Berlin Studio

Recording Stage Acoustics

“The way that all reverb plugins, based on convolution, should be made from now on” –Daniel James

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Demos

Anechoic recordings

The following demos are made with anechoic recordings*: sources without any reverberation. Please note that such recordings are not created to sound great or well performed. They are in the first place created for acoustical research and therefore also useful for testing reverberation plugins. The demos do not contain any EQ on the input, nor on the IR channels.

* Anechoic recordings from: Pätynen, Pulkki, Lokki – Anechoic Recording System for Symphony Orchestra, Acta Acustica united with Acustica, Volume 94, Number 6, November_December 2008, pp. 856-865(10)

Specifications

Acoustics

  • The plugin contains 18 different true-stereo positions, captured with three microphones sets:
    • A Decca Tree with Neumann U50 microphones
    • An A-B Pair higher and behind the Decca Tree
    • Two “surround” microphones positioned even higher and wider
  • The positions are:
    Violins 1, Violins 2, Violas, Celli, Contrabasses, Woodwinds, French Horns 3 variations, Trumpets, Trombones, Tuba, Percussion 3 variations, Back stage wide, Mid stage wide and Front stage wide
  • Recording and post-processing has been done at 96 kHz; the plugin selects the appropriate and optimized sample rate version from its library file without any resampling delays during preset switching

Plugin

  • Formats: VST2, VST3 (macOS and Windows) and AU (macOS); AAX version to be announced
  • Native Apple Silicon support from day one
  • Advanced proprietary, convolution engine with zero latency, in triple True Stereo configuration
  • Early Reflections and tail levels can be independently controlled per microphone set
  • The library file contains the IRs in several sample rates, no resampling delays during use
  • Required disk space: 700 Mb
  • iLok 2/3 or iLok Cloud is required to apply for future updates. The first release has a different activation system.

User Experience

  • The plugin GUI is implemented in the style of an audio mixer
  • There are two controls for selecting presets:
    • A pulldown menu in the center of the header
    • A simple to use “floor map” of the studio with mouse hovering and select functions
  • Early reflections (ERs) and reverb tails can be handled independently.
    • Using only ERs is very light on the CPU and allows for many plugin instances as “insert”. This also gives you the option to use other reverbs for their tails
    • Using mainly tails is a great approach for working with samples with their own ambience “baked in”
  • Delay options for the dry source and microphone channels
  • Switching of presets is instantaneous and without audible artefacts