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Current pedal obsession: Recovery Effects Dirty Murals v3 Delay+Reverb
Graig Markel at Recovery Effects creates so many wonderfully quirky pedals. So it’s hard to imagine the latest version of his Dirty Murals rabid tape delay evolving into an almost a normal pedal. The emphasis is on the almost, since Dirty Murals v3 retains that Recovery Effects uniqueness, despite its downright practical usability as a go-to, always-on delay+reverb.
It’s something more different. All over again.
Dirty Murals v3 is a complete rethinking from the two previous versions of this pedal. Down mode is close to the original, slightly-dark, 400ms, modulated tape delay and gets paired to an ambient hall reverb with a hovering, 10-second decay. Up mode is a 200ms modulated oil-can delay paired with a small-room reverb. Before you assume either of these effect combos are novelties, they can be under-the-top and surprisingly sensible. The four knobs can be tweaked to create all manner of spaces from tiny metallic to full-wet massive with hints of chorus, vibrato, distortion, tremolo, reverse and multitap delay also possible in the mix. (And no annoying Alt modes. Yay.)
Up mode.
Up mode may seem an unlikely choice to put on this pedal, since digital oil-can delays based on the Tel-Ray are just not that common and so distinct sounding. Catalinbread’s Adineko and Old Blood Noise Endeavors’ Black Fountain are the only pedals wholly dedicated to this vintage electrostatic/mechanical effect.) Like the original oil can, the Up mode delay is short: about 200ms max. The delay effect in this mode is like a more subtle setting on an real oil can with just a touch of vibrato to give it lush repeats. The room reverb blends in nicely with a 100ms delay (about 2p) to mimic the lush (or is that slush?) Position 3 on the Tel-Ray. This reverb in this mode is somewhat metallic in nature. That makes it useful for pre-70s vicious spring and viscous plate sounds when mixed with delay.
Down mode.
Down mode isn’t an excessively long delay for digital: topping out at 400ms. There’s no expression pedal jack on v3, so you can’t do Roland Space Echo tricks with your foot as with the two previous versions of Dirty Murals. But this mode is now intended as a journeyman tapeish delay and can lay politely back under your dry signal if you want it to. Though you can’t turn down the decay of the airy, ever-dwelling plate-ish reverb, it’s surprisingly transparent. But if you want an near-infinite dwell, turn up repeats on the delay and mix them in underneath. This is the post-70’s mode.
How the delay and reverb interweave.
The delays and reverbs are paired so that they can make a exceptional reverberant soup. All four effects get some subtle modulation, so there’s always gentle movement in the ambience whether the delay is obvious or not. Long dwells never get boring or wear out their welcome. Big point of difference here when compared to deverb pedals with multiple, fixed algorithms and finite parameters (like spring reverb and tape delay): Dirty Murals controls will feel much more like a pallette for creating your own spaces.
If you turn the Reverb knob (controls reverb volume and feeds into the Mix knob) all the way down, you get delay only. Interestingly the reverb is only on the repeats, not the dry. So the Time knob also acts as a predelay. The delays is always there, but when the Reverb knob is cranked, the Regen knob is down and the Mix knob dialed back, the delay can be buried in the reverb. So you can essentially use reverb and delay separately, but they’re so nicely integrated you’re likely to keep both in the mix, whether going for ambient or traditional spaces.
Dirty Murals v3 Recipes
Consider the recipes below as starting points. I find myself setting things a little differently for a different space every time I tweak the knobs. Your mileage may vary.
| Effect | Mode | Reverb | Time | Regen | Mix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Almost 4ever | Down | 5p | 5p | 3p | 9a |
| Chorus | Down | 10a | 7a | 9a | 12n |
| Broken Plate | Up | 10a | 5p | 10a | 10a |
| De Well | Down | 5p | 9a | 11a | 11a |
| Dotted | Down | 5p | 5p | 7a | 10a |
| Double | Down | 5p | 9a | 7a | 9a |
| Freeze | Up | 10a | 1p | 5p | 11a |
| Kinda Backwards | Up | 5p | 12n | 7a | 5p |
| Magneto | Up | 12n | 5p | 12n | 11a |
| PreDelay | Either | 5p | 5p | 7a | 9a |
| Set To Stun | Up | 9a | 8a | 7a | 2p |
| Slapback | Up | 8a | 2p | 7a | 12n |
| Spring | Up | 5p | 11a | 12n | 9a |
| Subway | Down | 2p | 10a | 3p | 10a |
| Swell | Down | 3p | 1p | 1p | 10a |
| True Oil | Up | 11a | 1p | 1p | 12n |
| VibraVerb | Down | 9a | 7a | 7a | 3p |
Quirks of Dirty Murals v3.
This article is intended to be a practical how-to of Dirty Murals v3 rather than a giddy sales pitch, so I’m including honest observations from daily use.
- Neither delay’s repeats get muddy like a real oil can or tape. But the way the reverbs bloom into the delays, they can make it seem the delays degrade like analog.
- Niether delay self-oscillates, both hitting near unity when the Regen knob is cranked. Up Mode will fade a bit quicker. Down Mode seems to escalate a touch and doesn’t fade.
- The volume can get excessive with the Reverb and Mix knobs maxed.
- There’s no control over modulation for either the delay or reverb. It’s pleasantly locked at subtle, slow and smooth.
- When the Regen knob in between about 4p and 5p, you can add some distortion to the ambience.
- In Up Mode the effects don’t kick in until the Time knob is past 8a. If you turn the knob from above 8a down to 7a while signal is being a passed through, it can lock the buffer and keep repeating. Not so much a useful effect as it is a quirk.
- In Up Mode the repeats never fully go away, even with the Regen knob at 7a. So it doesn’t do true slapback, but is close enough.
- In Down Mode the Dotted recipe above uses the reverb to create a soft second repeat that quickly follows the first. The subsequent repeats sound like a normal delay.
- There’s no tails mode. Since Dirty Murals v3 is intended as an always-on pedal, you probably won’t find that to be a negative.
My take.
I use Dirty Murals most often as an always-on reverb. In Down mode I set Reverb to 11a, Time to 10a, “Regen to 1p and the Mix to 10a. This gives you a reverb with a springing start (courtesy of of the delay) and an subtle, lingering finish (from the ambient reverb). Of the dozens of reverb pedals I’ve tried, this is still the go-to.
Despite the simplicity, Dirty Murals can create a surprising variety of spaces and colorations from distorted, tiny metallic rooms to massively harmonious de-verb spaces which makes it velcroworthy. At a max of 200ms and 400ms, the delays are shorter than most pedals, but both modes get plenty lush and ambient. After really delving into what this pedal can do, I’m having a hard time not thinking of reverb+delay as its own form of ambience.
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This article contains my honest opinion of the pedal that I’m currently obsessed with. I buy the pedals myself. Makers don’t pay me to do glowing reviews. And I don’t try to sell gear to you through affiliate links. That’s why buying me a coffee below helps to keep these reviews coming.
