U-he releases Protoverb 1.0

Protoverb is an experimental reverb based on the idea of a "room simulator". Most algorithmic reverbs try to avoid resonances or model the reflections of sound from a rooms walls. Protoverb does the opposite. It builds up as many room resonances as possible, modeling the body of air in the room. It therefore does not need to modulate or colour the signal. The result is a very natural sounding reverbration with some interesting features: Long standing frequencies resonate louder, as if the air takes some time to get excited. Multiple instruments don't mash into a diffuse mud, they stay distinct. If you play a short melody, the room seems to repeat a ghost echo of that melody. Those properties are indeed found in churches and large halls, but they're rarely found in conventional algorithmic reverbs.

However...

To achieve this kind of stuff, Protoverb works with loads and loads of parallel, serial and networked delays. By all means, there is no mathematical formula that makes such a structure sound "just right". As with all delay based reverbs, it's down to trial and error, and maybe a lot of luck with random values. Therefore we designed Protoverb to present you with delay lines of random lengths and a random assembly of networking and feedback strategies. Which, if you're lucky and you come across a great setting, you can submit to our website, along with a few details

Push buttons to randomize!

To be precise, the small text box at the bottom contains two random entries. The first part depicts the network structure, strategies for a spatial layout and distribution of delay taps, strategies for finding useful delay lengths and so on. The second part is a seed for a pseudo-random number generator which is used to find various parameters, such as average delay length, which prime number to chose (if any) and so on. This text can either be edited by double click, or both parts can be independently randomized with the two random buttons below.

Get Protoverb - it's free!

In other words: Protoverb is a data mining concept. Instead of spending a few months ourselves, we hope that our community will come up with great settings. As a reward, this plug-in is free, people are encouraged to share their settings and thoughts on the internet, and at some point we'll draw some prizes (details to be announced in January 2016) from the submissions (we'll always draw the first entry of equal submissions, so you can share without fear!)

Download Protoverb 1.0 Mac (AAX, AU & VST2) & Win (AAX & VST2)

Enjoy, Happy Holidays and have a great start into 2016!

- Urs & team



Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with U-he, just passing the news.

Great concept.

New ways of thinking about dev/user interaction is exactly whats needed with all going on the last few days.

A new toy to play with.... nice!

Actually it seems to be more than a toy. I tried to "play" with it on a drum loop just for fun but... wow what amazing rooms!!!!

I already have sent lot of codes. It is a little bit weird now, don't know how will be the final product.

This sounds insanely good on dry drums, guitars and so on. wow!

Thanks Urs. Will have some fun with this. Absolutely love Bazille.

EDIT: Wowsa! Very nice...interesting mix of ambience and early relections. Does subtle well and the longer verbs just seem to accentuate the goodness of the source without being too showy.

Already have it in a mix session
Nice reverb thanks

I really really like this.

I thought I was sussed for room reverbs... apparently not! This thing sounds huge.

Woooahhh.. the rooms sound so good, are you sure this thing is free?!?!

This is really fantastic and I can't wait to hear what the tinkerers can come up with for new presets.
A good one for those who like designing their own verbs, i gather.

You're absolutely right, I take that back after trying it!! I'm blown away...

Am I the only one not impressed by this? Perhaps I'm unlucky but I've only managed to get an ok sound out of it. Doesn't sound at all natural to me.

Loving this. Like, a lot. It's fun, it sounds great, and its interface makes it easy to dial in great sounds: just keep hitting the RND buttons till things sound good!

hahaha, my kind of engineering style. Looking forward to trying this out.

Exactly. Most of the time, I can't be bothered to fiddle with most reverb processors' millions of controls. Too much option overload. It's why I've always favored "real" reverbs, like plates, springs, and chambers. Oh, and it's why I love the PCM 60!

Anywho, this plugin solves that problem quite elegantly.

I'll get it today... Great concept... I spend a lot of time chaining reverbs and delays to get my dry stuff to sound like it was played in an actual physical space...

Kind of similar to the Ocean Wat concept, no?

I like free things.

I think it's an experiment designed to teach u-he about what does and what does not work for plugin reverb, hence the Send Code function. We're telling them what we like and what we hate. Or, perhaps the send function is being used to create a group of presets based upon popular opinion. It's an interesting, if unusual, way of gaining user feedback, but I can't inject an experiment into my work, so as much as I'm curious about this I'll have to pass and wait for the final product.

Very interesting and clever idea. I'm finding it really frustrating to use though becuase there are so many models and there's no way to be methodical, because you can't go back. I'll keep trying it, but finding it frustrating to mess with.

Nope. I am still not sure if I really like it. Just quickly played with it but my first impression was "People wouldn't even consider this a serious reverb plugin if it was some free plugin by an unknown dev but since it's by U-He, there MUST be something about it"

Usually resonant reverbs are being considered cheap, bad and low quality.

I will give it few more tries and use it in mixes and see if I like it then...

Nice GUI though.

To be fair, it's not a serious reverb plugin, it's a free pilot data mining reverb plugin that might lead to serious reverb effects.

Quantec is not a cheap reverb. Similar idea, obviously more perfected.

Suggest you play around a little more with randomizing the model/delays until you find something that sounds natural, then change the delays until you find something better, not the model.

I will try to DL this in the AM, right now I would screw it up.

Yes Sir.

This is nice U-HE and thank's

Will try. Thanks

Although it is appreciated - this just doesnt do much for me.

Wow, this is certainly polarising opinions - some people think it's great, for some it's just meh. I don't care what the rational behind this plug is, I think it sounds pretty damn good. It's certainly a very useful tool to have in the arsenal and a lot of fun either way.

Well fwiw, this thread was the first I ever heard of u he. I downloaded this plug on a whim and I'm glad I did.

Yes the association with the Quantec idea was what came to mind first, interesting.