Some Fun Things You Can Do in ReverbShaper

ReverbShaper is an effect for Shaperbox 3 that just came out a week or so ago, and since the upgrade was pretty cheap and I've always been more of an algorithmic reverb guy (in part because the only convolution reverb I had was an old plugin that crashed like crazy), I figured making a video would force me to get over those old wounds and upgrade my reverb situation.

I thought of a couple more upsides to using ReverbShaper that I potentially could have mentioned, but 1.) I recorded this off an all-nighter and edited it during a second all-nighter two days later, so the fact that my brain was functioning at all is a minor miracle, and 2.) I'm not sure whether functional things technically count as "fun." Admitting that I find workflow optimizations fun feels like it'd be a major concession to the ravages of time that'd subsequently invite them to do their worst, so hello fellow kids, Tiktok and no cap and stuff.

After I finally got some sleep, I was sitting around next to a TV that was playing old music videos, and Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract" video came on. This is a music video where she's clearly in an intimate relationship with a cartoon cat, and that's not me reading into things. It's pretty explicit. Part of me wonders if this was the turning point for humanity where some benevolent, higher-dimensional creature looked at what we were doing and went, "you know what, imma head out," leaving the world to deteriorate in its absence. Anyway, if you're wondering why Opposites Attract comes up in the video, that's why. I can't stop thinking about it after seeing it for the first time.

The video of the Alesis Midiverb was originally supposed to play more of a role instead of being a static shot of nothing happening, but this room was too small and filled with stuff to use my Panasonic S5/Helios 44-M combo at that angle (and I hate changing lenses so much that I didn't even consider it). I don't have space for outboard gear that isn't already hooked up, so I had to run audio to my Hologram Microcosm (bypassed, obviously) and then out to the Midiverb, and the cables are short enough that it could only fit in that one spot. That meant that the only option was using my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K/Sigma 18-35, but it's been a while since I used it and I was so tired that I kept making mistakes. Long story short, the correct video got saved onto an SD card by accident, leaving only a couple of 15-second snippets to use on the hard drive I grabbed.

Someone said in a previous video that the text was going too fast. It's something I've been keeping in mind since, but a diabolic duo of insomnia and hypercaffeination conspired to ensure that this video is another of the too-fast ones; by the time the problem of the quicker pacing became apparent, things were locked in and any changes risked creating bigger problems. Sorry to that person. Making things readable to more people without forcing them to pause is still a priority.

0:00 - Everything has a beginning. Well, except for causal loops.
0:09 - THING 1: Making some IRs from scratch so that they can be mine. MINE. MINE ALONE.
1:21 - STILL THING 1: A before and after of an IR on the whole signal
1:50 - ALSO STILL THING 1: Finally getting to the point and putting different IRs on different bands
2:27 - THING 2: Clearing reverb tails every time you play a midi note
3:22 - THING 3: Creating patterns to turn long reverb tails into something reminiscent of delay
3:46 - THING 4: Gated reverb! This is obvious, but I like it so it's in the video and also shut up.
4:20 - THING 5: Automating reverb throws, but only for specific bands
4:46 - This bird portends the end of the video. We must obey.

#Reverbshaper
#Cableguys
#reverb