UPON ITS RELEASE in 2013, Red Panda’s Context carved out its own place in a crowded field of reverb and reverb/delay pedals by being the only one to draw inspiration from 1980s rackmount units. Think Alesis Midiverb II and Quadraverb, or the Lexicon PCM70. With ’80s effects like chorus making a resurgence, the time was right for a stompbox-sized reverb that could run with the big boys of yesterday.
The new Context 2 presents a major improvement over the original release. To the original version’s Room, Hall, Cathedral, Gated, Plate and Delay modes, Context 2 adds Reverse, Spring and Granular reverb. Also new are stereo input/output, USB MIDI, full assignability for expression pedals, delay plus reverb in all modes, separate high-and low-frequency damping, dynamic reverb and infinite hold. In addition, Context 2 adds a modulation knob that changes the amount and character of different modulation types, including a square-wave tremolo in Spring mode.