Most reverb pedals are architects. They are trying, with varying degrees of honesty, to convince you that your amp is standing in a hall, a chamber, a tiled room, a church. The good ones do it convincingly. The great ones do it convincingly and get out of the way.
The Eventide Space is not interested in that job. It can do that job — the Hall, Room and Plate algorithms are lifted from processors that cost more than a used car and they are, frankly, better than they need to be. But the reason people buy a Space, the reason it has survived fifteen years in a product category that turns over faster than almost any other on the pedalboard, is the other half of the box. It is Blackhole. It is MangledVerb. It is Shimmer and DynaVerb and ModEchoVerb — algorithms that abandon the pretence of describing a physical space and instead treat reverb as a synthesiser.
Eventide called it “Reverb & Beyond.” That is marketing copy, and it is also, unusually, an accurate description of the product. Space is a very good reverb pedal wrapped around a genuinely strange sound-design instrument, and the tension between those two identities is the whole story.
Where Space Came From
To understand Space you have to understand what Eventide had been doing for the thirty-five years before it appeared.
Eventide is not a pedal company that grew up. It is a studio hardware company — clock, broadcast delay, harmonizer — that eventually noticed guitarists were queueing up outside. The H910 Harmonizer arrived in 1975. The H3000 arrived in 1986 and quietly redefined what a lead guitar could sound like on a record. The DSP4000 and the H8000 followed, and the Eclipse after them. These were rack units. They lived in flight cases and machine rooms, and if you were a working guitarist in the 1990s your relationship with an Eventide was almost always mediated by a producer who owned one.
In 2007 the company changed its mind about that. The Factor Series took the algorithms that guitarists actually wanted, stripped away the rest, and put them in a cast metal box with footswitches. TimeFactor came first, for delay. ModFactor handled modulation. PitchFactor took the harmonizer material. And in late 2011, Space completed the set with reverb.
Sound On Sound‘s Paul Nagle reviewed it in the November 2011 issue at £499 including VAT in the UK and $579 in the US — a price that, in a year when a Boss reverb cost under two hundred dollars, put the pedal firmly in the “this is a studio purchase that happens to have footswitches” category. Nagle ended the review by noting he had ordered one himself, which is the sort of sign-off that reviewers write perhaps twice a decade.
The Algorithms Have Serial Numbers
Here is the detail that matters most, and the one that separates Space from almost everything it competes with: the twelve algorithms are not new. They are ports.
Blackhole originated as a preset in the DSP4000 in the mid-to-late 1990s, migrated into the H8000, and only became a pedal-accessible algorithm when Space shipped in 2011. MangledVerb and DynaVerb came out of the Eclipse — DynaVerb in particular carrying DNA from the Omnipressor, Eventide’s famously unhinged 1970s dynamics processor. ModEchoVerb is H8000 material. These are algorithms with two decades of studio use behind them before a guitarist ever stood on one.
That matters practically, not just historically. It explains why Space sounds unlike the pedals it sits next to. Reverbs designed for guitar pedals are designed to flatter a guitar. These were designed to process anything and were then handed to guitarists, which is why they behave oddly, unpredictably and often brilliantly when you feed them a Stratocaster.
What Is Actually Inside the Box
Space runs twelve reverb and reverb-combination algorithms. The first twelve factory presets correspond one-to-one with them, which is a genuinely useful bit of design — you can audition the whole architecture in about four minutes.
The Four Conventional Ones
Hall is the flagship natural reverb, with tempo-syncable decay and pre-delay, and — crucially — independent control over low, mid and high reverb content plus random modulation. That modulation is why Space’s Hall does not smear into cardboard on sustained chords the way cheaper halls do.
Room is the subtle one, and the one most players ignore for two years before discovering it is the algorithm they should have been using all along. It is a mix-level room tone: barely there, dimensional, does not announce itself.
Plate runs from a tight, bright mechanical plate to something the size of an oil tanker. Spring models the reverb pan in a guitar amp, with control over the number of springs and their tension, plus a built-in tremolo — which is a small joke at the expense of every blackface amp ever made, and also extremely useful.
The Eight That Justify the Price
Blackhole is the reason most Spaces get sold. It is a reverb with Gravity and Inverse Gravity controls, resonance, and feedback routed around the entire reverb structure rather than just through the tail. Set correctly it does not sound like a place; it sounds like an environment with weather. At extreme settings it self-oscillates into something you can play like a synthesiser.
Shimmer combines pitch shifting of up to two octaves in either direction with delay, reverb and feedback. Downward shimmer — the octave-below setting most players never try — is where the algorithm gets genuinely menacing.
MangledVerb feeds reverb into distortion. Not distortion into reverb, which is what happens on every pedalboard in the world; the other way round. The result is a reverb that breaks up as it decays, and it is the single most underrated algorithm in the box.
DynaVerb shapes the reverb according to the dynamics of the input, the reverb’s own signal, or a blend. This is where you get gated reverb, ducking reverb, and inverted-envelope effects that sound like the reverb is arriving before the note.
ModEchoVerb stacks modulation — chorus, flanging or sweep — onto delay and reverb, with infinite decay available. Reverse runs reverse and forward reverbs alongside a delay. DualVerb gives you two independent reverbs with separate decay, size, pre-delay and tone, which is the most direct way to get a short room and a long hall from a single pedal. TremoloVerb applies syncable LFO shapes, including sample-and-hold, to the reverb itself.
Specifications
Famous Players — And an Honest Correction
Space has an unusual artist story, and it splits into two very different halves that most write-ups conflate.
The Preset Authors
The first half is documented directly by Eventide, on their own product page, and is about as reliable as gear attribution ever gets. The 100 factory presets include artist presets contributed by a named roster:
- Richard Devine — sound designer and synthesist, and the person responsible for several of the more deranged Blackhole and MangledVerb patches
- Flood and Alan Moulder — the production and mixing partnership behind Nine Inch Nails and U2
- Vernon Reid of Living Colour
- Jónsi and Alex Somers of Sigur Rós
- John Agnello — Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.
- Amedeo Pace of Blonde Redhead
- Justin Meldal-Johnsen — Beck, Nine Inch Nails
That list tells you exactly what Eventide thought the pedal was for. There is not a single blues player on it. It is producers, sound designers, and people whose reputations rest on making guitars sound like something other than guitars.
The Documented Users
The second half is players with Space on their boards, and here the evidence is specific rather than general:
Matt Bellamy (Muse) — the Eventide Space is listed among the effects Bellamy used on Simulation Theory in a Premier Guitar feature dated 1 January 2019, alongside a Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl, a DigiTech Whammy and a Big Muff. Given how much of that record is built on synthetic, oversized guitar texture, the Space is doing structural work rather than decorative work.
St. Vincent — Annie Clark named it explicitly in a 2012 interview with The Lab Magazine: she described running about five pedals, two of them Eventides, one a PitchFactor and one “I think is just called the Space.” Eventide list her on their own artist gallery too, which is a rare case of first-party and independent sourcing agreeing.
Daniel Kessler (Interpol) — in a MusicRadar rig tour dated 31 March 2015, Kessler described using a couple of overdrives, a Boss DD-5 and an Eventide Space, adding that it was “better than any analogue.” Interpol is not a band you associate with menu-diving digital reverb, which makes the endorsement more interesting rather than less.
Misha Mansoor (Periphery) — documented on his board alongside an H9 Max, a Meris Polymoon and an Ottobit.
Matty Healy and Adam Hann (The 1975) — both photographed with the pedal; Healy’s Instagram post is the source, and the band’s guitar sound from Chocolate onwards is a fair argument for it on its own.
Zachary Cole Smith (DIIV), Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio), Chris Carter (Throbbing Gristle), Angel Deradoorian, Adrian Sherwood, Laurie Spiegel, Dave Weiner (Steve Vai’s band), Cymbals Eat Guitars and Young the Giant all appear in Eventide’s own artist gallery. BT discussed the pedal in a rig video posted 10 February 2021, and Bonobo has been filmed running a Prophet-5 through one, which is a useful reminder that a large fraction of Spaces on earth have never had a guitar plugged into them.
Four Names You Will See Attached to Space That We Could Not Verify
This one is worth stating plainly, because the association appears repeatedly in gear listings and roundups.
The Edge, John Mayer, Mark Lettieri and Mateus Asato are all frequently listed as Eventide Space users. We could not find first-party or photographic confirmation for any of the four. They do not appear in Eventide’s own artist gallery for this pedal, and they do not appear among the 126 documented artist entries on Equipboard’s Space page.
The Edge in particular is an easy assumption to fall into and worth unpicking, because there is a real Eventide connection there — it is just not this one. U2’s long-running production relationship with Flood and Alan Moulder is exactly why those two names are on the Space preset list, and The Edge’s rig has leaned on Eventide rack processors and multi-tap digital delay for four decades. But a producer contributing presets to a pedal is not the same claim as the guitarist standing on one, and the second claim needs its own evidence. Until that evidence turns up, treat the four names above as unconfirmed.
Tone Recipes
1. The Invisible Room
Algorithm: Room. Decay short (around 9 o’clock), Size small, Pre-delay 15-25 ms, Contour slightly dark, Mix 12-18%.
This is the setting that makes a dry amp sound recorded rather than reverberant. You should be unable to hear it when it is on and able to hear its absence the moment you bypass it. Genuinely the most useful patch on the pedal for anyone playing in a band, and the one that most Space owners never build.
2. Blackhole, Restrained
Algorithm: Blackhole. Size around 2 o’clock, Gravity positive but not extreme, Feedback low (9-10 o’clock), Low/High Decay trimmed so the tail loses treble as it goes, Mix 25-30%.
The mistake with Blackhole is running it at full size and 50% mix, at which point it stops being a reverb and starts being a fog machine. Pulled back to a quarter mix with the high decay reduced, it does something no ordinary hall does: it gives chords a slow, expanding bloom that stays behind the note instead of swallowing it. Assign Size to the expression pedal and you have a controllable swell.
3. Cathedral Shimmer
Algorithm: Shimmer. Pitch A +12 semitones, Pitch B off or +19, Delay around 300 ms, Decay long, Feedback moderate, Mix 30-35%.
Standard-issue ambient octave-up. What makes the Space version better than most is that you can pull the pitch-shifted content back independently from the reverb, so the shimmer sits underneath rather than on top. Roll the guitar’s tone control back before you blame the pedal for sounding brittle — shimmer amplifies whatever is in the top end.
4. The Inverted Shimmer
Algorithm: Shimmer. Pitch A -12 semitones, Delay long, Feedback moderate-high, Mix 40%.
Octave-down shimmer is unpleasant in the best possible way. Under a clean arpeggio it produces a subterranean drone that tracks the harmony without ever being a bass part. Almost nobody uses it. Try it before you decide.
5. Broken Amp Reverb
Algorithm: MangledVerb. Drive around 11 o’clock, Decay medium, Contour mid-forward, Mix 30%.
Put this after your overdrive and it does something a distortion pedal cannot: the note stays clean and the tail breaks up. On single notes it sounds like an amp being pushed by something you cannot see. Excellent under slide, and the most convincing “old broken spring tank” sound in the box despite not being the Spring algorithm.
6. Eighties Gate
Algorithm: DynaVerb. Dynamics source set to the reverb signal, Threshold set so the tail cuts hard, Decay medium-long, Mix 45%.
The gated reverb sound, applied to guitar rather than drums. On staccato chord stabs it produces a percussive, truncated blast that stops dead. Deeply of its era, and deeply effective when used once per song.
7. The Ambient Bed
Algorithm: ModEchoVerb. Decay set to infinite or near it, Modulation slow chorus, Delay tempo-synced to a dotted eighth, Mix 40%, HotSwitch programmed to jump decay to infinite.
Play a chord, hit the HotSwitch, and the reverb freezes into a sustaining pad you can play over. This is the Space doing something a conventional reverb pedal simply cannot do, and it is the reason ambient players keep one on the board even after buying something newer.
8. Spring, With Prejudice
Algorithm: Spring. Number of springs low, Tension loose, Tremolo depth moderate at around 5 Hz, Mix 35%.
A short-tank, loose-spring surf sound with the amp tremolo built in. Loose tension is where the drip lives; tight tension gets you a metallic, springless plate-adjacent tone that is useful for something else entirely.
Space is a preset machine, so these are starting points to build presets from rather than knob positions to leave alone. Every one assumes Mix is the last thing you set.
How Space Compares
Space vs Strymon BigSky
The most common cross-shop, and the comparison that reveals the most about both pedals. The BigSky is warmer, easier to navigate, and every algorithm on it is voiced to flatter a guitar. It is the better pedal if you want to plug in and immediately have a beautiful reverb. Space is more neutral, considerably stranger, and rewards the player who is willing to build presets. If your reference points are records rather than pedal demos, and if you also want the box to work as a studio processor on synths and vocals, Space is the stronger buy. If you want the best guitar reverb in a box, BigSky wins on ergonomics alone.
Space vs Eventide H9
This is the awkward one, and it deserves a straight answer. The H9 contains every Space algorithm plus the TimeFactor, ModFactor and PitchFactor material — it is, functionally, the entire Factor Series in one small enclosure. So why buy Space?
Interface. The H9 has one knob and one footswitch, and everything happens through a phone app. Space has ten knobs, an encoder and a large display, so you can change three parameters at once with your hands during a soundcheck without unlocking a phone. For studio use, and for anyone who edits sounds while playing rather than between songs, that difference is not cosmetic. Buy the H9 for the algorithm count in a small footprint; buy Space if you intend to actually turn knobs.
Space vs Eventide H90
The H90 runs two algorithms simultaneously with programmable routing and is the technically superior product in every measurable way — newer DSP, more algorithms, better bypass, better software. It also costs substantially more. Space remains attractive for players who want the reverb material specifically, want it on a dedicated box, and do not want to spend H90 money to get it.
Space vs Strymon blueSky / Cloudburst
Different tier of purchase entirely. The blueSky and Cloudburst are focused, excellent, immediate reverbs. If your requirement is “a great reverb,” either is sufficient and both are simpler. Space is for the player whose requirement includes at least one sound that is not describable as a reverb.
Space vs Walrus Audio Fathom / SLÖ
The Fathom is a compact, musical, four-algorithm reverb at a fraction of the price and covers most working situations. The SLÖ aims at the same textural territory as Blackhole and Shimmer and gets a good distance there for a third of the money. Where Space pulls away is depth of editing, MIDI, presets and stereo studio I/O. If you have never wanted to recall a specific reverb sound at the press of a footswitch, you may not need Space at all.
Space vs the affordable field
Against the Boss RV-6, the EHX Oceans 11 and the Holy Grail Neo, this is not really a competition — those pedals cost between a fifth and a third of the price and are aimed at a completely different buyer. The honest advice is that a large majority of guitarists are better served by an RV-6 and the four hundred dollars saved.
Buying Guide
New: Space remains a current Eventide product in 2026 at $499, which is $80 below its 2011 US launch price of $579 — a rare instance of a pedal getting cheaper in absolute terms across fifteen years. It ships with a power supply, carries a one-year warranty, and is still receiving firmware maintenance.
Used: Expect roughly $260-350 depending on condition and whether the original supply is included. That is one of the better value propositions in high-end digital reverb, because there is no meaningful hardware revision history to worry about — a 2012 unit brought to current firmware is functionally identical to one bought this week.
What to check on a used unit: the rotary encoder, which is the part most likely to become intermittent; all three footswitches, particularly the middle one, which does double duty as HotSwitch and preset select; the LED display for dead segments; and the USB port, since firmware updating depends on it. Confirm the power supply is genuine or at least correctly specified — 9V DC, 500mA, centre positive, with the less common 5.5mm/2.5mm barrel. A standard 9V pedal supply with a 2.1mm plug will not fit properly.
Who should buy it: ambient and textural players; anyone building a preset-driven, MIDI-controlled board; players who also record and want one box that works on guitar, synth, drums and vocals; and anyone who has hit the ceiling of what a conventional reverb pedal can do.
Who should not: players who want a reverb they set once and never touch. Space punishes that approach — you end up paying for eleven algorithms to use one, and the one you use will be Hall, which a much cheaper pedal does nearly as well.
Ownership Notes
Power is not optional and batteries are not an option. Space draws 500mA at 9V DC and needs the correct barrel size. Budget a dedicated high-current output on your supply; sharing an isolated 100mA output will not work.
Choose your bypass deliberately. There are three behaviours and they are not interchangeable. True analogue relay bypass removes the circuitry from the signal path entirely but kills the reverb tail instantly. DSP bypass leaves the tail decaying naturally while you play dry over the top — almost always the better musical choice, and what most owners settle on. Buffered bypass is there for long cable runs.
Set Mix to ignore presets. Buried in the Global Menu is an option to make the Mix knob live rather than recalled from presets. For live use this is transformative: it means one physical knob always controls how much reverb you are hearing, regardless of which patch is up. Turn it on during the first week of ownership.
Limit the preset count. One hundred presets is a lot to scroll through with a footswitch. The pedal lets you cap the number in the accessible range. Pick six for a gig, set the limit, and the footswitch navigation becomes usable.
The MIDI jacks are deeply recessed. Nagle flagged this in 2011 and it is still true — not every MIDI cable’s moulded plug will seat properly. Test before the gig, not at it.
Learn the HotSwitch immediately. Hold it, move any knobs, release. The switch now toggles between the stored values and the modified ones. This is the single highest-value feature on the pedal and the one most owners discover after eighteen months.
Expression input accepts CV. The EXP jack takes 0-3V, which means a modular synth can sweep the reverb parameters. If you own anything Eurorack, this changes what the pedal is.
Firmware is free and worth doing. Eventide Control over USB handles updates, preset management and backup. Any used unit can be brought fully current at no cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Eventide Space still in production?
Yes. As of 2026 it remains a current Eventide product listed at $499, with no end-of-production notice on the manufacturer’s site and normal stock at major retailers. It is one of the longest continuously produced high-end reverb pedals on the market.
What is the difference between Space and the H9?
The H9 contains all of Space’s algorithms plus those from the TimeFactor, ModFactor and PitchFactor. The difference is control surface, not sound: Space gives you ten knobs, an encoder and a large display for hands-on editing, while the H9 has one knob and relies on a phone or computer app. Choose Space if you edit while playing; choose the H9 if footprint and algorithm breadth matter more.
Can Space be used in a studio rather than on a pedalboard?
Yes, and this was explicit in the design. Inputs and outputs switch between instrument and line level, the pedal runs fully stereo, and the reviewers who covered it in 2011 spent as much time discussing mix-bus and synth use as guitar use. It works well on vocals, drums and modular synths.
Does Space have reverb tails when bypassed?
It can. The bypass mode is selectable — true analogue relay bypass cuts the tail immediately, while DSP bypass allows the tail to decay naturally while your dry signal continues. Most owners use DSP bypass for exactly this reason.
What is the Blackhole algorithm?
Blackhole is Eventide’s signature enormous, non-physical reverb, with Gravity and Inverse Gravity controls plus feedback routed around the entire reverb structure. It originated in the DSP4000 rack processor in the 1990s and later appeared in the H8000. Space was the first pedal to make it available, and it has since become a standalone Eventide pedal in its own right.
Which famous guitarists actually use the Eventide Space?
Documented users include Matt Bellamy of Muse (credited on Simulation Theory), St. Vincent, Daniel Kessler of Interpol, Misha Mansoor of Periphery, Matty Healy and Adam Hann of The 1975, Zachary Cole Smith of DIIV and Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio. Separately, artist presets in the pedal were programmed by Vernon Reid, Richard Devine, Flood and Alan Moulder, Jónsi and Alex Somers of Sigur Rós, John Agnello, Amedeo Pace and Justin Meldal-Johnsen.
Is Space worth it compared to a Strymon BigSky?
They serve different players. The BigSky is warmer, more immediately musical and easier to navigate, and is the better choice if you want great guitar reverb with minimal setup. Space is more neutral, considerably more experimental, better suited to studio use, and rewards preset building. Neither is objectively better; the question is whether you want the reverb to flatter you or to surprise you.
Should I buy a used Eventide Space?
For most buyers, yes. Used prices around $260-350 make it strong value, there are no problematic hardware revisions, and any unit can be updated to current firmware free over USB. Check the encoder, the three footswitches, the display and the USB port, and confirm the correct 9V 500mA centre-positive supply with a 5.5mm/2.5mm barrel is included.