“Shimmer” is an effect that came in vogue in the early ’10s, and sounds like an angelic choral effect obtained by mixing a long reverb with harmonized pitch shifted trails of that same reverbered signal. The Catalinbread Cloak is the Portland-based company’s take on that effect.
This is a rather simple 4-knob pedal with knobs for Room Size, High Cut, Mix, and Shimmer, based on a room reverb algorithm that can extend to hall size at higher settings.
The High Cut knob allows to make the shimmer voice sound warmer and more pleasant, an important control since the voice of the shimmer effect are transposed up and can sound jarring when the Shimmer knob is past 10 O’Clock.
Have a listen to the Catalinbread Cloak Reverb + Shimmer in the videos below.
There’s a $20+ discount on the pedal until Black Friday 2021, you can get it by buying it from this Sweetwater affiliate link – at no extra cost.]
Catalinbread Cloak Reverb, Builder’s Notes
The 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, where a treatise on the optimal shimmer effect was penned a handful of years back. In a similar pursuit of perfection, we’ve drawn inspiration from a combination of research and our own endeavors to craft a truly superb take on shimmer reverb. At its core, the Cloak is a “room” style reverb that sounds amazing on its own, but with a twist of the Shimmer knob, rich, harmonically-laden overtones creep in, emphasizing three different orders of harmonics within the trails. 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. The size of the room can be effortlessly dialed in, from a cramped broom closet to as close to infinity as we can possibly muster. This comes in handy when deciding on which type of switching you prefer; the Cloak offers up true bypass switching that cuts off the reverb trails when the Cloak is disengaged, or buffered bypass, which 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.
