Rob Papen RP-Verb review
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
I had the pleasure of interviewing Rob Papen for the DV247 Forums when they were launched back in 2008. Then, as he is now, Rob was probably the world’s leading independent and most high profile synth sound designer. I’ve personally been a longterm fan of his work, from virtual instruments like Albino, Blue and Predator right up to SubBoomBass and the guitar oriented hybrid, RG Guitar. Rob has a habit of providing some superior ‘effects’ sections in his instruments, and it’s with his latest creation, RP-Verb that his focus has turned onto expanding the sonic vision of his own perfect, dedicated reverb.
RP-Verb is an AU, VST and RTAS compatible plug-in that requires an internet connection for authorisation, an e-licencer dongle thankfully being optional and two computer activations allowed. The GUI is divided up into logical and straightforward sections. The main one at the top handles dry/wet mix, high quality mode, external controller set-up activation and a dual function preset selector. This latter feature is very handy for quickly locating certain, desired types of reverbs (arranged in ‘category banks’) for specific uses and applications and also handles all other browse/compare/save and favourite functions.
Moving into the centre, more highlighted area, the primary reverb control section handles all primary reverb attributes with the extra addition of two (unique to Papen) ‘disorder’ controls. These (applied to space size and pre-delay) allow experimentation when working with room reverbs to effect the ‘shape’ of of virtual space. Applying these controls to other types of reverb can instigate some creative results too.
Left and right of the main reverb section are the early and late reflection controls. Again, the predicted controls are available but the early reflection panel adds ‘side’ and ‘cross’ knobs which provide manipulation to the side and cross-wise (normally hard-surface) reflections of the two earliest, and left/right delays. The late reflection panel has less control as expected but, and as with all sections of the RP-Verb UI, the user can quickly hear the effect of inclusion or muting by simply switching the blue light ‘section name’ on or off.
It is in the ‘Distortion’, ‘Envelope’ and ‘Ensemble’ sections that this reverb really gets ‘Papen’d'! The tube distortion does exactly what it says on the tin, adding a (controllable) screaming growl to any reverb signal daring to pass through. Ensemble brings a complex chorus effect to the table which, if used in anger can create some real ‘pitch wobbly’ results, especially when accentuated by selecting the ‘direct + reverb’ output.
The Envelope section can also provide some sonic craziness. It uses the signal source volume, then a user applied envelope shape to affect the resulting output. There are four output reverb selections: ‘volume’, ‘size’, ‘length’ and a dual ‘size & length’ option. Finally on the GUI tour, a simple, but decent quality, three band EQ appears on the bottom right. Here, a ‘post audio’ setting (defaulting to off) applies input sound equalisation before it travels to other processing areas such as ensemble, distortion, reverb and late reflection. I found this almost innocuous set of controls to be very powerful indeed and can create some ear piercing results so do handle with care.
Real-time control of RP-Verb is of course possible via a user’s DAW automation recording/drawing (applicable to a single control at a time), or using a right-click and ‘latch to MIDI’ assign function to map a specific parameter knob to a control surface. Once the latter is done, the MIDI template preset can be saved and/or recalled for later use. This ultimate hands-on control will be worth the short time needed to invest in setting-up as the modulation power of RP-Verb will consequently shine like a crazy diamond.
After fiddling around with some of the presets, it’s clear that this reverb wasn’t created to compete with the more ‘realistic’ sounding solutions currently available. Not to say that RP-Verb can’t hold its own as a bread and butter reverb in that department, it can for sure. It did however simply dazzle me as a creative sound design tool, with its full potential realised by having full control over numerous effects, modulations and signal routing – oh, and having a darn good ‘play’ with everything. The built-in ‘quick user manual’ will take you maybe half an hour to read through and, guaranteed in that time, you’ll feel confident in driving this beauty at fell pelt around a few sonic bends. Rounding up then, RP-Verb is a fun, powerful, musically kick ar*e, creative juice exploding and quite ‘individual’ sounding reverb plug-in. So, just what you’d expect from Mr Papen then?
Tags: effects, FX, Reverb, Rob Papen, RP-Verb