Collision Devices Black Hole Symmetry

It's a beautiful thing... o look at, and to listen to.

The first thing you notice is that it looks extremely classy. Like, it is tremendously pleasing in a visual sense, before you even plug it in. The layout, colour scheme and finish are all top notch. Does that affect the sound? Of course, no...but it is very inspiring to work with something that is so aesthetically pleasing.

Moving on to the actual sound and functionality of the thing: It sounds great. There are 3-4 pedal's worth of boutique effects in here, all packed together in a single, tidy package. More on that later.

The effects boil down to this:

1) A very natural-sounding reverb that can be set to an extremely long decay time. It sounds good as a subtle bit of atmosphere, but the real strength comes from setting it looong and watching your signal head off into the ether. It's perfect for ambient sounds or just adding some extra atmosphere to your sound.

2) An analogue delay, somewhat reminiscent of the MXR Carbon Copy, but less dark. It's a very clear sounding delay, which I like - I can hear individual repeats, but they have a soft edge to them. It just...works. No tap tempo, which some people may miss - but I'm okay with it. I have an HX effects, and if I need that kind of practicality I use that. One of the things I like about this pedal is that the number of parameters I can tweak is limited to just the most important ones (IMO).

There is also a pitch-shifting effect of sorts, where a second tone can be applied to your signal - this can take the form of a subtle detune effect (which works great on synths, in particular) or a 5th harmony over what you're playing. You can hit all points in between those extremes, but I haven't quite figured out how to use that yet!

3) Fuzz. It's a one-know fuzz, and it sounds amazing. Reminiscent of 90s classic fuzz sounds - it has the kind of natural but harmonically rich sound that I associate with bands like My Bloody Valentine and other shoegaze bands, but it could hav a wide range of applications. Note: It can get very loud. If you like tweaking it, you may need to adjust your amp volume or other pedals in your chain.

Honestly, the fuzz is my favourite part. And please bear in mind that I am very, very, very (very) impressed with reverb and delay aspects.

Finally: The most unique thing about this pedal, and the tihng that sold it to me...this is very much a 'workbench' style of effects unit. One could just use this on it's own, for certain types of music. It is also very natural to tweak the parameters on the fly and experiment! It is very much a fun experience and it encourages creativity and trying new things, in a way that a lot of modern effects don't (due to a preference for lots of tweakability and features). This unit has a realtively small number of options per effect, but they are the most powerful and important parameters. And the range of the parameters is extremely well calibrated, in that I cannot get a 'bad' sound out of it. Once again, this is a great aid to creativity and exploration!

I love my Line 6 'HX Effects', but I find adjusting it to be an involved process (worth it, given the amount of control one has over it), whereas this is very natural, spontaneous and forgiving on the user.

Probably not an ideal purchase for someone playing in a function band or conventional rock band...but for anyone looking to do even slightly experimental, atmospheric music, this is an absolute treasure. Each aprt works well in isolation, and swtiching everything on at once sounds immense.

Heartily recommended.