This reverb pedal is a lot of fun. It makes a lot of great effects. It has a metal housing, which I really like. It includes nine reverbs: room, hall, plate, spring, shimmer, cloud, bloom, swell, and lofi. Once you set a reverb, you can use the decay, mix, and param knobs to create more individual sounds. You can tweak these knobs to dial in the sound you like. You can also look at the manual or the back of the pedal. The information is good, but I found just twiddling the knobs and dialing in what sounds good worked best for me. It sounds great. It is also a great value at this price point for beginners and experienced players alike. Would make a wonderful gift.
Wile E.
★★★★★
Properly good ambient effects pedal for those with a tight budget
Hoerev is the same maker as M-Vave and this is the very same Mini Universe pedal with a different name plate. It's true bypass which means there's no buffer inside. Current draw is 100mA which is about in line with any pedal that uses digital modeling for its effects.
I have compared this side by side with my Joyo Atmosphere and it compares favorably and I can get many of the same sort of ambient sounds from both pedals. There are even a few settings on this Mini Universe that the Atmosphere doesn't have - for example, the Cloud and LoFi settings do not have direct equivalents on the Atmosphere and are interesting enough to keep the Mini Universe handy. They also stack well and open up all sorts of ambient goodness when working together. There is a video online where someone (not me) that compares the two side by side and it's worth a moment for a search and a view.
The Mini Universe is not a bad pedal by any stretch and the price is astonishingly good for what you are getting. There are, however, a few minor quirks that keep me from making this my primary ambient reverb pedal. There is no trail feature, which is what allows that last final reverb to continue sounding after you switch off the pedal. With the Mini Universe the reverb just suddenly switched off. There is also a loud pop when you first turn it on. It only happens when you first power it on and the switching is quiet once it's fully juiced, but it's definitely a bit disconcerting. I've tried using a buffer and a few other tricks to soften it but it's just there no matter what you do, so it's probably best to power it on and switch it a few times before hooking it up for sound.
Another smallish gripe is that the three parameter knobs change from setting to setting and the helpful key for those changes is printed on the bottom of the pedal right where you would stick velcro to mount on a pedalboard. A nice touch would have been a sticker with the same info that could be stuck on top of the pedal or somewhere nearby where it wouldn't be obscured. I suppose you would just learn the knobs over time and use but having that info printed on the bottom might not be the most helpful choice.
Power is either 9V center negative or USB. The USB really doesn't do anything else besides wired power, it's not a data port or charger as there is no battery inside, and no, you can't put one in. Other than the aforementioned pop when you first power this thing on, this is a quiet pedal when used with a properly isolated power supply and it plays well with other pedals. Even with the flaws I'm going to drop five stars because this is a VERY good ambient effects pedal for the asking price and is well worth a look if you are looking for budget options or are just wanting to experiment with ambient effects without spending a lot of cash.
C
Customer
★★★★★
What’s not to like?
This is the second mini universe pedal that I’ve had. The Hoefer branding is different on this one, but I believe they are both produced by the same parent company. This pedal also sounds much better and doesn’t suffer from the signal loss that I saw with the first one. I’ve tested this both in front of my amplifier and in the effects loop and I don’t notice any significant signal loss. There must have been an update to the software. Cosmetically. They’re almost identical.
The enclosure, knobs and jacks are very high quality. The sounds in this Reverb pedal are outstanding for the price point. I don’t think you can beat the quality. I also really appreciate that it can be powered via USB-C in addition to a traditional barrel jack. The plate and shimmer settings are my favorites. Grab one you won’t be disappointed.
