Empire.pdf

Empire

The Plugin

What is an 'Empire'? Well it is my attempt to capture a very

specific type of effect, one that I heard and fell in love with. What

effect is that?

Well, not to name names, but a certain electronic artist named Bjorn

Fogelberg (at www.mp3.com/bjornfogelberg) has this great track called

"Karooshi Porn" that features a wonderful Kurzweil K2K patch that

uses filters to almost "talk". My plugin has nothing to do with the

talking part, but listen close to the reverb effect he has ... the

sound lingers in an unusual reverberating, almost resonating

ambience. Bjorn doesn't know I'm referring to his work here, but be

sure to check it out, as he's a great artist.

OK, so I liked that lingering reverb effect, and PalancarWare Empire

is my attempt to emulate it. I accomplished it by using three

specific fx: a nice reverb, a bit of eq, and a heavy-duty (and quite

unusual) compression algorithm. Simply put, I put the reverb wet

signal through the eq and compressor, then mix it back in with the

dry signal. It is the eq and heavy compression that gives the reverb

its lingering but not overpowering sound.

The compressor used is particularly unique in that it does not have

attack or decay controls. Instead, it mathematically scales the

waveform over the threshold to fit underneath the limit, which gives

it a distinctive sound and ensures the limit is never breached.

OK, so why the name 'Empire'? Well, in my distorted imagination, the

reverb sounds like something you might hear in an imperial palace,

perhaps one out of Star Wars or on an alien world or something. Hence

the name. I know, a little strange, but what the heck...

The plugin has four controls:

Dry Level - (insert effect only) this controls the amount of

amplification (or gain cut) that occurs on the dry input signal

when it is mixed back into the final output. This will *not* have

any effect on the level of the reverb, only on the level of the

dry input signal. Unless your input signal is very weak, I

heartily suggest you only use this control for gain cut, not for

amplification (see below). NOTE: if you're using Empire as a send

effect, this control has no real effect. Also note if you're using

a tool that does not correctly handle send effects, you can set

the dry level to -infinity, and thus have Empire pretend to be

a send effect itself.

Depth - this controls the depth of the reverb. Note this does not

affect the decay time or other aspects of the reverb, just how

deep the reverb is in relation to the dry signal. A higher depth

means a louder, more insistent reverb. A lower depth means a more

subtle effect.

Brightness - Controls the brightness of the reverb effect. Again,

does not directly impact the decay time of the reverb, only how

bright the reverb is.

Model - ten preset reverberation 'models', creatively named after

imperial-sounding spaces. No these are not convolved sampling

reverb models, just my imaginative way of naming them. This

control gives Empire a lot more flexibility. If you loved the old

Empire sound, just use the "Classic" model, which should sound

identical.

Using the Plugin

This plugin should be used anytime you want to have an unobtrusive

but very deep and wide reverb effect, particularly if you want to

hear the dry signal front-and-center and have the reverb play along

on the sidelines or in the background.

The ideal use is on something with a sharp attack and release, so you

can really hear the contrast between the dry signal and the lingering

reverb. A nice piano might be a perfect match, although you might

want to keep the brightness of the reverb down a bit to avoid adding

harshness.

Really, you could use this effect on any dry signal that needs a

little loosening up.

A couple of tips on using the plugin:

- Watch your signal levels. This plugin combines a reverb signal

with your dry signal, and if you're not careful it'll distort

rather nastily. E.g. if you feed in a signal already at maximum

volume, there will be no "room" left for the reverb signal, so when

they're mixed together you'll have a not-so-nice digital distortion

effect, not a clean reverb.

- Watch for harshness. The brightest setting can really make for a

bright reverb; with an already-bright dry signal this reverb can

become downright harsh. Something to watch out for.

Support

Due to the number of VST hosts and operating systems in the world,

there is no way I can possibly test it with all possible software

products. If you run into any snags, please contact me at:

Darrell Burgan

PalancarWare

darrell@palancar.net

http://palancarware.palancar.net/

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