Catalinbread Cloak Shimmer Reverb

Catalinbread Cloak

The Catalinbread Cloak began after unearthing some ancient texts containing some forbidden incantations on how to introduce spectral elements within a decaying echo.

Ok, we’re embellishing a bit. But the inspiration came from the land of academia and the acoustics department at Stanford.

In a similar pursuit of perfection, we’ve drawn inspiration from a combination of research and our own endeavors.

The result is a truly superb take on shimmer reverb.

What is the Cloak?

At its core, the Cloak is a “room” style reverb.  It sounds amazing on its own, but with a twist of the Shimmer knob, rich, harmonically-laden overtones creep in. This emphasizes three different orders of harmonics within the trails.

• FILTER: cutoff at 5khz and knob is how much reduction past 5k from fully open down to fully cut everything above 5k
• REVERB TIME: Shortest: 250ms. Longest: (depending on how hard the signal hits but tested by smacking the strings of a guitar) >3 seconds

A specially-designed low-pass filter steps in and smooths the harmonics out before they get too out of hand and wreck up the signal path. Dial in the room size, from a cramped broom closet to as close to infinity.

This comes in handy when deciding on which type of switching you prefer.

The Cloak offers up true bypass switching. Reverb trails cut off when the Cloak is disengaged or buffered bypass. This keeps the decay going even after switching off—your pick.

Either way, you slice it, the Cloak is ready to impart a little black magic unto your rig.

Controls:

• ROOM SIZE: Simultaneously adjusts both reverb decay length and a slight gain enhancement for a more natural decay
• MIX: Adjusts the amount of dry signal present in the output, from 100 percent dry to 100 percent wet
• HIGH CUT: Cuts higher-order harmonics from the signal to soften the edges at higher Shimmer settings
• SHIMMER: Mixes the amount of shimmer present in the room reverb. Fully CCW gives you a rich room reverb and fully CW serves up a harmonically rich shimmer

More adjustments

We ship the Cloak in trails mode.

This mode is buffered, and the preamp will be active even in bypass.

We call it “Trails” mode because the reverb signal will continue to decay even after the Cloak is switched off.

Removing the back panel gives you the option to turn the Cloak into “true bypass” mode.

However, turning off the Cloak will immediately cut off the reverb signal.