Red Panda Context vs a 'tag team' of Dispatch Master + Dr Scientist Reverberator

[topo morto]

I've been bending you guys' ears a lot about reverb recently, but I have a question about these specific ones.

I have a Dispatch Master. Lovely ambient reverb. Headroom is not the greatest and there's limited scope for tweakability.

I also have a Dr Scientist reverberator. Decent range of basic verbs, good headroom, and nice healthy boosted output (works well as a 'preamp', last in the chain). Perhaps not ground-breaking in its sound, but nice enough to play through. Again, not so much editability (though plenty of choice).

I'm still thinking of springing for a new Context, hoping that it might give me

- Good headroom like the Dr Scientist
- 'Big ambient reverb' comparable to the dispatch master (More than one person has said there's nothing really like a DM...)
- basic nice 'normal' reverbs like the Dr Scientist
- A bit more editability than my existing pedals

If I were to buy the Context new and sell on the Dr S. and the EQD DM, I'd probably come out about even moneywise, so no real consideration there. I don't really care about the extra 'board' slot either. If I buy the Context and have to sell it on S/H I obviously lose a bit of cash...

Worth trying the Context, or stick with what I have for now and be happy?

 

[Ev O)))]

I reckon you should stick with what you ahve for sure. Two excellent pedals.

Also, by having two seperate pedals you have the option to spread them out in your signal chain a little as well as having way more tones available across/with the the two in combination.

Also, cheeky tip: The Dr Scientist is probably THE best pre-dirt reverb I have played. Two pedals can allow you to spread them out to that extent and really change up what your board is capable of at any given time.

 

[topo morto]

Also, cheeky tip: The Dr Scientist is probably THE best pre-dirt reverb I have played. Two pedals can allow you to spread them out to that extent and really change up what your board is capable of at any given time.

I will try that, I would also probably use its bonus spinny speaker mode pre-dirt, so it could make sense for it to have a holiday home at the start of the chain...

 

[BallaBalla]

as much as i like my context reverb and i recommend the red panda stuff to everyone: you should stick with your 2 reverbs, IMO. The option of having one reverb before and one after dirt/modulation/... is great. The OBNE Procession, for example, is all about that: going with a reverb signal into a trem/Flanger/... not the other way.

In case you consider replacing one of your reverbs with the context:
- ambientsounds: yes (listen to justnick's demo!)
- "normal" reverbs: yes, if you don't need a springtype reverb
- editability: yes and no, the knobs react subtle, but usable. there's no dramatic toneshift (as with the EHX cathedral i had once)
- headroom: don't know, there's no real boost. you can use the context with 12V so the dry signal headroom is a bit increased, but i wouldn't say you can drive the amp harder with it.
- it has a delay with reverb setting that sounds great. they could sell it with that mode on its own and it would be a hit.
- the buffer is good. you can switch it on/off internally, so you have trails (i like that when using loooong reverb)
...

i praised red panda again...

 

[Ev O)))]

I will try that, I would also probably use its bonus spinny speaker mode pre-dirt, so it could make sense for it to have a holiday home at the start of the chain...

It's a good way to be. On my board I have dirt > delay > reverb > delay > fuzz > fuzz > reverb > fuzz > delay and a bunch of modulation pedals splattered in between. It's a good way to open up a heap of new and useful tones.

And yeah that rotary kinda bonus mode on the Dr Sci is pretty bloody cool. Put it early I say.