Exponential Audio Nimbus is an algorithmic reverb plug-in based on my main “go-to” reverb plug-in, Exponential’s PhoenixVerb. PhoenixVerb is always part of all my mixes and with the same technology under the hood, Nimbus allows for the exploration of many new ideas in reverb treatments and adds features I’ve not seen in digital reverb synthesizers. As with all Exponential Audio products, the same great intuitive GUI is here again plus there are 1,200 presets installed and accessible. I like the unique Keyword search engine where reverbs are separated into Keyword (category types) with names like Large Plate, Large Hall, Small, ADR and Post and many more.
More than half of the Nimbus GUI has global controls for modifying any Keyword/Preset. There is a helpful graphical display to show, in real-time, how the source audio is being affected. There are controls for the expanded EQ plus input filtering, early reflection sculpting with more patterns, plus reverb level and more filtering. There are Reverb time, Pre-Delay, Wet/Dry controls and now you can lock pre-delay and reverb delay times to the session’s tempo and/or any subdivision.
Two new, significant features in Nimbus are Tail Suppression and Warp. When selected, Tail Suppression automatically reduces reverb level based upon the input level. Called a Dynamic reverb, as the send signal goes up, the reverb output level goes down. Tail Recovery sets the release time of the compressor and
Reverb Delay is a post-delay within the reverb tail. Warp is a compressor/limiter, filter, overdrive and bit-crusher section. I found that Warp works well for short reverbs, timed delay effects and ducking effects.
Exponential Audio is well known for making stable and efficient plug-ins and Nimbus is no different. I had no problem running dozens of inserted instances of Nimbus in Pro Tools 12. Highly recommended!
Nimbus is downloadable for $199.
Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs, and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com
