Harmonic Tracking Resynthesis Reverb
ADAPTIVERB is an innovative reflectionless reverberation plugin that offers a unique approach to acoustic room modeling. Unlike conventional reflection-based techniques, ADAPTIVERB adds perceived depth, harmonic richness, and smooth decay without obscuring the source. It preserves the tonal clarity and directness of your mix while providing size, cohesion, and presence. This makes ADAPTIVERB an ideal solution for both mixing and mastering purposes.
ADAPTIVERB is powered by ray tracing, source separation, and advances in artificial intelligence. It automatically adapts to the input audio like a chameleon. In fact, it blends with your sounds perfectly and conforms its reverb tail to the tonality of the input or a user-defined set of notes. It’s exceptionally fast to use. Ambient artists, film composers, and sound designers benefit from its advanced synthesis, cross-filtering and reverb pitch processing functionality ADAPTIVERB provides exciting new creative options for making evolving drones, organic pads, lush ambient soundscapes, and more.
ADAPTIVERB supports all common sampling rates from 44.1kHz to 192kHz, mono-in stereo-out, and stereo. It comes as an AAX native, AU, RTAS, VST 2.x, and VST 3 on Mac & Windows.
Features
The key ADAPTIVERB features at a glance:
- Revolutionary new reverberation approach with unique sonic characteristics.
- Bionic Sustain Resynthesis creates stunningly organic tails, eliminating noise components from the input for clear, harmonic results free of graininess.
- Harmonic Contour Filtering (HCF) circuit for removing effect components, not in tune with the input, a captured harmonic fingerprint, or set of notes defined using an onscreen keyboard.
- Filtering and pitch quantization based HCF Keyboard modes to conform to the effect of a specific key.
- HCF Hold mode for creating cross-filtering effects.
- Ray Tracing and Allpass based reverb engines.
- Input Freeze function for creating drones, pads or infinite reverb type sounds.
- Simplify function that recreates the input’s harmonic content with a small number of oscillators for additive synthesis type sounds — without the warbliness.
- Richness parameter for adding octave, fifth or unison interval harmonics into the reverb.
- Pre-Processing section including harmonic synthesis based Air.
- More than 400 presets covering a broad range of effects, including bread-and-butter reverbs, “invisible” reverbs, instrument-/voice-colored reverbs, cross-filtering, adaptively filtered delays, and pads/drones that play without input signal.
- MIDI control of all key parameters.
Plug-In Lushness
ADAPTIVERB was designed to sound beautifully lush and smooth from the ground up. Rather than simulating a realistic room, it focuses on creating depth, harmonic richness, and sustain that sounds organic. So naturally organic, in fact, that it’s as if your sounds had more sustain in the beginning. Its unique Bionic Sustain Resynthesizer creates reverb-free of graininess or noise splashes, and its Ray Tracing engine creates super-dense and perfectly diffuse tails free of any attention-grabbing discrete reflections.
Our testers have described ADAPTIVERB:
“It’s just soo MUSICAL!”
“Oh boy does it sound GOOD!”
“I don’t use reverbs in general, they always mush up the sound – this one doesn’t, and I’m now turning into a reverb LOVER!”
We tend to agree with our testers and trust that you will too.
You will find ADAPTIVERB works wonders on instruments like guitars, pianos, synthesizers or strings, on speech and vocals, on SFX and location sound, and even on full mixes.
And if you (like us) like Daniel Lanois, Robert Fripp, Ulrich Schnauss or My Bloody Valentine… you’ll love ADAPTIVERB.
No Clutter, No Mud, No Dissonance
Applying long reverb tails is a great way to “carry” a sound and embed it into a mix. However, the length and amount of reverb you can successfully use for this effect is usually limited. Reverb tends to obscure detail by moving sounds into the background and it can introduce dissonance and tonal clashing when the tail overlaps with a note or chord change. This often results in a cluttered, “muddy” mix that lacks directness and tonal definition.
ADAPTIVERB is always in tune with the input or a user-defined set of pitches, filtering out all unwanted harmonic content from the reverb automatically. Bye bye, mud & clutter – hello, harmonic clarity!
Like a (Bionic) Chameleon
Rather than stacking delay/allpass nodes or convolving the input with an IR (impulse response), ADAPTIVERB employs machine learning, ray tracing and source separation techniques to synthesize a reverb tail that automatically adapts to the audio context in which it is used – like a chameleon. As a result, reverb timbre can be matched to the source automatically, and the reverb can blend with your sounds so seamlessly that it becomes “invisible” with minimal effort – great for adding “glue” in mixing and mastering applications without having to adjust roll-offs, frequency dependent decay times or crossover frequencies manually.
Sound Design Savvy
ADAPTIVERB loves sound design. Add fifth or octave interval harmonics into the reverb using the RICHNESS parameter, create additive synth style timbres using SIMPLIFY, create drones and pads that play without input using FREEZE, or create cross-filtering effects with the Harmonic Contour Filter’s HOLD functionality – quickly, easily and at maximum quality. Whether you produce music or design sound for film and games, ADAPTIVERB is for you.
Presets Galore
ADAPTIVERB ships with over 400 presets, including basic starting points, music production reverbs, adaptive delays, voice and orchestral colored reverbs, drones, pads, speech-optimized reverbs, cross-filtering presets, robotizers and more. And even this huge number of presets is just scratching the surface of what you can do with ADAPTIVERB!
Easy To Use
Like with all Zynaptiq products, the heavy lifting stays “under the hood” – making your workflow as effortless as possible. With “main” and “fine tune” GUI modes, ADAPTIVERB’s controls are both highly accessible and comprehensive. And with Zynaptiq’s advanced artificial intelligence, ADAPTIVERB can quite literally “drive itself” – saving you valuable time while producing stellar results.
Description
Bionic Sustain Resynthesis
At the heart of ADAPTIVERB lies the BIONIC SUSTAIN RESYNTHESIZER, a new type of reverb free of any harshness or graininess, which has no inherent resonant frequencies of its own, and that blends with the source excellently by nature. Built using an AI technique similar to that used to enable self-driving cars to avoid collisions, it synthesizes a reverb tail using a network of hundreds of oscillators that learn to re-create just the pitched/harmonic parts of the input sound. Thus, noise and transients don’t enter the reverb, making for organic tails even when working with otherwise difficult material like the master bus or field recordings.
Pitch Processing and Synthesis Parameters
As if that weren’t cool enough, we’ve built in controls for tweaking these oscillators, for timbral manipulation from subtle to…quite dramatic.
SIMPLIFY reduces the number of oscillators the Bionic Sustain Synth uses from hundreds right down to one at the slider’s maximum value. The result is a simplification of the timbre that has a distinct “flavor” somewhat similar to that of additive synthesizers. SIMPLIFY does not introduce the typical “warbliness” of additive synthesizers, though, due to the unique design of the resynthesis engine used. SIMPLIFY loves being automated, and works really well for creating ambient sounds.
RICHNESS introduces harmonics of a specified interval into the SUSTAIN SYNTH’s sound, similar to how you might add a pitch shifter in front of or in the feedback loop of a reverb. However, instead of adding pitch shifted copies of the sound in, RICHNESS works by causing oscillators to excite other oscillators that are at or close to the interval specified with INTERVAL, or in other words: *existing* harmonics at this interval are reinforced and no new oscillators are added. This makes for a much more harmonic, organic and transparent sound, and avoids adding pitch shifting artifacts into the effect.
INTERVAL specifies the RICHNESS interval. Available settings are -12, -5, +7 and +12 semitones, as well as a DETUNE setting (10 cents).
PITCH RANDOMIZE adds random pitch modulation to the oscillators, adding an ensemble style shimmer with a very nice characteristic.
Ray Tracing Reverb
ADAPTIVERB also features an advanced RAY TRACING REVERB module, which creates a very dense and perfectly diffuse reverb, with a beautifully smooth and full sound. Ray tracing reverb works by simulating the paths soundwaves take from a virtual sound source to a virtual listening position in a 3D room model. ADAPTIVERB’s AI-based implementation simulates the effects of 16,000 such paths, without explicitly computing individual reflections. The reverb created is linear (“white”) across all frequencies – perfect for diffusion of the sound pre-filtered by the SUSTAIN RESYNTH, as well as for post-filtering using the HARMONIC CONTOUR FILTER. ADAPTIVERB’s REVERB section also provides a traditional allpass-filter based reverb, and can be fed by the output of the BIONIC SUSTAIN SYNTH, directly from the input section, or a mixture of both – for maximum flexibility.
Harmonic Contour Filter, a.k.a The HCF
The unique HARMONIC CONTOUR FILTER post-processes the output of the preceding sections. Its primary purpose is to remove those pitched parts from the reverb tail that would clash with the input, for example when the source track had a chord-change, or that would create “mud” or obscure the source too much, limiting the amount of reverb that can be successfully used in a mix. The HCF also enables automatically adapting the tail to blend perfectly with the source, or, when applied with negative amounts, suppressing commonalities between the input and the reverb, to “fill just the gaps”. The HCF also features a HOLD function, that allows “freezing” the current filtering effect, so you can apply the timbral/tonal characteristics of one source to the reverb of another, for cross-filtering effects similar to those created with convolution (minus the temporal evolution). And finally, the HCF can be used to selectively conform the reverb tail to a specific set of pitches, under control of a virtual keyboard. See below for more information on these powerful features.
HCF Keyboard Mode
Switching the HCF to KEYBOARD MODE allows conforming the reverb to a user-defined set of pitches, under control of a small on-screen keyboard that features 5 snapshots for chord storage and automation. Simply select which pitches are “allowed”, and the entire effect path will conform. Pitch conforming can be done using precision filtering or pitch quantization, removing all unwanted harmonics or shifting them to allowed pitches, respectively. Both methods can be used to process the dry signal, too, by setting REVERB SOURCE and REVERB MIX to minimum values, for very cool sounding effects.
Cross-Filtering With HCF HOLD
Use the HCF HOLD mode to create voice-colored reverbs, guitar flavored delays or other cross-filtering effects. Simply play a sound into the plug-in, and activate the HCF’s HOLD function when you hear the timbre you’d like to impart onto ADAPTIVERB’s effect path. Then, swap the input signal and cross-filter away! The HCF will extract or remove all components from the input or reverb that are not similar to the HOLD snapshot you took in terms of pitch. This source separation (a.k.a. De-Mixing) based similarity filtering engine is so precise that you can even use it to remove static sounds like hum, single notes or chords from your audio. A very powerful tool for sound design.
Create Drones, Pads & Ambience with FREEZE
Using the input FREEZE it takes just seconds to create stunningly organic, evolving drones, pads and ambient textures, that play even without input and are stored with the preset – effectively turning ADAPTIVERB into a unique ambient texture synthesizer. Unlike other “infinite reverb” type functions that simply recycle the contents of the reverb, in ADAPTIVERB, the actual input signal before the reverb is captured, and resynthesized in a seamless manner that does not sound looped and is free of warbling artifacts typically associated with such functionality. Because of this, all plugin parameters stay active during FREEZE, for your sonic texture sculpturing enjoyment. There are actually two freezers running in parallel, one at the input of the BIONIC SUSTAIN RESYNTHESIZER, and one at the “direct input” of the REVERB section. They have slight differences in terms of sound and what part of the input they capture, and you can mix between both using the REVERB SOURCE parameter. You can, of course, still get a more classic frozen reverb flavor, too, by setting SUSTAIN or the Ray Tracing REVERB’s SIZE parameter to maximum.
System Requirements
Formats
ADAPTIVERB is available for a variety of formats.
On MacOS X:
- Apple AudioUnits (32/64bit)
- Avid RTAS
- Avid AAX Native including AudioSuite (32/64bit)
- Steinberg VST 2.4 (32/64bit)
- Steinberg VST 3 (32/64bit)
On Windows:
- Avid RTAS
- Avid AAX Native including AudioSuite (32/64bit)
- Steinberg VST 2.4 (32/64bit)
- Steinberg VST 3 (32/64bit)
System Requirements Mac
- OSX 10.8.x or newer
- Intel CPU with at least 2 Cores; i7 or better recommended.
- Apple AU (AudioUnits), Steinberg VST 2.4, VST 3 or Avid RTAS/AAX compatible Host software
- For AAX Native 32-bit, the minimum required Pro Tools version is 10.3.6
- iLok.com account for machine- or iLok 2 based activation (of full as well as demo versions)
- Internet Connection for Software Activation (though not necessarily on the computer used for audio)
System Requirements Windows
- Windows 7 or newer
- CPU with at least 2 Cores; Intel CPU recommended, i7 or better recommended.
- Steinberg VST 2.4, VST 3 or Avid RTAS/AAX compatible Host software
- For AAX Native 32-bit, the minimum required Pro Tools version is 10.3.6
- iLok.com account for machine- or iLok 2 based activation (of full as well as demo versions)
- Internet Connection for Software Activation (though not necessarily on the computer used for audio)
Copy Protection
ADAPTIVERB uses the latest PACE copy protection, which allows you to place your activation on your machine or on an iLok 2* (not included). You will need a free iLok.com account to use our software, even for the the demos – but you do not necessarily need the iLok 2 dongle, if your machine has internet access (activation of a system without internet connectivity requires an iLok 2 device). All required software is installed along with our plugins, but we generally recommend downloading the latest versions directly from iLok.com.
*Please note: the older, first generation (blue) iLok is not supported!
Please note:
ADAPTIVERB uses a lot of CPU. While the plug-in supports running at sampling rates of up to 192kHz, the actual achievable sampling rate and channel count possible within a single instance depends on the available CPU resources. Please download the trial version to see whether your DAW has sufficient resources to use ADAPTIVERB effectively.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR MAC VST3 USERS
Due to a bug in ADAPTIVERB v1.0.x, ADAPTIVERB v1.2.0 VST3 Mac will not be loaded when opening sessions created on a Mac using VST3 versions earlier than 1.1.0 – breaking session backward compatibility. Other formats and platforms, as well as plug-in presets, are not affected.
As a solution, the ADAPTIVERB 1.2.0 Mac archive includes a special ADAPTIVERB VST3 Legacy Support version installer. Please read the relevant Read Me file before updating to v1.1.0 or 1.2.0 from 1.0.x!
Change Log
Version 1.2.2 (Mac only), February 13th, 2020:
Fixed an issue where the UI would scale wrongly on Retina displays in some hosts.
Fixes an issue where LIVE MODE and PREVIEW MODE were not recalled correctly.
Installer is now fully notarized, which fixes installer issues on macOS 10.14 Mojave and macOS 10.15 Cataline.
ADAPTIVERB v1.2.0
This free update is recommended for all users and provides 75 new artist presets by renowned sound designers Simon Stockhausen and Julius Selbach, value-locking for various parameters, and GUI zooming, and fixes all known issues.
- 75 New Artist Presets: ADAPTIVERB 1.2.0 comes with 75 new artist presets created by renowned sound designers Simon Stockhausen – maker of Colored Spaces for ADAPTIVERB – and Julius Selbach. They include drones, harmonic contour filter based resonant spaces, and general purpose reverbs.
- Value-Locking: Want to step through presets while leaving Dry/Wet at the value you just set it to? Now you can – simply engage the Dry/Wet Lock and that slider won’t budge. And you can lock the Live and Preview mode switches, too.
- GUI Zoom: Whether you’re using a 5k display and need the plugin to be bigger, or running on a small-ish laptop where every pixel counts – the new GUI Zoom functionality saves the day by allowing to scale the UI in a range of 70-200%.
- Fixes Galore: We’ve fixed pretty much all known issues, the most annoying one being that the sort order of presets was all over the place on APFS-formatted SSD Drives on macOS – no more!
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR MAC VST3 USERS
Due to a bug in ADAPTIVERB v1.0.x, ADAPTIVERB v1.2.0 VST3 Mac will not be loaded when opening sessions created on a Mac using VST3 versions earlier than 1.1.0 – breaking session backward compatibility. Other formats and platforms, as well as plug-in presets, are not affected.
As a solution, the ADAPTIVERB 1.2.0 Mac archive includes a special ADAPTIVERB VST3 Legacy Support version installer. Please read the relevant Read Me file before updating to v1.1.0 or 1.2.0 from 1.0.x!