Specimen 727

Cloudburst

A compact ambient reverb built on Strymon's Ensemble engine, which synthesises harmonic, string-like content on top of the reverb.

Watch

Pedalboard of the Day's short clip is tagged for ambient playing, so it leans on the Cloudburst's large wash rather than its smaller settings.

Why it matters

The Ensemble engine generates string-like harmonics from whatever you feed it, which is what separates the Cloudburst from ordinary room and hall pedals. It launched in 2023 and was still among the top-selling reverb pedals of the 2025 sales year, so newer releases have not displaced it. Five controls cover pre-delay, modulation, decay, mix and the Ensemble amount, and the dry path can be switched to analog thru.

Note

Compact ambient reverb built on Strymon's Ensemble engine, which synthesises harmonic string-like content from the reverb input. Still one of the best-selling reverb pedals of the 2025 sales year despite launching in 2023.

Specifications

• Ensemble DSP engine
• Pre-Delay, Mod, Decay, Mix, Ensemble controls
• switchable analog thru dry path
• compact enclosure
• stereo I/O

Before you buy

• stereo in and out — plan for two cables on a stereo board
• the Ensemble effect is the point of the pedal, so it is an ambient reverb rather than a plain room reverb
• five controls, no menus

Sources

• sweetwater.com
• strymon.net
• gearnews.com