Audio Ease Altiverb 6

Audio Ease Altiverb 6 Regular convolution reverb plug-in uses top quality IR samples of real spaces to create amazing reverbs. New upgrades include impulse response browser, improved channel configuration options, higher supported sample rates, and more snapshot memories for instant recall of parameter settings. Altiverb 6 Regular is designed for Pro Tools HTDM and other host-based systems, and is available in RTAS, MAS, Audio Units and VST formats. You'll get the kind of control you expect from high-end dedicated hardware reverbs in the Altiverb 6 Regular plug-in.


Audio Ease Altiverb 6 Features :

• Extensive CPU load control
• Four band EQ, tailored for reverb.
• Stage positioning control places source sounds anywhere on stage.
• Improved snapshot presets for instant recall
• Forty snapshot preset slots for quick saving and automate-able recall of all parameters
• Internal level meters
• Impulse response browser replaces Altiverb 5's impulse response popup menu
• I/O controls for front, rear, center bleed and lfe channels
• Separate gains and delays for direct, early ref and tail
• Mono to mono, mono to stereo, and stereo to stereo channel configurations
• Room Size shifts room modes and resonance.
• Reverse reverb mode
• Supported sample rates up to and including 96 kHz
• Internal test samples can be triggered from the Mac's keyboard
• VR movies, pictures, statistics, mic layouts etc, in the info screen
• Automate-able preset switching
• Built in presets, user presets
• Impulse Responses in unlimited levels
• Three band damping
• iLok authorization, or challenge/response

Altiverb Performance :
According to Audio Ease, user's number one gripe with convolution reverb was that it required too much of the computer's processor. You were not able to insert as many Altiverbs as you'd like, or you couldn't set the hardware buffer sizes low enough.

The solution in Version 4 was the same Reverb at half the cpu load! As for ProTools (and for live situations in Logic, Cubase, Nuendo and Digital Performer): Altiverbs CPU load was approximately half of what it was in version 3, without extra latency or any loss of quality. Just plain full convolution at half the price. Altiverb v5 upped the ante, and now, with Altiverb 6 regular there's even more extensive CPU load controls. Click on the CPU button on the GUI and the control section view becomes available. A CPU meter shows how much of one single cpu (processor) Altiverb is currently using for its calculations. Audio Ease Altiverb 6 provides the option for continuous updates or not.
If you turn a knob, you may want to hear results while you are holding down the mouse button. However, this requires some more calculations, and it may for instance slow down the feel of the user interface of Altiverb. Some knobs ignore this setting: EQ is always "live", as are the input, output, front, rear and test sound gains and the Wet/Dry Mix, while changing Latency, Size, Tail Cut, Damping On/Off, Reverse or the chosen IR will always interrupt audio. Another CPU-saving control is Tail-cut, which allows you to ease the load of Altiverb 6 on the cpu by shortening reverb tails. If your production does not require tails to die out to -140 dB, You can ease the load on your cpu by setting tail cut to, say -100 db. Perhaps you can afford to cut a reverb tail when it has faded away only -80 dB. It leads to shorter tails and less cpu usage.

Baxandall EQ :
Audio Ease has reviewed several options available for mastering type applications, and decided upon the classic 1950's Baxandall eq, used and applauded by Bob Katz, George Massenburg and the likes. The Audio Ease Altiverb 6 Equalizer works on the wet signal only. The bass and treble bands are Baxandall eq's, designed to not turn phase more than 180%, which effectively means that combing or cancellation effects when eq'd signal is mixed with dry signals are unlikely.

Stage Positions :
Audio Ease Altiverb 6 puts your source audio in a particular spot on the 'stage' of the sampled room in a convincing, physically correct way. Think of Audio Ease Altiverb 6 as an echo chamber. You feed your audio to the speaker(s) in the chamber, you put some mics in there, and get back the reverberated audio into the mixing board. The input of Altiverb 6 goes to the speakers, the output of Audio Ease Altiverb 6 is what the mics produce. It follows that it matters where the speakers are in the echo chamber. Altiverb 6's display highlights the original position of the speakers. By dragging on the image you can, for example, triple the distance between the microphones and the speakers by pushing the speakers all the way to the back. Triple the width between the speakers themselves by dragging them apart. Halve the original distance from mics to speakers by dragging the speakers all the way to the front.

Snapshot Automation :
The number three most frequently requested feature: Using automation to switch Impulse Responses (acoustic samples) while a project is playing. Most notably in audio Post production this is a must (and it is not offered in any other convolution reverb). Audio Ease Altiverb took the concept a step further and decided upon snapshot automation. You can make a complete setting, including Impulse Responses, EQ, reverb length wet dry mix etc, and store a snapshot of it. Improvements in Audio Ease Altiverb 6 Regular Snapshots includes 40 preset slots for quick saving and automate-able instant total recall of all parameters of Altiverb. You can click the camera icon to create a snapshot. Store the snapshot by clicking one of the available slots (buttons 1 through 10 on the interface). The slot will turn blue to indicate it is occupied. To empty a snapshot-slot, click the trash can, and click on the occupied slot that needs to be deleted.

Audio Ease Altiverb 6 Specifications :

Altiverb 6 Regular

    * Windows: VST, RTAS and Audio Suite.
    * Mac OS X: MAS, Audio Unit, RTAS and Audio Suite, Universal Binaries for both Power PC and Mac-Intel
      Power PC VST
    * The Full Altiverb Impulse Response library
    * Full parameter automation
    * an impulse response browser that replaces the impulse response popup menu.
    * mono to mono, mono to stereo, and stereo to stereo channel configurations.
    * supported sample rates up to and including 96 kHz.
    * 40 automation preset memories for total-recall via parameter automation.
    * iLok or Challenge-Response authorization.
    * Sample your own spaces or gear (Mac only)

Altiverb 6 XL
this version adds to Altiverb 6 Regular:

    * All channel configurations up to 5.1 surround.
    * TDM support, on Mac OS X for all HD DSP chips, Accel and non-Accel and expansion chassis. TDM sample rates supported: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz and 96 kHz
      zero TDM latency at 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. At 96 kHz sample rate 2 milliseconds latency (0.002 seconds or 200 samples)
    * supported sample rates for RTAS, VST, AU, MAS and Audio Suite up to and including 384 kHz.

Typical Altiverb 6 XL TDM system usage examples at 48 kHz:

    * mono to stereo Small Concert Hall with a 2.1 second reverb tail takes one HD|Accel chip.
    * mono to stereo Large Concert Hall with a 4.2 second reverb tail takes two HD|Accel chips.
    * mono to quad Church of 4.2 seconds takes four HD|Accel chips.