KVR Audio is the Internet's number one news and information resource for open standard audio plugins. We report new releases, product announcements and product updates (major and minor) for all VST Plugins, DirectX Plugins and Audio Units Plugins. We manage a fully searchable audio plugin database (updated daily), and offer many free member services including user reviews, product update notifications and a very active discussion forum. We also host official support forums for many plugin developers plus the official Receptor support forum.
Plug-in Database: Virtual
Instruments, Effects & Hosts
Banks & Patches
Download & Upload
Plug-in Ratings
by KVR Members
Wiki: Tutorials,
Audio Lexicon, ...
Listen to Music
by KVR Members
Search
KVR
Quick
Links

Google Powered Search:

in new window

KVR Powered Plug-in Search:

Ambience
by Smart Electronix
52 members are watching Ambience for news
Product Ambience
Developer Smart Electronix
Primary Type Reverb
Price (MSRP) Donationware
Plug-in Formats
Effect(s)VSTAudio Unit
Operating System Availability
Operating
System
Latest
Version
Download Is it
Available?
Windows 1.0 Demo / TrialReleased
Mac OS X 1.0 Demo / TrialReleased
Miscellaneous Information
Copy Protection None
Banks & Patches Download Banks
Average User Rating Average rating - 8.791
Known to work
advertisement
Artist Master Class - Marcus Miller
Ambience
By Magnus @ Smartelectronix

Ambience is a reverb that rivals the quality of the best commercial reverbs.

Ambience is Donationware which means you are free to decide yourself how much you want to pay for it, and when. It is fully functional but displays a nag screen at startup until you register it.

RSS FeedAll KVR Audio news items relating to Ambience.

New banks for Ambience, Angelina and Battery 10th September 2003

User Reviews by KVR Members for Ambience.

CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR REVIEW


By kritikon
On 23rd November 2003
Version: 1

Read all reviews by
kritikon


6 of 8 people found
this review helpful.

Was this review
helpful to you?
Yes | No
  GUI
Sound
Features
Docs
Presets
Support
VFM
Stability
GUI - a very nice-looking interface. It's obvious what everything does, and it's nicely set out in appropriate sections.

Stability - rock solid and most importantly it doesn't use much CPU so it's no hassle to use it as a send and maybe a few instances of inserts if you use alot of reverb. Probably one of the best in terms of CPU in its quality range.

Features - all the usual parameters. An added bonus that not too many reverbs give is the gating - IMO this is one of the strengths of Ambience - basically because although I don't much like it as a general purpose reverb, it is good for metallic based reverbs such as plates and springs - if you're going to use it as a plate reverb, then the gate is essential for some treatments with drums. Many better sounding reverbs don't give you the option of the gate, so this is a big plus.

Sound - I don't like knocking freebies but I really can't say this is a general purpose reverb or anything approaching release quality reverb. As mentioned, I think it has good value as a plate or spring reverb - it's character is definitely metallic and a little reminiscent of, say, some 80's Yamaha reverb. Reverb is very much down to personal taste, so many will disagree with me, but it is far to metallic to be used as a room, hall or other real-space reverb. I'm also reluctant to knock it too much because it really shouldn't be compared with pro quality reverbs - as long as you bear in mind that this is a free reverb and use it as such then you won't be disappointed, but if you've had any experience of the good reverb units, then basically, you wouldn't touch Ambience for general treatments.

I would say it has value for specialist treatments - artificial reverbs, special FX used sparingly, and plates. But the lesser reverbs really show up when you use it as a send on several channels - the metallic edge begins to get very noticeable, and make it unusable for a serious mix..especially if you want realistic room space reverb. I've heard it compared to good reverbs - and trying not to sound too condescending (as said - it's down to taste often) - those comparisons are from people who probably haven't had much experience with the better ones - it has a type of in-yer-face appeal, but for serious useage that is not at all what you want or need. Good reverb should be almost un-noticed in a mix - Ambience cannot do that. Not that you can't get pro quality freebies - things like Endorphin, Fish Fillets, Freealpha disprove that (they are superb quality for free) but Ambience is not one of them - I am a bit picky with reverbs, but a lesser quality one can ruin a track - I don't mind artificial in-yer-face mod FX or specialFX but room & hall reverbs are meant to be realistic - this isn't.

Compare to something like SIR that is free, but pro quality but uses alot of CPU and has latency - you have to balance those considerations. Ambience won't gobble CPU and is great for sketching rough mixes, but it's not mix quality.
 
   Report

By Rozzer
On 15th October 2003
Version: Jun11.03

Read all reviews by
Rozzer


2 of 3 people found
this review helpful.

Was this review
helpful to you?
Yes | No
  GUI
Sound
Features
Docs
Presets
Support
VFM
Stability
User Interface:
Looks pretty good. The layout is excellent. Every knob feels like its in the correct place. My only gripe is the font size, which, on my 1600x1024 monitor, is squint-tastic!

Sound:
Actually I'm very impressed. So far ambience has done a great job with any audio I've thrown at it. The tails are sharp and clear. In my opinion this Reverd stands very well amongst other plug-ins costing hundreds of dollars.

Features:
Special mensions should go to the Quality/CPU parameter, which can help tame cpu useage whilst mixing, and the 'Hold' parameter which effectively freezes the reverb tail until the button is released. Nice for automated madness! I'd say Ambience has just the right amount of features. You don't get bogged down trying to find the 'size' parameter in amongst 400 others, but there's enough to meet all but the strangest reverb requirements. The demo is fully featured, but has a nag screen, and no time restriction.

Documentation:
I honestly haven't had to use it! Ambience is super-intuitive :)

Presets:
Comes with about 60 or 70 presets. Many from KVRians! You can almost always find a good starting point.

Customer Support:
I've not needed it, but the Smart Electronix Forum here at KVR is the place to look.

Value for Money:
11/10 on this. This is probably the best donationware plug-in I've come across!

Stability:
I've never had a crash, but the CPU can load can be heavy. There's always the 'Quality' settings if you find its too much.

Overall:
I'm extremely happy with this plug. Its become my staple reverb source, due to incredible ease of use, and wonderful sound. You'd be daft not to download it really!!

Additional Note: We as consumers should be encouraging more of these wonderful Donationware projects. Please do donate something (anything) if you use this... it can only benefit everyone :)
 
Last edited by R0zzer on 16th October 2003    Report

By pietro
On 14th September 2003
Version: 1.0

Read all reviews by
pietro


2 of 6 people found
this review helpful.

Was this review
helpful to you?
Yes | No
  GUI
Sound
Features
Docs
Presets
Support
VFM
Stability
I was astonished when,the last year, downloaded Freeverb:
I made a "double blind" comparision with my Lexicon hardware reverb(MPX100) and realised that it had almost the same quality:surely I had found a mini-Lexicon for free, and thought it was no doubt the best free reverb on the net:
until yesterday, when I met this incredible software:
I don't find the right words to describe its great professional quality:
its great warmth,clearness,density without any lost even with many sec.decays,with more controls than freeverb and with ambience and reverse programs wich freeverb is missing.
I've never heard hardware or software revs of this quality,and MIDI learn controls is a piece of cake!.
 
   Report
Latest 3 reviews from a total of 3

Reviews, articles, interviews, etc. for Ambience.

None listed yet.

Products by Smart Electronix

Product: Ambience
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Reverb
Price: Donationware
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVSTAudio Unit
By Magnus @ SmartelectronixAmbience is a reverb that rivals the quality of the best commercial reverbs. Ambience is Donationware which means you are free to decide yourself how much you want to pay for it, and when. It is fully functional but displays a nag screen at startup until you register it.... [more]

 
Product: AnalogDelay
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Delay / Echo
Price: Free (Donationware)
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
By mdsp @ Smartelectronix.AnalogDelay is a delay unit followed by a 2nd order lowpass filter with saturation. The delay-time can evolve between 0 and max-delay which lets you be very accurate. You can also synchronise the delay to the tempo with different resolutions from 1/128 to 1 bar and control the way the delay-time is interpolated with the kind of interpolation and the time-constant.... [more]

 
Product: ASynth
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Synth (Analogue / Subtractive)
Price: Free (Donationware)
OS&Formats: WindowsVST
by Antti of Smart ElectronixASynth is a six voice virtual analog synthesizer featuring two oscillators and three circuit modelled filters. Features: 6 Voice polyphony. 2x/4x/8x selectable oversampling. MIDI CC automation. Two oscillators: Osc 1 with sawtooth and square waveforms. Osc 2 with sawtooth and pulse waveforms. Three circuit modelled filters: MS20: 12 dB/oct lowpass filter with signal level dependent resonance. Mini: 24 dB/oct lowpass filter from the 60's. XPander: Multimode 24 dB/oct filter with 16 different responses. Two ADSR envelopes (VCF and VCA). One LFO with 6 waveforms... [more]

 
Product: Augur
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Synth (Wavetable)
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsVST
by Antti of Smart ElectronixAugur is an on-going attempt at making a Prophet VS clone.... [more]

 
Product: Bouncy
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Delay / Echo
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVSTAudio Unit
Bouncy by Bram @ Smart Electronix is a simple Bouncing Ball Delay.NOTE: Uses the plug-in host's default interface.... [more]

 
Product: Cyanide
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Wave Shaper
Price: Free (Donationware)
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
By Bram @ Smart ElectronixFeatures:Graphical wave shaper. Pre/Post LP/HP filter.16x Oversampling option. Output preview. Wet/Dry mix.... [more]

 
Product: DFX Buffer Override
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: FSU
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixBuffer Override can overcome your host app's audio processing buffer size and then (unsuccessfully) override that new buffer size to be a smaller buffer size. It makes a lot more sense if you just try it out and hear what it does. It can sound like a stuttery vocoder or a stuck beat shuffler or many other delightful things. In certain hosts, you can also "play" Buffer Override via MIDI notes and even sync it to song tempo.... [more]

 
Product: DFX EQ Sync
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Filter
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixEQ Sync is a ridiculous equalizer. You have no control over the EQ curve, if you try to adjust the faders they will escape, and the EQ parameters don't make any sense anyway. The EQ setting changes on its own according to your song's tempo.... [more]

 
Product: DFX Geometer
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: FSU
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixGeometer is a visually oriented waveform geometry plugin. It works by generating some "points" or "landmarks" on the waveform, moving them around and messing them up, and then reassembling the wave from the points. Each of these three stages can be done in a variety of ways, combining to make millions of different effects. However, Geometer has a real-time display of what your settings are doing to the sound, and a prominent built-in help system to explain what each setting does.... [more]

 
Product: DFX MIDI Gater
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Gate
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixMIDI Gater is a simple, handy, MIDI-controlled gate. When you play a MIDI note, audio turns on. When you release the note, audio turns off. MIDI Gater is a little unusual, though, because it is "polyphonic." What that means is that a copy of the audio signal is created for every MIDI note, and the volume of each copy is sensitive to note velocity. The level of sensitivity is adjustable. The volume between notes is also adjustable, in case you don't want your audio signal turning off completely.... [more]

 
Product: DFX Monomaker
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Imaging / Panning / Spatial
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixMonomaker is a simple mono-merging and stereo-recentering utility. You can use it to progressively mix down a stereo signal to mono and you can use it for equal power, center-shifting pans.... [more]

 
Product: DFX Polarizer
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Lo Fi
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixPolarizer takes every Nth sample and polarizes it. The number of samples skipped and the strength of the polarization are adjustable. You can also implode your sound.... [more]

 
Product: DFX Rez Synth
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Filter
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixRez Synth allows you to "play" bandpass resonant filter banks that process your sound. In the right hosts, MIDI notes can trigger individual filters or banks of filters (up to 30 per note) with controllable frequency separation.... [more]

 
Product: DFX RMS Buddy
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Analyser / Monitor
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixRMS Buddy is a handy tool for tracking RMS and peak volume information. It provides a cumulative, running average RMS of the audio signal, momentary RMS values, and it keeps track of the peak volume levels.... [more]

 
Product: DFX Scrubby
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: FSU
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixScrubby goes zipping around through time. Speeding up or slowing down playback, moving backwards or forwards, Scrubby does whatever it takes to reach its destinations on time. If necessary, you can discipline Scrubby by using pitch constraint control, and of course you have a choice between robot mode and DJ mode.... [more]

 
Product: DFX Skidder
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Gate
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixSkidder turns your sound on and off. While that may not sound very rewarding, you have a great deal of control over the rate, pulsewidth, on/off slope, panning width, etc. You can also relinquish some control to randomization. Skidder can also sync with your song tempo and can be triggered by MIDI notes.... [more]

 
Product: DFX Transverb
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Delay / Echo
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixTransverb is like a delay plugin, but it can play back the delay buffer at different speeds. Think of it like a tape loop with two independently-moving read heads. There are lots of parameters to control and a parameter randomizer for the impatient. Tom's first "released" plugin. Fun!... [more]

 
Product: dmiFlute
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Flute
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
by dmi of Smart ElectronixPhysical Modelled Flute engineVariable rate Vibrato controlMulti-mode resonant filter... [more]

 
Product: dmiHammer
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Hammered Chromatic Percussion
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
by dmi of Smart Electronix16 note polyphonic hammered percussion engine.Vibrato control and stereo spread.Four individually tunable resonators.... [more]

 
Product: Foorius
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Synth (Semi Modular)
Price: Free (Donationware)
OS&Formats: WindowsVST
by dmi of Smart ElectronixFoorius allows you to explore and combine multiple synthesis methods in a single patch. Features: 16 note polyphonic synthesis engine. FM, AM, VA, Wave-sequencing and Noise Oscillators. Loads of different filters including circuit modeled Analog filters. Freely routable signals. Built in effects. 20 LFOs and 20 128-point Envelope generators. Advanced MIDI handling. Unique GUI that moves beyond the "looks just like hardware" paradigm. 80 patches to get you started. ... [more]

 
Product: Fre(a)koscope
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Analyser / Monitor
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
by mdsp of Smart ElectronixFre(a)koscope is an FFT-based real-time spectrum analyzer featuring: Lin/log/semitones/third-octave/Bark scales. Window size selection. Frequency zooming. Freeze. Peak hold. Cursor information (amplitude+frequency). Planned: Mel/Erb frequency scales. Spectrum averaging. basic information like spectral centroid, dominant pitch... ... [more]

 
Product: Freeverb
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Reverb
Price: Free
OS&Formats: Mac OS XUniversal BinaryAudio Unit
Ported to AU by Destroy FX of Smart ElectronixDestroyFX @ Smart Electronix created a Universal Binary AU version of Dreampoint / Jezar's open source Freeverb reverb algorithm. NOTE: This is not a Destroy FX plug-in. Freeverb is an open source reverb by Jezar at Dreampoint. DFX ported it to Audio Unit, more or less to see how easy it would be to port someone else's VST plug-in to AU (it took about an hour). This AU version has no custom graphics, but Jezar's VST version never did, either. Full source code is included in the download.... [more]

 
Product: GalactiX
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Synth (Unclassified)
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsVST
By Alex @ Smart Electron:x16 voice polyphonic.6 high quality oscillators with no-interpolation algorithm.Custom oscillators can be loaded.Custom envelopes can be loaded (WAVs with loop points).Detune and phase per oscillator.Two filters: VCO with velocity sensitivity and master key follow filter.MIDI control for parameters.Master effects: Chorus and Reverb.18 factory presets + sound bank created by René @ rgcAudio... [more]

 
Product: KTAudioHealer
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Utility
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
By Koen Tanghe @ Smart Electronix.KTAudioHealer is a simple plug-in that makes the incoming audio healthier by applying DC / LF blocking, Nyquist / HF blocking and undenormalization. Available as VST effect for Windows and as an Audio Unit for Mac OS X.... [more]

 
Product: KTDrumTrigger
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Audio to MIDI
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
By Koen Tanghe @ Smart Electronix.KTDrumTrigger is a VST plugin with a custom editor that triggers MIDI notes based on the sound level of the incoming audio stream in different frequency bands. It allows you to "detect" occurrences of percussive sounds in an audio stream and send out a MIDI event whenever that happens.Incoming (mono) audio is split up into different frequency bands using three tweakable filters. The signal in each of these bands is sent through an envelope follower. When the envelope reaches a specified threshold level, a MIDI note on message is generated. The trigge... [more]

 
Product: KTGranulator
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: FSU
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVSTAudio Unit
By Koen Tanghe @ SmartelectronixThis effect is a delay line granulator and it works like this:Incoming (mono) sound is fed into a delay line from which small pieces of various durations and at different moments in the past are selected. Each of these pieces is then amplified, transposed and enveloped to form a "grain". Each grain is also randomly panned and the whole mix is sent out to a stereo output stream. Feedback of the grain output back into the delay line is also provided, and the delay line can also be frozen so that the grains are only taken from what is currently stored in the delay ... [more]

 
Product: LiveCut
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Audio Reorderer
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XUniversal BinaryVSTAudio Unit
by mdsp of Smart ElectronixLiveCut is a "Live BreakBeat Cutting tool" based on Nick Collins algorithms that can be found in the BBCut library for SuperCollider [View PDF]. "The BBCut Library began out of work on an algorithm to simulate the automatic cutting of breakbeats in the style of early jungle or drum and bass [Collins 2001a]." LiveCut syncs to the host tempos and creates phrases by splicing and repeating small chunks of the input in order to create ever evolving syncopated rhythms. It currently implements a mix of CutProc11 (classic gimical DnB) and WarpCut (named ... [more]

 
Product: MdspCompressor
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Dynamics (Compressor / Limiter)
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVSTAudio Unit
by mdsp of Smart ElectronixmdspCompressor is a simple compressor with auto-make-up gain as well as a preamp gain to overdrive it as much as you want. A separate sidechain version is also available for Windows - with 3 inlets, the third one being the side-chain.... [more]

 
Product: MdspDuckDelay
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Delay / Echo
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
by mdsp of Smart ElectronixThe output of mdspDuckDelay is compressed when the input signal reaches a threshold level. This allows you to use a lot of delay on a voice without losing too much intelligibility.... [more]

 
Product: MdspDuckVerb
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Reverb
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
MdspDuckVerb is similar to MdspDuckDelay, but with a reverb. The reverb output is compressed when there is a certain amount of signal present on its input. It allows you to use a lot of wet signal on a voice without loosing too much intelligibility.... [more]

 
Product: MdspFlanger
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Modulation (Flanger / Phaser / Chorus / Tremelo)
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
by mdsp of Smart ElectronixmdspFlanger has a tempo-syncable LFO with different waveforms (triangle, sin, square, triangle exponential, random...) and a smoothing factor for the waveform, enabling you to achieve new effects not available from classic flangers.... [more]

 
Product: MjCompressor
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Dynamics (Compressor / Limiter)
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
By Magnus @ Smart Electronix.MjCompressor is a single band compressor which reacts with different speeds depending on the frequency content of the signal, achieving a cleaner more responsive sound.... [more]

 
Product: MjHarmonicPingOnly
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Just Intonation Synth
Price: Free (Donationware)
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
By Magnus @ Smart Electronix.MjHarmonicPingOnly lets you to explore "just intonation" and the harmonic overtone and undertone series. As the name suggests, it bears some similarity to Bram's OnePingOnly.Magnus created it as part of his ongoing exploration of just intonation and what's beyond 12 tone equal temperament (the tuning that has been popular in the west for the last 100 years).NOTE: MjHarmonicPingOnly uses the hosts's default GUI. ... [more]

 
Product: MjMultibandCompressor
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Dynamics (Compressor / Limiter)
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsVST
By Magnus @ Smart Electronix.MjMultibandCompressor is a four band compressor.... [more]

 
Product: MjRotoDelay
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Delay / Echo
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsVST
By Magnus @ Smart Electronix.MjRotoDelay is a delay featuring tempo sync, modulation, bandpass filtering and stereo image transformations. Here are some possibilities: delay, chorus, flanger, lofi, pitch shifting, arpeggio, stereo widening, etc.... [more]

 
Product: NyquistEq
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Paragraphic EQ
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsMac OS XVST
By Magnus @ Smart Electronix.NyquistEq is a paragraphic equalizer that does not suffer from the treble warping that most digital equalizers do. Also it never clicks, and it handles deep bass well. The reason it's called NyquistEq is because it's designed to be a filter that sounds good all the way up to the Nyquist frequency (if sampling rate is 44.1 kHz then nyquist is at 22.05 kHz).... [more]

 
Product: OnePingOnly
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: ?
Price: Free
OS&Formats: WindowsVST
By Bram @ Smart Electronix. OnePingOnly uses tuned filters to create the "ping". Features: Uses tuned filters to create the ping. 16 pings can be played simultaneously. Each ping is mapped to a different key, like in a drum-layout. Each ping has a parameter for frequency, duration, panning, distortion and amplitude. Uses hosts default interface. ... [more]

 
Product: Phase90
Developer: Smart Electronix
Type: Distortion / Overdrive / Amp
Price: Free (Donationware)
OS&Formats: WindowsVST