Daz Diamond is back with another wacky, experimental effect. When we last joined Daz, he was sharing strange and wonderful granular, delay, and sidechain effects. Now, he’s been thinking about buckets (as in brigades, as in sets of delay lines combined to form a reverb). He writes:

Hi Peter, I’m at it again, and have just put out bucketEER MK I – a stereo reverb/delay fx inspired by bucket-brigade style machinery – simple, quite primitive, and surpirisingly good sounding – also interesting for unusual delays with lots of taps …

Full specs on his site, but here’s what I like about the fact that it’s very much in “beta”:

At the moment, when changing from one preset to another, the buffers may get stuck for a few seconds resulting in a glitchy effect. this may or may not be a bad thing, and may or may not happen depending on your host.

So, quick, go grab that before he fixes the problem, and add some organic glitches to your reverb!

Some powerful features:

• Pre and Post effect shelving filters


• Predelay with control over level and time


• Size and Time controls


• Width and Mix controls


• Central readout of knob values


• 17 Randomize buttons – ‘global’ and ‘local’


• Freeze Function


• Bypass switch for each bucket and slot


• Output level meter


• 8 presets

Daz welcomes donations. I may also give this a go on Linux — enjoying Windows VST compatibility on one machine.

Updated – somehow left out these links. Been a bit out of it this week; sorry!

whiteLABEL bucetEER Product Page and Download
Daz Diamond / whiteLABEL Google Discussion Group

Play this track:

Play this track:

Play this track:

Play this track:

Despite the embarassment of riches that is available effect plug-ins, sometimes an effect is special enough that, on its own, it becomes a favorite. If you feel like there’s a gap in your reverb collection, Audio Damage’s new Reverence could become one of those plug-ins.

Classic vintage digital reverbs were capable of unique, rich plate simulations unlike any other kind of reverb. (Yes, digital hardware is now old enough to be called vintage.) You’ve probably already used a preset that attempts to recreate this sound, but if you’re using the typical reverb bundled in your DAW, the results are often downright awful. Many convolution reverbs include lush sampled plates, some of them even recorded from impulse files of digital gear, but a convolution interface is rarely the best way to control these effects and this technique is tremendously CPU costly. There’s hardware like the Lexicon MPX series, but most of us want plug-ins.

Reverence is the new plug-in from Audio Damage built specifically as an emulation of digital ‘verbs of yore. (The front panel recalls the Lexicon 200.) I’ve been throwing it into mixes since a pre-release version came out last week. While I’ve generally trimmed down the number of plug-ins I use, this one has fast become essential.

AudioEase’s Altiverb remains the king of the convolution reverbs, providing highly realistic recreations of reverberations and other sounds by digitally combining your source with a recorded impulse. Lately, they’ve been going mad for impulse response recordings, the samples that drive the convolutoin process.

The original Altiverb was infamous for its creation not only of soaring churches and halls, but the back of a Ford Transit van and a toilet. Ah, you say, but I don’t want a Ford Transit van. I want a Ford Ka — no, wait, make that a Peugot Partner. And I don’t want the sound of the toilet while I’m in the loo — I want to hear that same sound as though I were listening from the living room. Wait, forget the toilet entirely: I want the sound inside an old factory tank north of the Netherlands. But I want to run that through a spring reverb — no, wait, make that a cheap plastic echo toy.

All this and more can be yours, thanks to the extensive boutique of impulse response recordings over at AudioEase.

They’re free, but only to registered Altiverb users. Then again, how else can you recreate the sound of music playing in your downstairs living roo– oh, yeah, actually, I guess you could easily record that. But I bet you don’t own a Ford Ka (and if you do, you probably can’t squeeze your whole band into it).

New-fangled convolution reverbs may be capable of perfectly
reproducing real audio spaces, but what if you want a classic reverb
sound? IK has launched Classik Studio Reverb
(CSR-1) with just that need in mind. Four models cover hall/room,
ambience, plate, and inverse reverbs. And if you're the kind of person
who gets uneasy when "90s nostalgia clubs" open, get ready for this:
we're now modeling digital reverbs. (Digital emulation of . . . digital?)

The plugs look gorgeous and have an endless slew of sonic controls,
with high-quality DSP, a customizable modulation matrix, parameter
morphing, built-in LFOs and filtering. This is flying first-class, no
question.

Every Mac/Windows format available (VST/RTAS/AU/DX, TDM on the way); US$/EUR 399.

This isn't just a reverb plug-in. This is a hugely tricked-out ultimate convolution reverb with all the stops pulled.

Altiverb first popularized the use of sampled spaces for software reverbs via a digital technique called convolution. As I reported here, Altiverb 5
brings plenty of new features, including new controls for where your
audio is 'heard onstage,' four band reverb EQ for controlling separate
frequencies of your sound, and CPU controls so you don't max out your
processor.

• Mac OS X Only with support for every format: HTDM / RTS / AudioSuite (Digidesign), MAS (MOTU), and, of course, VST and Audio Units
• Reverse reverb mode because there's nothing quite as sweet as hearing reflections first
• Explore reverb visually with three-dimensional waveform views, pictures of sampled spaces, and even VR movies

And lots more. Copy protection evidently lets you choose between iLok and challenge/response.

Now here comes the sticker shock:
US$595 buys you first-class convolution luxury. (US$895 for Pro Tools
users.) If you're an AltiVerb vet, though, you can upgrade for $169-269.

Just want the sampled impulse responses? US$39.95 buys you the impulses
for loading into reverbs like Logic Pro's Space Designer. But no VR
movies, of course.