Mercury7 Reverb

This is a reverb device that needs to be heard to be understood. It is incredibly musical and offers so much variety that you will most likely waste days just listening to the sounds it can create. In a design that was inspired by the reverbs used in Vangelis’s soundtrack to Blade Runner, you can take control of every stage of the reverb from the pre-delay right up to the last moment of the decay. The Space Decay control at the top of the unit really enhances this feature when combined with the Pitch Vector control. This was my favourite part and one that made me want to listen to the reverb and not really pay any attention to the notes from which it was created. The ability to have the decaying sound vary in pitch is brilliant; especially the Pitch Down and Pitch Up features which have the notes drift off in a dreamscape of colour. It sounds like a Replicant was walking into the room; the effect comes that close to the sounds from the film. If you don’t own a 500 series rack, this device could well be the tipping point to get one into your studio. After you hear what it can do, you will understand that the reverb tank is more than just a bunch of springs.

Genuinely wonderful virtual spaces with a massive range of characters as well as some really quite weird and wacky special effects. It’s far more than a straight digital reverb; it is a really effective sound-design tool as well. In fact, Meris “strive to create products that are instruments in their own right, rather than just effects-and that becomes very obvious as you start using the Mercury7.

I love my Meris Mercury7 modules. I bought two of them, so I can run them stereo with shared control. Did you know that the only difference between the Mercury7 and the Ottobit is the firmware loaded onto the EPROM? (And the front-face graphics are also different, of course.) Otherwise, the hardware is exactly the same between the two units. (I have an Ottobit too.) – Andy Hong (Chief Editor)

I am a fan of the Meris line of gear. They are a small shop who builds their high-quality modules in Los Angeles. I have reviewed the Meris 440 mic pre and Ottobit modules, but I missed out on reviewing the Mercury7. Meris was kind enough to send one for me to check out and it’s not going back! – Geoff Stanfield

The Mercury7…certainly breaks new ground as both a versatile, traditional plate reverb and also as a sound- bending, ambience-generating hardware instrument.” “The Mercury7 takes advantage of the Meris team’s analog and digital strengths and employs high quality AD/DA conversion and DSP processing, along with high end analog circuitry, to create unique and captivating reverb and ambience effects. – Adam Kagan

I’m going to be honest with you, at first I was quite skeptical about reviewing yet another reverb. Then I got to hear the sound of the Mercury7, and I felt like an idiot. The Mercury7 sounds wonderfully diverse. It can range from ambient to ethereal, and even downright ghostly… I like it so much that I’m likely to pick up a second one to use in my recording channel strip just so I can keep the first one right next to my synth at all times.

It wasn’t just surfing through presets and trying to figure out what I’m doing. It has a musical voice of its own that lends itself to the music. A sort of density which felt musical, but also felt different. Unlike other reverbs. You can set it in octaves, in fifths, create a pitch decay over time. And that’s how he used the Mercury7 to build atmosphere in the track that was “a little bit scary.”