
And another one by BunchOfPedals:
