The BL-44 Reverse by Old Blood Noise Endeavors is a reverse delay pedal that can create a wide range of sounds, from subtle reverse echoes to glitchy, lo-fi textures.
To me, the BL-44 is the shoegazer’s dream! There are a few genius design choices that make this stand out. The control set is super simple and stripped down, yet it brings so much enjoyment to experiment with.
The panel has four controls. At the top: Mix on the left, Volume on the right. A tilted Clock slider sits in the middle band, and the large Speed knob occupies the lower left.
Speed and Clock are the interactive pair. Speed adjusts playback speed and pitch simultaneously: center is unison, turning it down shifts pitch downward, turning it up goes sharp and into octave-up territory. Clock changes the delay timing and signal fidelity: fast settings give clean, responsive echoes; slower settings stretch the timing and introduce lo-fi degradation and glitchy artifacts. The two interact closely, which is where most of the character comes from.
Mix blends dry and wet signal. Volume is the overall output level with unity gain around noon. Crank it into a breaking-up amp and you can push the lo-fi quality further.
In the demo above I’ve set up sweeps for both the Clock slider and the Speed knob, so you can hear exactly what each one does and how much the character shifts across the range.
The BL-44 is truly inspiring to play. I could not stop playing when I recorded the demo track and I’m for sure putting this on my pedalboard.
The presets map the range well. Reverse Octave Boost has Speed at 7.5 and Clock at 6, pushing the pitch sharp for a singing, forward-reaching quality. Tape from the Void takes Speed to 10 with Clock at 5, getting fully into high-pitch, saturated swell territory. Broken Robot’s Lullaby pulls Speed down to 3 and Clock to 3, which shifts the pitch downward and stretches the timing into something slower and more degraded. Memories from Space also has Speed at 3 but moves Clock up to 7, so the timing is longer while the pitch stays in that same lower range. The Ambient Miniboard preset chains the BL-44 after a distortion and a reverb, with Clock at 0 for the fastest, most focused response in that context.
The Walrus Audio Lore is the other reverse-effects box on this site. The Lore layers reverse delay, reverse reverb, pitch shifting, and octave coloring across five programs, with secondary knob functions that change meaning per program. It’s a dedicated sound exploration tool that rewards time spent learning it.
The BL-44 argues the opposite case. Four controls, two of them deeply interactive, and you can go from subtle echoes to glitchy lo-fi swells in seconds without consulting a manual. If your approach to ambient sound is physical and spontaneous, the BL-44 fits that workflow. You grab it, you twist two knobs, and things get interesting fast. The Lore is the better choice for players who want layered, program-based complexity and are willing to learn secondary functions to get there. The BL-44 is for anyone who wants reverse weirdness they can reach quickly, on stage or in a session.
Shoegaze, ambient, post-rock, and lo-fi players are the obvious audience. The BL-44 rewards an experimental, hands-on approach: the Speed and Clock interaction means you get different results every time you move both at once. It also sits well on a small board precisely because it covers a lot of ground with few knobs.
The honest caveat: if you need precise, repeatable reverse delay settings with tempo sync or MIDI, this isn’t the tool. There’s no tap tempo, no expression input, and no preset memory. It’s an analog-style, grab-and-go effect. For players who want a more structured reverse reverb with program-based options, the Lore is the better call.
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Get detailed specs on Old Blood Noise Endeavors' website
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