Website- http://www.overloud.com

Price- $369

Reverb is an effects processor in which it's entire purpose is to "fake it". It generally doesn't fix things like an EQ or compressor. Instead, it just makes things up, throwing reflections around a proverbial space. So a good reverb is worth it's weight in CPU cycles. But finding a reverb that not only sounds good, but performs light, is a goal worth pursuing.

Breverb is designed as a high quality, flexible, low on resources effect plugin. Breverb is modeled after the popular Lexicon reverb units from the 90's that you will find sitting on almost every mixing desk at every major studio, and many smaller studios(well, to be clear, the controller is on the console, while the reverb unit is in the rack).

Despite Breverb being based on these traditional "Lexicon-ish" sounds, that's where the comparisons in this review will end. Instead, I'll be judging Breverb purely on it's merits as a software reverb. And we'll see if Breverb is just another option, or a new must-have plugin.

Spaces

Breverb has four algorithms available for your choosing; Room, Hall, Plate, and Inverse. Each one has specific characteristics and a unique combination of controls that are relevant to the algorithm. The first three are your typical "real" spaces with the last being more of a special effect type. 

There's a lot to experiment with here. The controls that are available vary based on which algorithm you have selected, and every control for each algorithm is unique to itself. For instance, instead of having a pre-delay setting that is shared by all four types, there are actually FOUR pre-delay controls; one for each reverb type.

It's highly recommended to flip your way through the presets because there are some EXCELLENT presets included. Not only are there a lot of them, but they are all very specialized. They go beyond big rooms and small rooms, long halls and wide halls. There are presets for rooms that are filled or empty, presets designed specifically for orchestral percussion, and another just for Taiko drums. If you're a large cinematic percussion fanatic like myself, you'll be right at home as well. You'll even find several presets that seem to actually change the core character of your audio source. There's a "Wooden Snare" preset designed to completely change the sound of your drums. And it did. Very cool stuff. So don't overlook the presets here.

The Hall reverb is obviously geared towards your longer reverbs and relies heavily on the reverb tail. A bad reverb tail can make the entire track fall apart. Fortunately, Breverb offers very smooth tails on it's Hall algorithm. But that doesn't even begin to tell the story. The Hall algorithm is the most advanced of all the types. Beyond the basic controls such as time, size, and diffusion, you can set the shape and spread of the reverb. This lets you design the overall curve, or buildup and fade, of the reverb signal.

Some great sounding modulation is on hand in the Hall algorithm. You can set how much motion you want in the tail, as well as the depth. The modulation is more subtle than many reverbs I've seen, but it works very well to create the 3D "real room" variation in the tail. Real spaces have natural, uneven reflections that travel around the room. The Hall emulates this well. Options are also included to re-introduce parts of the signal back into the reverb chain, almost like a form of feedback. This feature, called "Regen", lets you control right and left regeneration separately, and can go from a smooth softening of the pre-delay to a phased metallic ringing. Speaking of the pre-delay, you can set it using time measurements or musical measurements. Set it to quarter notes, eighth notes, or whatever else is needed, and that leaves less math to do. And let's face it, we ALL need less math to do, right? This pre-delay is included in all four algorithms.

You can also control the high and low frequency times and crossovers, as well as the damping frequency and a high-cut option. So adding this to the already listed controls, the Hall reverb provides an excellent amount of flexibility. And if you want, you can abuse the controls to create some truly "out there" sounds. Vocals sound great through the Hall reverb, and this is what made the Hall my favorite part of Breverb. It's smooth and controllable, and has the ability to really step out of the way if you want it to.

The Room algorithm continues with the direction of the Hall and provides a more intimate, closer feeling space. However, the Breverb Room is capable of some very cool special effect type sounds. Room reverbs are often the most noticeable when they are bad because listeners are used to hearing small rooms. Halls can be faked a little easier. But the Breverb Room is very believable and doesn't just sound like a scaled down hall(as many software verbs do). The rooms are bouncy and have a subtle ringing on tight transient sounds, just as a real room when you clap your hands.

You lose some of the frequency-specific controls from the Hall reverb, as well as the complete flexibility in shaping the envelope and tail of the signal. But these aren't really needed in a room, so the features that do remain are more than sufficient. You can still create a room with the reverb TIME and SIZE of larger spaces though. So if you need a 50 foot long reverb with that nice springy echo sound you get from your bedroom, it's possible.

The Plate algorithm is more specialized due to a plate's naturally ringy, vibrating nature. Plates are known to be more unrealistic and seem to favor some instruments while being completely wrong for others. The Breverb Plate is very smooth for a plate, almost too smooth. I could have sworn at times that I was listening to a high-passed Hall reverb. The Plate even shares many of the frequency-specific controls with the Hall, and also gives you limited modulation options(such as only one Regen control instead of left and right).

If you need your acoustic guitar to cut through the mix, the Breverb Plate is just what the engineer ordered. The Plate almost becomes an extension to the guitar strings as they ring out, which is great as a subtle thickening effect. I also used the Plate quite a bit on the snare drum because of this same quality. However, it still seemed to me to lack the noticeable plate "sheen". Not bad by any stretch, just that it could have been a little "more".

Finally, the Inverse algorithm gives you a VERY noticeable effect. If you don't know what an Inverse reverb does, it's basically taking the wet signal and turning it backwards so the sound builds UP instead of slowly dying down. Obviously, this isn't your every day sound. But with some light settings, the Inverse reverb can work very well in separating the source signal from the reverb. But turn the settings up even a bit, and you lose this effectiveness.

The best way I found to use the Inverse is on drums. Using this on individual kit pieces can give you an effect that will sound fantastic in a remix. You almost end up with an extra part in your rhythm and percussion tracks, which is very cool when done right. You have less control than any other type, and it doesn't sound like any room you will have ever heard of. But it's there in case you happen to need it.

There was a pleasing, natural, and warm quality to Breverb. These are things I generally look for in a reverb. It's the one(or three?) x-factor that seems to make a good reverb stand out from a bad reverb. I believe part of this comes from the "stick-to-your-audio" abilities(doesn't an official name for this exist yet?) of Breverb. I also noticed that the high end seems to shine while the low end remained clear. Most of the time I end up throwing a low-cut/high-pass filter on my reverb anyways, but I didn't really need to do this much with Breverb. Besides that, you have pretty accurate control over the sound INCLUDING the ability to do these cuts inside of the plugin.

Breverb isn't really revolutionary, and doesn't come across as the definitive best sounding reverb around.  But it's as solid as almost any algorithmic reverb out there, and holds it's own against those at the top.

How To Handle A Room

The interface of Breverb is strikingly similar to the hardware units that it's been modeled after, with some interesting twists. 

Hanging around the top section are some standard controls including a preset load/save/delete and an A-B switcher, along with an Input control, Wet control, and Dry control. I was very happy with the panning system. Breverb allows you to pan the left and right signal separately. You can reverse the sides, or just have extra control over exactly which part of the panorama your signal is placed in. It's a great feature for a reverb since they can tend to fill too much space.

In the middle of the main interface is the preset browser. Unfortunately, the browser isn't the most pleasant to work with. The screen space dedicated to preset browsing is much too small, and although it doesn't prevent any functionality, it makes the process less comfortable. You can only see a very limited number of presets at one time. I would have been pleased if the entire plugin had to be scaled up a few percentages just so the browser could be implemented better.

Above the preset browser is the algorithm selector dropdown box. This lets you switch either to the default settings for an algorithm or to the last-used settings for it.

There is also an undo function, which I think every effect should have. However, it's only a single level of undo. Having at least a couple would have been great, but this is definitely not something to spend time complaining about.

On the bottom of the main interface is the standard range of controls used to shape your reverb, as well as several nifty(yes, I said nifty) functions that aren't as "standard". Divided into tabs according to function, each reverb type has it's own unique set of controls based on the needs of the algorithm. There are typical reverb controls such as predelay, time, size, diffusion, etc. Then comes several handy non-common controls. These are dependent on the algorithm, and consist of settings to control reflection buildup time and fall-down time, source regeneration, and more(discussed elsewhere in this review).

There is also included a nice EQ with two fully parametric bands, each able to sweep the entire frequency range. The EQ can act as a bell, shelf, or low/high pass filter. You can also bypass the EQ easily from any tab.

Breverb sports a gate section that lets you become a master of that 80's cut-off reverb sound. Of course, you can choose to use it for other purposes, but it works well with control over threshold, attack, release, hold, and even the shape of the gate curve(linear or sigma/S-shape).

I found the gate rather useful for many applications including even more precise shaping of reverb tails. The gate is easy to use in a musical setting as you can sync release and hold times to tempo as well as specific time. You can bypass the gate if you don't need it, of course.

One feature I found rather useful, and something which I don't recall seeing in a reverb before(that doesn't mean it hasn't been included before- I just haven't seen it), is the dynamics section. Now, this isn't compression or limiting, but rather a cool feature that lets you control the output signal based on the volume of the input signal.

For instance, you can set Breverb to increase the wet signal as the input level increases. Or you can decrease the wet signal as the input increases. Or, the reverb TIME can be raised or lowered based on the level of the input. Finally, and personally I find this the best option of all, you can control an internal(hidden) high shelving filter based on the input level. This allows you to open up the reverb sound, adding more air and creating a clearer sound as the input increases or decreases.

I found this feature particularly welcome because you can really start to imitate sound in a 3-D space. In a real-world ambience situation, sounds ARE different when they are further away. And this isn't just the sound itself, but the reflections change as well. Very cool feature, and not to be overlooked.

The last part of the interface is perhaps the best part. This is the fader/advanced section. Basically, this is a selection of faders(up to 6) in which you can assign to any parameter you wish from inside Breverb. You can completely customize your controls using any of the 42 possible parameters. You can either select the parameter using a dropdown box or you can drag any parameter to the fader you want to assign it to. Very cool.

This fader section is even more versatile because you can choose to either display it on the bottom of the interface or to the right side. When assigned to the right side, you can choose how many faders to show, from 1 to 6(see picture). You can even choose to eliminate the sliders altogether and leave just the main interface. Unfortunately, in some hosts, resizable interfaces don't work properly. So you may end up with a partially blank plugin window if you have one of these hosts. Not a deal breaker though, as you can just reopen the plugin and fix the window most of the time.

Each fader can also be assigned to it's own controller so you can change which item is assigned to a fader without reassigning the fader to your MIDI controller.

Breverb lets you automate any of it's 138 parameters. The reason for this number is that each algorithm has it's own controls that are independent of the other reverb types(as discussed above). This is great because you can automate the parameters of a hall reverb, then compare it to a room reverb with it's own unique automation settings, and without each one affecting the other. I saw no issues when automating except that a few parameters would cause Breverb's output to go silent while the control was changing. But these were generally parameters you wouldn't really change in real-time anyways.

Overall, Breverb is easy to use. Everything is very responsive and easy to read, with the one major exception being the preset browser. It's a thorn in the side of what I found to be a solid interface.

Dozens Of Halls Anyone?

One of the defining factors for Breverb is the astounding resource usage. Not how much it uses, but how much it does NOT use. Reverbs are typically a very CPU intensive effect due to how much processing is needed to emulate dozens or hundreds of reflections bouncing around in a virtual space, all while trying to sound musical. That's a lot of math!

However, Breverb scales new heights in the reverb CPU realm. I haven't seen another reverb that uses less CPU(granting the fact that I haven't tried EVERY existing reverb). On a very modest 1.83gHz Core2Duo running Windows Vista 32 bit, I created 52 audio tracks with Breverb inserted on each. I barely reached 50% of each core, so I could have gone further. But really, 52 reverbs? Not in the real world! So I stopped. I also tried running a single track with 30 Breverbs inserted one after another. This sure didn't sound very good, but each core ran at around 30%, give or take.

Now, for more realistic numbers. A single instance of Breverb with a vocal track running through it took no more than 2% of a single core. If you're running a not-so-fast system, you really may want to look at Breverb. Extremely light, yet still high quality.

Final Thoughts

Breverb is a great sounding and easy to use reverb plugin. Add to that the extremely low CPU usage and Breverb is just screaming to be added to every track needing some of that sweet virtual roominess. Breverb is not revolutionary, and it doesn't really push the bar anywhere that it hasn't already been pushed. There are a couple of great features such as the customizable interface and the excellent dynamics section. But aside from that, Breverb is simply a great workhorse reverb that matches, but doesn't exceed, the best reverbs around.

If you are in the market for a reverb, it would be silly to not at least consider Breverb. The price tag is on the higher side(street price seems about $369 US) of the market which may put it out of reach for some. If you already have a high quality reverb with similar algorithms, there may not be enough here to warrant the purchase(although there might be!). But if you're a reverb whore, or just on the lookout for a top quality everyday reverb, Breverb may be exactly what you need.

BRandall