For the last few years on this blog, Mondays have been dedicated to previewing recently released gear. This year we're going to change it up a bit with some mini-gear reviews. The first one is on PSP's new 2445 reverb plugin.Overview
The PSP 2445 is an emulation of both the EMT 244 and 245 digital reverbs. The 244 was intended to be a simpler version of the famous EMT 250 (which was the first digital reverb ever released, way back in 1975). A few years later EMT released the 245, which had a slightly different reverb algorithm and added predelay and first reflection controls.
PSP's 2445 is a dead ringer for both in that it has the sound and the look of the original 245, complete with the level meter, predelay, reflection, time (reverb decay), low frequency boost (at 100Hz) and high frequency roll-off (at 6kHz) switches, and algorithm selection (244, 245 or both).
The 2445 augments these parameters with input level, output level, and output mix controls, plus a hidden panel that provides access to several other tweaks. These include output channel assignment for each reverb engine, a high pass filter, low reverb time and high reverb time controls, width and balance of the reverb signal.
In Use
As you'll hear in the video, the 2445 sounds great even with it's default setting. This is because the original 244 and 245 were essentially very dark sounding reverbs due their 16 bit convertors and 18kHz (yes, that's right) sample rate. The result is a smokey sounding reverb that blends into almost any track.
In reality, it's difficult to make this plugin sound bad not matter what the setting. That said, I found that it does something very well that most other reverb plugins just can't keep up with, and that's a very short bright room.
Short bright rooms work especially great for electric guitars and for snare drums, but that's where most digital reverbs fall short. While a reverb might sound pretty good at a medium or long decay setting, if you back the decay time down to its lowest, you'll often find a boing or hollow feedback-type sound that's pretty unusable. This is were the 2445 shines though, as it only gets better as you back the decay time down and crank up the Reflections control. Check out the video below for more.
The PSP 2445 is available in VST, AAX and RTAS formats for Windows, and AudioUnit, VST, AAX and RTAS formats for Mac. It's currently available at an introductory price of $99 until January 9th when the price will return to $129.
Find out more on PSP's 2445 page. This is my new favorite reverb and well worth checking out.
By the way, if you want to learn more about my 101 Mixing Tricks Program, go to bobbyowsinskicourses.com.
1 comment:
Thank you for this post. I checked it out and it was so easy to get it right. .
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