East West – Spaces II $399

(or $19.99/month as part of Composer Cloud)

Artificial reverb is a key component in nearly all productions – and for convincing realism, convolution reverbs dominate. Using digital captures (impulse responses) of ‘real’ spaces, they are a quick way to dial up authentic ambient placement.

Spaces II is EastWest’s sequel to their earlier IR-based reverb plugin, and features a redesigned interface plus many new reverb spaces. Alongside the more conventional captures are 372 instrument-specific reverbs taken across six locations (unlike the single space of Spaces Mk1). This gets around one of the major limitations of most IR reverbs by providing custom captures dedicated to particular orchestral sections. For heightened realism in orchestral music, or even other styles, this is welcome news.

Convolution-based reverbs offer less control than their algorithmic cousins, and as such the editing in Spaces II is limited to shortening the decay time, applying low and high-cut filters to the input signal (pre-reverb) and adding pre-delay (up to 1s). For more experimental treatments I turn to an algorithmic reverb, so I have no problem with the limited editing available here. The fact is, with so many great sounding spaces on offer (over 1000), and the flexibility given by the instrument specific reverbs, this is a no-brainer if you’re a Composer Cloud subscriber and a ‘must try’ if not. Bruce Aisher soundsonline.com