This clever dual‑engine effects pedal offers ambience for days!

You might already be familiar with Source Audio’s Collider and Ventris dual‑engine pedals (reviewed in SOS February 2020 and June 2018 respectively), and their new Encounter comes in the same format. Of course, it is loaded with a different set of effect algorithms, and in this case it’s ambient reverb or delay algorithms that can be loaded into either engine. You get a choice of serial or parallel routing options, too.

As with the Collider, this pedal can store up to eight presets that are accessible from the front panel (though the default setting is four), or 128 presets that can be accessed using MIDI. The Encounter can also be integrated with other Source Audio pedals, using their optional Neuro Hub technology, or linked to them using MIDI. There are four preset LEDs and a Select button for stepping through them. If set to Preset Extension mode (eight presets), the LED that is lit shows presets one to four while presets five to eight use an unlit LED to show the preset number.

Source’s Neuro 3 software (iOS, Android, Mac or Windows) has been massively upgraded, and includes a really neat new feature called SoundCheck. This incorporates faithful emulations of all Source Audio’s pedals, along with a series of test phrases played on different instruments that can be run through the virtual pedals. The user can then use Neuro 3 to audition pedals or use the editing function to create patches that can then be shared with other users, saved in a library or saved to a pedal.

Controls & Functionality

The Encounter’s most important functionality can be accessed from the controls on the pedal itself, with no deep menu‑diving involved, but using the Neuro 3 editor allows access to further adjustments that you can’t reach using the front‑panel controls. Onboard MIDI support allows the Encounter to slot into a MIDI‑controlled rig using CC messages to change parameters and Program Change messages to navigate presets.

Stereo ins and outs allow for any mono/stereo permutation. If you don’t need to preserve tails, you can use the Analogue mode, which uses a relay to bypass the effect and keeps the dry signal in the analogue domain. A rear‑panel mini–jack Control input, with associated small button, accepts a tap‑tempo switch, a Neuro Hub, a dual expression pedal or, if you have one already, the discontinued Reflex Universal Expression Controller or Hot Hand Motion Controller. A separate quarter‑inch Pedal In jack that’s assignable to various functions takes an expression pedal or a switch. A USB port allows for connection to a computer running the Neuro 3 software.

As with the Collider, there are six rotary pots, plus a rotary switch for selecting the effect algorithms. The pots control Delay, Mix, Feedback,Tone, Control 1 and Control 2, and the precise function of some controls changes according to the algorithm selected. Mix adjusts the wet/dry balance, while Feedback sets either the delay feedback or the reverb decay time. Tone does the brighter/darker thing while the Control 1 and Control 2 knobs relate to the current algorithm — for example, generally setting mod rate and depth for the delays.

By default, a patch comprises one reverb and one delay, and should you only need one effect then either can be bypassed. But a simple routine unlocks the system so that either engine can be loaded with either type of effect. So you could run two delays at the same time, or two reverbs, or have the effects running reverb into delay rather than the usual delay into reverb. There’s also a simple routine to enable Preset Extension mode if the default four presets aren’t enough. 

The leftmost footswitch, which operates bypass and is used to set the delay time by tapping, has a red/green status LED and a switch that sets a choice of three tap divisions. The LED blinks red to green at the set tap rate. When both sides of the pedal are bypassed, the footswitches can also be used to navigate presets by pressing and holding. The right‑hand footswitch again has an LED along with a three‑way switch that flips the controls from adjusting reverbs to adjusting delays. In the centre position all control changes are locked out. LEDs around the effects selector show which effects are currently in use. 

First Encounter

While the operation of the pedal shares common ground with the Collider and Ventris, the Encounter algorithms are tailored more towards ambient effects. Looking at the reverb effects first, Hypersphere is a reverb with no early reflections, and past the mid position the Tone control dials in some dirt that adds a brightness to the reverb tail. There’s also a phase‑style effect that can be dialled in using the two Control knobs to adjust depth and mix. Shimmers can add pitches above and below the input signal, where Control 1 selects between five options comprising octaves, fourths and fifths. More pitch options are available when using the Neuro 3 editor. Mix controls the amount of shimmer; when this is turned down you get a straight reverb.

TremVerb takes a reverb based on the E‑Dome algorithm from Source’s Ventris pedal, and adds an adjustable rate and depth tremolo with a choice of five LFO waveforms. Reverse also comes from the Ventris pedal, while Lo‑Fi adds distortion and random modulation for that aged cassette vibe. Swell applies a slow attack that can be adjusted for both the wet and dry sounds with adjustable trigger threshold and swell speed. This doesn’t seem to trigger quite as reliably as the Boss RV‑500’s swell effects, but in most cases it does the job as long as the input signal isn’t too busy.

Moving on to the delays, Helix adds fluttery pitch‑shift and reverse delay, creating an almost granular delay effect. Both Control knobs act as five‑position selectors, so there are 25 permutations to explore — there’s ambient gold in this algorithm and even more fun if you load Helix into both engines! Kaleidoscope combines delay and reverb, with Control 1 setting the modulation and Control 2 adjusting diffusion, which adds an interesting texture to the delayed sound. EchoVerb is a clean delay, and this time Control 2 adds a plate reverb effect. At minimum delay times with some added modulation, Control 1 creates a chorus‑like effect with reverb added.

Drum Echo is not a delay for drummers! Rather, it’s an emulation of the old Binson Echorec, and it features an expanded multi‑head delay capability. Control 1 adjusts feedback from heads two and three, creating a ‘wash’ effect, while Control 2 runs through eight different rhythmic delay options. Noise Tape emulates a tape delay, with the two Control knobs adjusting tape age and wow & flutter. Resonant adds a resonant low‑pass filter, Tone adjusts the filter centre frequency, and the two Control knobs adjust the filter depth and LFO rate.

Source Audio have endowed this little pedal with a lot of sonic scope without making it complicated to use.

Verdict

Source Audio have endowed this little pedal with a lot of sonic scope without making it complicated to use, and I liked that it can store and access a practical number of presets without needing MIDI. Neuro 3 is also a great tool for editing and creating presets, with or without access to the physical pedal, and it’s easy to publish your own patches for other users to try. Indeed I’ve already published a few of the patches that came up when I was reviewing the pedal and I may well add a few more. SoundCheck lets you hear presets on a variety of instruments that include guitars, basses, keyboards and drums — a very convenient way to hear what other Source Audio pedals can do as well as editing the Source pedals you own.

The high quality of the effects is what we’ve come to expect from Source Audio, and while those using the pedal standalone will not be disappointed, anyone needing to integrate it into a larger system will appreciated its MIDI capabilities and its ability to mesh into an existing Neuro Hub ecosystem. While the pedal can serve up some basic reverbs and delays if you want it to, that’s not really its key strength; sound design, ambient, cinematic and shoegaze effects are clearly where this pedal’s designers focused their efforts, and for those purposes it doesn’t disappoint. Its shimmer effects are smooth, its fluttery reverse effects sound suitably ethereal, and the addition of modulation, filtering and, in some cases, phasing really adds to the sonic repertoire. There’s a lot to explore here without getting bogged down in complexities.