Mixing Effect of the Year

Exponential Audio R4 €289

Web www.exponentialaudio.com Format Mac/PC The current flagship reverb plugin from ex-Lexicon man Michael Carnes’ Exponential Audio, R4 is a ramped-up sibling to R2, intended to serve as a ‘character’ alternative to the supertransparent Nimbus. It does this by generally adhering to the Nimbus layout and architecture, but adding to it with Chorus and Gate algorithms, and modulation controls for the Early and Tail filter sections. The Chorus has four LFO behaviour modes and separate Rate knobs for independent modulation of the pitch of the e tail and the Early and Tail filters, as well as the tail ail density modulation at the heart of the fabulous lous new Hall 2 algorithm. The Gate, meanwhile, nwhile, enables a fine degree of control over the dynamic shape of the tail. There’s also a wicked ed Freeze function, which grabs the tail as a constant stant sound without killing the dry signal or, optionally, onally, early reflections.

Every very bit as empowering as the modulation controls, rols, the confusingly-named Warp section houses ses analogue-style and digital distortion modules, ules, plus a compressor/expander, opening up a whole new avenue of tail shaping and mangling potential. The analogue distortion, in particular, is stunningly effective, offering three distinct saturation styles and a crossover filter for adjusting the level of the wet signal above a specified frequency. And bear in mind, of course, that all of this is on top of the incredible goodies already baked into Nimbus: Tail Suppression, independent Attack and Early Reflection envelopes, independent Tail and ER Width, synced ER timing, 1200+ presets, and some of the best reverb algorithms in the business.

R4 is Exponential’s finest release to date, and therefore one of the best reverbs money can buy. As we said in our review, it’s “classic-style algorithmic reverb perfected”.