Physical Audio introduces PA4 Dual Spring Reverb

Physical Audio introduces PA4 Dual Spring Reverb

PA4 Dual Spring Reverb is the first ever plug-in to model wave propagation in helical springs. The audio engine is built entirely upon the simulation of the inherent physical equations, without any approximations. This gives innovative control over the springs, and allows new sonic textures. PA4 will sit perfectly on your guitar, vocal, and drum mixes, adding dripping tones with a colourful spectrum.

Fully-customisable spring parameters

We chose four perceptual parameters to describe a spring. Firstly the Echo Time and Spread, which set the time of the initial chirps and how much the following chirps deviate. The Cutoff sets their highest frequency, whilst the Boing controls the 'sharpness' of the spring sound. Design a spring to suit your material, then apply the offset control to create natural stereo depth.

Creative multi-band decays

The T60 decay times of the springs are controlled using real-time multi-band parameters. The chirp modes have low, mid, and high frequency bands which operate up to the cutoff. A second set of modes which affect the whole frequency spectrum are controlled by the Shimmer decay. This is most obvious above the cutoff, where it adds a mid to high frequency 'shimmer' to the sound.

From physical to perceptual

Our modelling starts from a mathematical description of wave propagation in elastic helical structures. The physical properties such as length, wire radius, and pitch angle are then mapped to the perceptual parameters as detailed above. From there we create a discrete modal system with up to 4,000 modes for each spring. Further background details can be found in this technical paper.

Free to use in Demo mode

PA4 is free to download and use in Demo mode. The only restriction is the output is cut for several seconds each minute.

Format: Audio Unit (v2) plug-in for macOS 10.9 or above

Price: £39 launch sale. Purchasing a Product Licence allows you to unlock the demo mode of the plug-in on 3 machines.

For more information: PA4 Dual Spring Reverb






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