Whether you’re a cynic or a true believer, there’s no denying that the concept of ‘spatial’, 3D sound has been buzzy this year, and it’s one that Dear Reality is embracing with its new Exoverb reverb plugin.
This promises to add “an as yet unheard three-dimensional depth and width perception to stereo productions,” and is powered by “synthesized spatial multi-IRs”. It enables you to control the “spatial distance perception”, the idea being that this will enable you to clean up your stereo mix and leave more space for additional instruments.
To help you out, there are 50 acoustic ‘scenes’ (presets) spread across four categories (Ambiences, Rooms, Halls, and Plates). Each of these is based on several of the aforementioned IRs.
“Though spatial audio technology offers new perspectives on sound and the listener’s immersion, it is often overlooked that stereo can produce an immersive sound field with realistic depth, too – if done right,” explains Achim Fell, co-CEO of Dear Reality. “With Exoverb, we unlock this capability by applying the fundamentals of our spatial audio technology to our first pure stereo reverb plugin.”
Perhaps wisely, Dear Reality has chosen to pack this technology into a friendly looking GUI, the main focus of which is the ‘triangle pad’. This enables you to blend the reverb, early reflections and dry signals by clicking and dragging. The ratio of the early reflections and late reverb are set on the x-axis, while the level of dry and wet signals is set on the x-axis.
Other parameters - such as Pre-Delay, Size, Decay, and Width - have their own dedicated knobs below. By default, Exoverb works to provide a greater sense of depth and spatial separation - you can adjust the “front-back space” of the mix using the Depth control.
The feature set is rounded off by three three-band EQs that can be used to shape the early reflections, decay and summed signal.
Available on PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX formats, Exoverb is currently being sold for the introductory price of $69/£59/€69 (plus local taxes). This price will rise to $99/£89/€99 (plus local taxes) on 1 December.
Find out more and grab yourself a demo version on the Dear Reality website.
