What is difference between reverb pedals and chorus pedals?

[LightSoundGeometry]

A question I couldn't really answer off the top of my head without having to do a google search/ask the forum. I have an understanding of what they do, so I thought. I know reverb and guitar are a match made in heaven, and a chorus can be used like a roto/leslie effect. staples of the pedal board for sure.

are they both essentially real fast delays ?

[Fender3D]

Technically, the main difference is that reverb is made mostly by "static" delays, whereas chorus is made mostly by modulated delays.
Simpler pedals use 2-3 separate delays to achieve reverb, and 1-2 delays to achieve chorus.

[Mark Hammer]

Federico got it.  Chorus effects are created by changing the time delay.  The longer and shorter delays result in a slight pitch change and a changing synchrony between the original and delayed signal...which is approximately what you get when two musicians try to do the exact same thing at the exact same time...but aren't quite so exact.

The other major difference isthat reverb relies on multiple repeats/reflections of the input signal, where a chorus only uses a single varying delay.

[cab42]

Came to think about these descriptions of effects

http://www.analogman.com/monkey.htm

[Transmogrifox]

I like this one...

In most types of chorus, the monkeys are actually sitting on an old-style fairground carousel, and therefore each gets nearer and further away from you, hence playing with a different delay as the carousel turns and giving a warbled sound.

I think the simulated Doppler effect is the salient feature of a Chorus.  The delayed signal is not usually amplitude modulated like you would experience with a carousel but the analogy is basically valid.

[Mark Hammer]