Overview
Swarm Reverb offers a flexible and creative approach to reverb with distinct early and late reflection stages. The early reflections (diffusion) can be adjusted from vast to very tight spaces, while the late reflections (decay) creates a smooth tail reminiscent of vintage digital reverbs. Internal modulation, filtering, and ducking further enhance the sculpting of the space.
Both the standalone plugin and effect rack versions include presets that range from lush ambiance to spatial sound effects.
1. Reflection Controls
ATTACK: Adjust the onset of the early reflections, both in time and amplitude. Moderate settings can be used to produce natural spatial characters. Extreme settings can produce very tight or reverse-like effects, which can be useful for creating unique creative spaces.
SIZE: Adjust the size of the virtual space created by the early reflections. This utilizes a complex diffusion network to simulate the initial echoes in a reverb. The size of this space can be adjusted to anything from very small to massive. When combined with ATTACK, a wide range of reverberant spaces are possible.
DECAY: Adjust the tail length of the late reflections. Higher values will create very long reverb effects, to the point where they sustain almost indefinitely.
DAMPING: Set the amount of low pass filtering in the late reflections. Increasing the value will result in a darker reverberant space.
BALANCE: Adjust the balance between early reflections and late reflections.The early reflections use diffusion to create a virtual space consisting of relatively short echoes, while the late reflections produce a longer, evenly decaying tail. Blending these two signals can result in significantly different spatial effects.
WIDTH: Adjust the stereo width of both the early and late reflections. 0% will result in a mono signal, while 100% will create a wide stereo image. This setting can help blend the reverb with the original sound, placing it in a well-balanced space.
DIFFUSION SEND: Set the level of early reflection diffusion that is fed into the late reflection tail. This can significantly alter the character of the late reflections. Higher values typically result in a smoother, more spacious sound.
2. Diffusion Filter
HIGH SHELF GAIN: Adjust the gain of the high shelf filter that is applied to the early reflection diffusion network.
HIGH SHELF FREQUENCY: Set the frequency of the high shelf filter that is applied to the early reflection diffusion network.
3. Input Filters & Pre-Delay
INPUT HIGHPASS: Adjust the frequency of the input high-pass filter. This is useful for preventing low-end build-up in bass-heavy sounds.
INPUT LOWPASS: Adjust the frequency of the input low-pass filter.
PRE-DELAY TIME: Adjust the delay before the onset of the early reflections. For realistic delays, the pre-delay time should generally be set between 1 and 25 ms. Larger delay times can be used for more creative effects.
PREDELAY SYNC: When active, the pre-delay time will be synced to the current BPM. This can be used to create rhythmic spaces and echo effects.
PRE-DELAY FEEDBACK: Adjust the amount of the pre-delay signal that will be fed back into itself. This can be used to create echoing and evolving reverb effects, especially when combined with longer pre-delay times.
4. Modulation
MODULATION DEPTH: Adjust the amount of internal modulation that is applied to the reverb. Lower settings will produce a cleaner reverb sound, while mid-range settings will create a smooth chorus-like effect, and higher settings can result in a detuned swarm-like space.
MODULATION RATE: Set the rate of the internal modulation that is applied to the reverb. Lower settings can be used to add natural, evolving movement, while higher values can create ensemble effects and detuned swarm-like spaces.
5. Ducker
DEPTH: Adjust how much the dry input signal will duck the wet delay signal.
This can be very useful for preventing long delays from mixing with the dry signal.
TIME: Adjust the release time of the auto-ducker.
Less time will result in abrupt gain changes while higher values will create intense pumping effects.
6. Utility Controls
INPUT GAIN: Adjusts the gain sent into the effect.
INPUT SEND BUTTON: When active, the input gain will only affect the signal being sent to the effect, leaving the dry signal unaffected. Try combining this with automation or modulation to send only specific parts of your input through the effect.
Try combining this with automation or modulation to send only certain parts of your input through the effect.
DRY WET: Adjusts the balance between the processed (wet) signal and the unprocessed (dry) signal.
OUTPUT GAIN: Adjusts the gain at the end of the effect's processing chain, useful for compensating gain changes or adding creative effects.
OUTPUT SOFT CLIP: Enables a soft-clipping "glue" limiter that prevents output levels from exceeding 0 dB, with the following modes:
- OFF: Limiter is disabled.
- PURPLE: Gentle limiting and saturation, useful for preventing overs while keeping a smoother sound.
- ORANGE: Punchy soft clipping, ideal for more aggressive sounds.