kPlateD
TL;DW: kPlateD is a plate reverb, not unlike its namesake atop Abbey Road.
We’re not done, but we’re done with the lettered plate reverbs not unlike certain ones in a famous studio! And we’re ending with a banger. This is kPlateD. This is the one that wasn’t modified to run with hybrid circuitry, though it’s still got the circuitry removed from the box to lower noise (ok, easier to do that with a plugin: I’m literally not putting fake mains hum or anything, in). This is the all-tube one.
Just listen, and compare it with the others, notably kPlateA which is also more of a ‘long deep’ plate.
You’re not going to get the sheer scale of the difference off competing plugins, and these are free open source and if fixes are ever needed everyone will get fixes or updates for free, forever, with source code so you could maintain it yourself: how much is that worth to you? Probably not as much as being extorted for software, because people will always pay more money if they’re backed into a corner and forced to. But you know, I don’t need ALL of the money from all of the people. Just enough to live, and buy a Neve console to put in my home :) (just kidding)
So even though it’s purely software, the tube circuitry is plainly obvious as a contrast to the other three with their hybrid sound. How is this done? Partly through tuning everything (and selecting the actual reverb matrices) to suit the target sound. And partly through literally coding each of them a little differently, with kPlateD being by far the most distinct, its internal saturation algorithms being a whole different type.
So if I can do this, why didn’t I do it with kPlateA, B and C? For the same reason the Beatles album Abbey Road and the Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon wouldn’t automatically be better if they were cut on the old REDD consoles. Each sound serves a purpose. They convey distinct atmospheres, which your ear can learn and remember, so rather than struggling to adapt all manner of strange controls you can do ‘this should have kPlateB’ and then concentrate on what music’s meant to go into it. Hope you enjoy the atmosphere of the classic kPlateD :)
download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg
download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg
download LinuxVSTs.zip
download LinuxARMVSTs.zip for the Pi
download Retro 32 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac AUs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac VSTs.zip
Mediafire Backup of all downloads
All this is free and open source under the MIT license, brought to you by my Patreon.
VCV Rack module
Thanks you Chris – this one sounds terrific!
In fact they all do.
Reverb like these plate emulations are key to glueing dispararate sources in a mix.
There’s a place for reverbs to be the star etc too, but it’s the subtle background widening and movement that plate reverb has that seems harder for other plugin makers to do well, for the most part.
Lexicon et al aside, but these are even better than those ‘plate’ emu’s. And better than using impulses of real plates where the parameters are more or less fixed, and responses to input will be more unvarying than your hand coded works.
Please make one with pitch modulated refelections… or some pitch modding somewhere in the matrix so that notes get that ultra phat blur… doesnt have to be super real… but it will be a good complimentary sound for raw synth and drum, needless to say it should have tone control or dampening. Doesnt have to be real. Just extreme. It really is the sound of a “dream”. I mean there are other things that do similar stuff. Fruity Reverb2. Its just that your stuff is so much easier on the ear and lighter on the cpu that one wants to ENTIRELY do everything in Airwindows ONLY.
D’reverb zounds phab-yulohs.
muchas gracias por tan bello trabajo.
kplateD – airwindows
All of these kPlate plugins sound terrific! I used them to great effect on my last project. Then I downloaded all the rest of your free plugins. There are a lot. And now, Logic isn’t recognizing the four original k plugins I really want to use. Do you have any suggestions on how to make them reappear? I tried deleting and then redownloading them.
Hi Chris, I agree with all who say that kPlateD sounds wonderful. Great work!
What does the low cut do? At what frequency does it start to cut? I am trying the plugin on a piano and even when playing its lowest note I cannot hear any difference when tweaking the low cut.
This one sounds fantastico. Played around with all the kPlates trying to see what the difference was. Was a bit confused at first trying to sort through them.
This is my fav. You get a nice short reverb that pairs well with the source.
And you don’t get much distortionyness. I find the other kPlates add a fair bit of distortion/grain with the verb. It’s nice for color, but for most use cases I want to add this separately to have more control over it. So kPlate D’s gonna be my go-to. Thx for all the stuff :)