Q&A with JMG Sound developer Jason Gibbons
How did you first get into plugins?
JG “I have been a sound designer for quite some time, and in that line of work it’s common to push plugins to the extreme. I often found myself wanting to do something extra that wasn’t possible due to the limitations of the plugin. This is what sparked my enthusiasm to create my own.”
As a fledgling developer why did you choose to focus on reverb?
JG “I felt there were three kinds of algorithmic reverb plugins on the market. The classic hardware emulations that may not be particularly realistic but do have an undeniably beautiful sound; the accurate simulations, that make you feel like you’re really in that space; and then the creative stuff where the focus is not to sound like a real space but rather push the boundaries. I wondered why there wasn’t an algorithmic reverb that did all three, so I created Hyperspace to do just that. It’s a sort of ‘all in one’ reverb.”
Hyperspace has a unique approach to algorithms. How did that come about?
JG “I liked the concept that someone would be able to create a custom algorithm that nobody else has done. But I also wanted it to take only seconds to make it, and most importantly for it to sound great. The concept I came up with was to break down various elements that make up an algorithm and give control of these arranged across two XY pads, so you have direct access to the inner workings of the algorithm. I used machine learning to qualify – based on criteria such as low resonance, evenly decaying tails, well-balanced energy between channels and much more – over 20 million sets of values and algorithm combinations and selected only the best ones. There is an almost
“Compared to free reverbs, Hyperspace CM is very feature rich”
infinite number of algorithms you can create and it’s almost impossible to get one that doesn’t sound truly amazing.”
Did you have to work hard to balance flexibility and CPU usage?
JG “I started by not thinking about CPU whatsoever. I wanted to first achieve the concept without any compromises. It sounded perfect, but it was a CPU hog. Then I set out to go through everything and see if there were ways to make it more efficient. So in short, no, I did not try to balance at all, and luckily I was able to make it CPU efficient enough in the end.”
In addition to more traditional parameters such as decay time, Hyperspace has a bunch of quite individual parameters such as Inertia and Focus. What inspired these extras?
JG “The green controls are inspired by mixing and production techniques. I used to watch a lot of tutorials on music production and learned a lot from mag and have collected many techniques along the way. For example, with drums, it can sound good to soften the transients in the wet signal of the reverb and I figured I’d just build this right into the plugin. The orange controls are inspired by my work in sound design. Try setting the Parallel/Serial to 100%, crank up the Resonate and Inertia and then slowly move the Character pad around and you get a horror movie sound, it’s really fun!”
When working on our own slimmed down version, Hyperspace CM, was it hard to decide which controls to include and which to leave out?
JG “It was very hard! I wanted to put all the features in and found it difficult to choose. The
version has less than a quarter of the features of the full version. However, when compared to other free reverbs it is incredibly feature-rich. I hope I found the right balance.”
What’s your absolute favourite feature on Hyperspace?
JG “Probably the XY pads for changing the sound character, but even some of the standard controls are quite special too. For example, for the Width control I actually created differences to the left and right components in the algorithm itself.”
Any further plugins in the pipeline? JG “Absolutely! Next will probably be a delay plugin. It’ll be similar to Hyperspace in that it will have multiple modes, so the sound character can range from analogue emulation to out-ofthis-world creative stuff. I’ll also be continuing development on existing plugins.”