NonlinearSpace

NonlinearSpaceDemo is a universal binary Audio Unit plugin for algorithmic reverb. It extends on what its predecessor Space offered, by adding Nonlin behavior in two ways!

You’ve got a Sample Rate control that sets the overall size of the reverb tank. This isn’t meant to be switched while the reverb is live, so if there’s a problem bypass it and turn it back on: it should be OK.

There are Treble and Bass controls, which are not simply EQ on the output of the reverb: they tie into the guts of the reverb shaping the sound as it continues, so you can get many different reverb tonalities. The Treble is particularly good at setting reverb sounds into the distance, but even at full crank NonlinearSpace is very deep: compare it with other algorithmic reverbs. It has a character all its own, and now…

With the Nonlin control, you can do dial-an-eighties, or crazy unique things! This is a behavior normally found in isolated reverb algorithms, but I found ways to put it on a continuum. If you keep the liveness very low and ADD Nonlin, you get an Airwindows version of the classic gate-y Nonlin reverb sound, ideal for drums and keeping a mix from getting muddy. If you control your input sounds well you can do outrageous things with this! It seems particularly good at tom fills, and all the sounds are shapeable with the Sample Rate option and the Treble and Bass controls. This can be used on synthetic elements, too, not just live instruments!

Then, if you tire of that, try the reverse! Run a sporadic sound into a channel with NonlinearSpace, set Nonlin to -1.0 and crank up the Liveness, crank everything up until you have infinite sustain. What’ll happen is, the extreme Nonlin negative setting will force the output to not get too loud, but if you feed new audio in you’ll replace what was there. This is the ultimate tool for making eternal reverbspaces and ambient washes: if you’re using something like a volume pedal, you can literally paint in new sound as you go, balancing or replacing it on the fly, never getting runaway feedback. And since it’s a continuous control, every setting can be given a touch of nonlinearity just like you’re dialing in the reverb tone, helping you shape the spaces of the mix.

NonlinearSpace, like Space before it, wants to be on a stereo track, the better to fill up the atmosphere behind your mix. If you’re not finding it in the menus, check that you’ve got a stereo track for it to go on.

This is all on top of what was already a damn good sounding algo reverb anyway. Space was already an innovative design with many special Airwindows tricks in things like its comb-filters and allpasses, but NonlinearSpace takes it to a whole new level—and brings everything to the 80-bit processing of the Purest line of Airwindows plugins, which is great for reverb tones that are all made up of subtleties. NonlinearSpace is huge fun, and hugely effective, and I’m just loving it: I hope you do, too.

NonlinearSpace is $50, and people who owned Space get updated to NonlinearSpace for free :)