Walrus Audio Slöer Review
The perfect ambient stereo reverb.
In the past few years, Walrus Audio has steadily released fantastic pedals one after the other. And their latest release, Walrus Slöer, is a majestic one!
Following the successful releases of Slö back in 2019 and Slötva in 2021, they decided to up their game and give us a stereo version of their most famous reverb pedals and much more! So, Slöer is a multi-mode stereo reverb pedal that now has five different algorithms. Dark, Rise, and Dream which were introduced in Slö are still here with the addition of Light and Rain.
To my ears, Slöer is the perfect ambient reverb pedal. All algorithms are beautiful-sounding, the stereo aspect (that you can also control) is amazing, there are a lot of modulation options to shape our sound, and you can save your presets. The X knob is now a slider, and they also added another slider called Stretch that can expand your decay times by reducing the sample rate. That darkens the tone and adds a few low sample rate artifacts that enhance the description of this pedal as a Multi-Texture Reverb!
So, let’s do a quick walkthrough of all the algorithms and controls of Slöer:
Algorithms
Dream: Dream mode is going to be probably the most used one. It is a lush, ethereal reverb that also has a latching option by pressing on the sustain footswitch. With the X Slider, you can add vibrato to your wet signal which adds a more dreamy vibe to your sound. It’s definitely my go-to algorithm that plays well with any sound you feed it!
Light: Light is a new mode that adds a +1 octave shimmer. Being a very ambient pedal, Slöer needed to have a shimmer reverb and Light is a great one. I’m not a big fan of shimmer reverbs but this one has really changed my mind. The fact that you can control the brightness and amount of shimmer with the X Slider gives you the freedom to make the shimmer not so profound and more like a synth pad beneath your original sound.
Rain: Rain is also a new mode that’s essentially a delay where you can diffuse the echoes by using the X Slider. The cool thing about this mode is that it can be an echo and as you push the diffusion, the echoes are smeared into a reverb.
Dark: In Dark mode, Slöer adds a -1 octave to your reverb and its volume can be controlled by the X Slider. It works best with brighter and more high-pitched sounds since it adds a lot of low end, Dark is a great way to add depth and layers to your signal.
Rise: My second favorite mode is Rise. This one is an auto-swell that slowly brings up the volume of the wet signal after you play a note. With the X Slider, you can control the time it takes to bring up the volume of the reverb from shorter to longer rise times. It’s a really amazing algorithm that’s not really common to find. A great way to use this is to have your mix set to fully wet and just let it swell your sounds like using a volume pedal. A very cinematic and ambient mode for sure!
Modulation & Filter
Another upgrade of Slöer is the modulation section. Walrus kindly added two more modulation shapes so you get 5 in total and you can control the rate and depth with the Depth knob (you can set the rate by holding the bypass switch and turning the Depth knob). The modulation shapes available are:
SINE – Smooth and even pitch up and down modulation.
WARP – Asymmetric pitch-up modulation similar to a warped record.
SINK – Asymmetric pitch-down modulation for sinking detune similar to a Bigsby.
SQUARE – Symmetric pitch up and down modulation for stepped modulation.
RANDOM – Uses sample and hold that picks new random values.
Modulation plays an integral part in your reverb sound. I’m a big fan of slow rate and very subtle modulation so I always keep my depth quite low. But with Slöer, you don’t really need to hold back since it somehow stays usable even on maximum Depth. The multiple shapes give you more options to dial in your modulation. The addition of Square and Random was very welcomed since I tend to like square waves for modulation because of the more stepped and rhythmic jumps that provide. The differences between the waveforms may not be that prominent since reverb is a sustained sound but they all sound beautiful. The important thing is that the Modulation section is very well thought out and tuned and you can utilize all modes and take advantage of the full range of the Rate and Depth controls. So get wild with it!
On top of that, you also get a very synth-like filter that has just enough resonance to actually hear the filter sweeps as you move it around. The filter on Slöer is very useful to tame your reverb and since this pedal has huge pad-like decays, the filter can act just like it would on a synthesizer for pad sounds. Once you crank up the Mix knob and use the Filter, you can get actual pad sounds with any sound source. The only thing I would add to the Filter would be to also have a secondary control that would turn it to high-pass instead of low-pass. This would be a cool way to remove some of the low-end that sometimes is a lot! But even as it is, it’s a very handy control to have.
Stretch
Stretch is a unique control that is introduced with Slöer. It essentially time-stretches your reverb by lowering the sample rate giving you longer decays. By lowering the sample rate you lose some of the treble and higher frequencies resulting in darker tones and you may hear some subtle sound artifacts when you set it to max. All the way to the left you get maximum stretch and as you go to the right you stretch to zero.
The whole idea behind this was probably to add a lofi character by using the sample rate of the DSP chip and I think they nailed it. The response to the Stretch slider is very clear and audible as you play with it and it sounds great even at its lowest value. It is just a matter of taste and different flavors of reverb and the loss of high fidelity never makes the reverb sound weird or bad.
The Decay on Slöer can go for a very long time so Stretch is not really needed to give you longer decay times. It is more of a tone and lofi control that you can freely use and find the settings you like the most. Also, as you move it around you get a lot of pitch shifting that can be used as a nice sound effect!
Stereo
The thing that most people were asking and that was not on the Slö pedal is for it to be Stereo. So Walrus listened and Slöer is a stereo reverb with a few tricks up on its sleeve.
First of all, I truly appreciate the fact that Slöer has two physical inputs and two outputs and not those weird TRS inputs and outputs. Might be a small detail but I prefer things simple (and I hate cables) so I was so happy when I saw this. TRS connections have become a trend that I hope stops soon…
On the pedal, there is a small switch that has three options. Narrow, which turns it into a mono reverb having the two channels running as parallel mono. You can of course just use the jacks on the back just use the Mono out of the pedal but it’s nice that you can set it to mono without plugging and unplugging stuff. On the Medium setting, the stereo field opens up and becomes a regular stereo reverb, and on the Wide setting, you get maximum stereo width as Slöer sends individual signals in the left and right channels. The Wide setting is perfect for long decays that are gloriously spread into the stereo field while the Medium setting is more similar to a typical stereo reverb.
But the fun stuff doesn’t end here. The Mix knob has a secondary function that controls the panning of the Dry and Wet signals. As you hold down the bypass switch and turn the Mix knob, you decide on which side you want to send more or your wet signal. If you, let’s say, turn it all the way clockwise, you’ll have your wet signal on the right output and your dry signal on the left.
That function has two applications. The first one is to slightly separate your dry and wet signals in the stereo field and make your sounds a bit more interesting and wide. The second one is to completely isolate your dry and wet signals and mix them later in post or even further process them with more effects separately. That will give you maximum flexibility but you’ll lose the stereo aspect of this pedal since your wet signal will then be in mono.
Hands-on Review
So, after having the pedal for a while and using it for synths, guitars, and vocals, I can easily say that I absolutely love it! Slöer is the reverb pedal I have been looking for for a long time. The sounds coming out of Slöer are simply majestic. All the algorithms are carefully crafted, the pitch tracking in the Light and Dark modes is excellent, and all settings sound beautiful and lush. And another important thing, at least to me, is that the pedal is very easy to use. It has very few secondary functions and the layout is clear, highly responsive, and simple to grasp.
I believe that I really enjoy this pedal mainly because it is made for ambient and wall-of-sound reverbs that I love and fit into my music. It’s, by no means, quiet and subtle. When Slöer is on, it is on and present all the time. I’ve used a lot of reverb pedals so when I first got it I instinctively turned up the decay at 1 -2 o’clock and set the Mix around noon and the reverb was massive and overtook the dry signal immediately. You certainly have to be careful with the Decay and Mix since even at very low settings the reverb is quite strong.
Slöer does not have a Room, Plate, Hall, and all the traditional reverb types because Walrus decided to do something fresh and with a purpose and that’s why it resonates so much with me. If you want a standard reverb pedal with all the classic sounds, Slöer is probably not for you and that’s absolutely fine. But if you’re someone who loves big, massive reverbs and tends to drown your sound in reverb then Slöer is probably going to stay on your pedalboard forever.
And considering its price, Slöer comfortably sits in between the more budget reverb pedals and the higher-end expensive ones. You can get Slöer for 349$ while Slö costs around 220$. On the other side, a Strymon BigSky costs 479$ and the brand new MercuryX by Meris is 599$. So while it’s not cheap, it’s still quite affordable considering all its features. The fact that it has such a specific sound and target audience makes it even more tempting because there are not that many pedals that have such an ambient sound at this price point. The only one I can quickly think of would be the Mercury7 by Meris which has a similar sound and features. Oh! And Slöer comes in two colorways. The Blue version is based on the previous versions and a stunning Black version!
Conclusion
Slöer was one of the rare occasions where my very high expectations were met. I wanted to try Slö for a long time but never got the chance so when Slöer was announced, I knew I had to get my hands on it and I was sure it was going to be everything that I was looking for in a reverb pedal. And as it turned out, I was so right (which rarely happens)!
This pedal is probably not for everyone but, if you fit its target audience, it is one of the best options out there. It is a beautiful, ambient reverb pedal that plays great with guitars and synthesizers! But if you are on a tight budget, I would highly recommend the Slö which shares a lot with Slöer but it’s not in stereo that may be a deal breaker for you.
For me, having Slöer on my board ends my search for a reverb pedal and I’m sure that this is the case for a lot of people that also got it. So you should definitely check it out!
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