KVR Audio

Krakatau · Post by **Krakatau** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 10:36 am

hi folks

I'm just at the present time making some investigation on the free KR-reverb FS and i'm positively surprised so far

More precisely : i'm not necessarily looking for natural sounding reverb, but i've found some astonishing ways of using the early reflections parameters to create some impressive "reverse gate"-like effects that sounds really supernatural

As a reference : in the past, during the middle of eighties, way before the virtual technology era, i used intensively the yamaha SPX90 multi-effect and among some of the delay-based integrated effects of the unit, the early reflection programs
They where two: hi and low density with both the same algos : room/random/reverse/plate

Here, if you wish, two example in situation of some of these early reflection (among others effets created with the spx90) :

www.anak-krakatoa.net/~downl/4tracks/68.mp3
www.anak-krakatoa.net/~downl/4tracks/88.mp3

you may eventually notice them on the voices effect on the 1st track and the chords on the 2nd especially

The fact is that i've found here some specific characters in a freeware that AFAIK had no equivalent in the virtual arsenal (at least for mac)

character that i may roughly define as the combination of increasing and rythmically uncorrelated delay taps + unpredictable stereo placement, created by phase shift rather than volume balance

As a production technique for those able to reproduce similar patches easily, i would suggest, for instance, a mono lead synth melodic line (why not try the minimonsta !) with a heavy glide effect,( that will forbid too quick melodic phrases) entirely drowned on the wet side, this i contrast with a relatively dry 4/4 background arrangement...

Krakatau · Post by **Krakatau** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:00 am

Just noticed : the effects, early reflections at least... are also rendered in true stereo (that wasn't the case with the spx90 module !)

ZenPunkHippy · Post by **ZenPunkHippy** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:13 am

That's a top tip and an excellent reverb plug for the type of effect you are describing! Very spacey

I'm going to try it out with a few other reverbs I have e.g. ZRev that comes with Zebra, but I don't recall hearing anything quite like it.

This is the link to the site for download: http://www.kresearch.com/Free-Series.htm

Thanks for sharing!!

Peace,
Andy.

dacaumodo · Post by **dacaumodo** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:20 am

I got this n CM Magazine but it doesn't seem to remember settings between sessions in Reaper...Anybody else noticed this?

Krakatau · Post by **Krakatau** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:53 pm

Another useful experience i can share about this use of early reflexions is that you don't necessarily need of a full reverb processing if you're using pads or sustained notes and chords ( strings section's legati for instance )

Here the parameters of a single patch on that purpose :

Early size : 96.7%
Late size : 99.2%
Diffusion : 36.4%
Decay : 17.4%
Lister pos. : 100%
Dry/Wet : 100%

...other parameters untouched

( No need for 100% wet position on strings section, though... )

cbjmusic · Post by **cbjmusic** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:04 am

Thanks for sharing this! Was looking for a new reverb to mess with. Tried out the OSX version and CPU hit w both VST and AU is about 13%. Not too shabby..

Has anyone worked with the full versions??

cbj

ZenPunkHippy · Post by **ZenPunkHippy** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:44 am

Thanks again for sharing Krakatau, very kind of you!

BTW, I really enjoyed your two tracks from the OP - lovely sounds

Peace,
Andy.

Zoned · Post by **Zoned** » Thu Jun 20, 2013 9:42 pm

I would just add that if you choose to tweek out the (aforementioned) eccentricities, this baby is one of the lushest and deepest free reverbs out there (IMHO). When I say 'tweek out' I would suggest, most importantly, a diffusion never far from 80... A rich, emotional space can then be defined with Early Size 100, Late Size and Decay both around 74 (less critical). Love, hugs x.

Krakatau · Post by **Krakatau** » Thu Jun 20, 2013 10:23 pm

dacaumodo wrote:I got this n CM Magazine but it doesn't seem to remember settings between sessions in Reaper...Anybody else noticed this?

The CM magazine version has in addition, high and low dampers , Nice to see this topic bumped BTW !

Zoned · Post by **Zoned** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 10:03 am

My problem with the cm version wasn't project settings, it was (more fundamentally) that the gui just crashed the host (muzys) if you tried to open it. I didn't mind once I found the FS version because I generally like my reverb to be all-consuming and not too 'contained'.

Incidentally, I omitted the "Listener Position" parameter in my 'standard recipe' above... It should be 100% (maximum distance) of course. How else are those vast, broadband soundscapes going to wash in, all Vangelis-like, as if from 8 miles away?!

Hey Krakatau (op), we're so on the same page! My 1st hardware digital reverb (wow, *digital*!) was a Yamaha REX50 multi fx. Your SPX80 sounds very similar.

Well, that was £300 back in the 80s so I don't take top quality freeware for granted, especially when it can disappear just like that, just as KR Reverb FS has from the official site! (I just checked). Thankfully, KR haven't yet purged the web (Vst4Free, Don't Crack etc) but you never know what's coming. (KTGranulator, r.i.p. !)

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 11:09 am

I totally agree. Its a great reverb, soundwise probably the best there is for free and better than many commercial offers ive heard. It does everything from very deep and very wide to very tight and very snappy, thus its very versatile too. Its also practically impossible to make it sound bad because where other reverbs start to sound metallic in a rather unpleasant way, (yeah, 'that' way), KRRFS still sounds absolutely smooth and 'round', almost taking on the character of a chorus/flanger. Its definitely one of the lushest richest reverbs ive heard and probably the one that i would keep if i could keep only 1.

For Fun:

Gated Kick / Snare

Early Size: 40.0%
Diffusion: 66.7%
Late Size: 10%
Decay: 40%-50% (To taste)
ListenerPosition: 20%-100% (To taste)
Dry/Wet: 50%

Put this on a LinnDrum/DMX/similar and you instantly have 'that' 80s sound. Play with Late Size and Decay for more/less depth.

Reflected Kick / Snare - 120BPM

Early Size: 33.0%
Diffusion: 23.0%
Late Size: 46%
Decay: 20%
ListenerPosition: 28%
Dry/Wet: 50%

Well suited for breakbeats and Kraftwerk-like patterns a-la Musique Non Stop. Play with Diffusion to tighten/loosen the effect. (Also alters its perceived wetness.)

PS: Both KR Reverb FS and KR Delay FS are still on the KR website.

(Download requires login though.)

http://www.kresearch.com/index.php?p=KRFree

do_androids_dream · Post by **do_androids_dream** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 11:58 am

I remember these plugins being quite crash prone. I just re downloaded the reverb and it gets a 'invalid operation' error message on Reapers scan (32 bit version).

satYatunes · Post by **satYatunes** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 12:47 pm

dacaumodo wrote:I got this n CM Magazine but it doesn't seem to remember settings between sessions in Reaper...Anybody else noticed this?

Right, both CM and free version has this problem. I reported it to LeeCM but not yet fixed. KR released 64 bit version some time back. I tried but the problem is still there.

Both delay and reverb are amazing.

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 12:52 pm

do_androids_dream wrote:I remember these plugins being quite crash prone. I just re downloaded the reverb and it gets a 'invalid operation' error message on Reapers scan (32 bit version).

Ive had a lot of plugins crash on me but never the KRs. Always rock stable.

Are you on XP by any chance? That errormessage looks like you might be, and as we all know more and more devs dont support XP anymore, in fact some have even dropped Vista...

do_androids_dream · Post by **do_androids_dream** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 1:00 pm

ENV1 wrote:
do_androids_dream wrote:I remember these plugins being quite crash prone. I just re downloaded the reverb and it gets a 'invalid operation' error message on Reapers scan (32 bit version).
Ive had a lot of plugins crash on me but never the KRs. Always rock stable.

Are you on XP by any chance? That errormessage looks like you might be, and as we all know more and more devs dont support XP anymore, in fact some have even dropped Vista...

No I'm on Vista 32 bit.

Amazing free KR-reverb !