KSHMR Reverb – Review | Reverb With Life Hacks

Product Review: KSHMR Reverb – Out Of Space

KSHMR aka Niles Hollowell-Dhar has teamed up with WA Production again to bring KHSMR Reverb. I got my hands on a copy and was thrilled at the quality of the results. This plugin is packed with a bunch of quality-of-life features that can speed up your workflow.

Let’s overview what it can do:

Main features

At its core, it works like a regular reverb with 3 types to choose from (Hall, Plate, and Spring). Each has its characteristics, hall sounding spacious with quick dissipation. Plate takes longer to dissipate than hall with more resonant tones. Last but not least, the spring parameter wobbles the wet signal like a, well, like a spring.

The top section is the standard settings you would expect to see, let’s look from left to right:

Diffusion/Pre Delay/Width

First, diffusion reduces the density of the echo reflections. High values sound nice on percussion while low values sound good on Vox and synths. Second, Pre Delay can delay the start time of the wet signal up to 300ms. Third, width is used to blend the wet signal between mono and stereo.

Length/Mix/Size

Pushing on to the next section, we have length, which controls how long the wet signal plays. Length is adjustable from 0-20 seconds in total. Next, we have the mix parameter that mixes between wet and dry. Lastly, Size changes the room size simulation from a small room to a cathedral. The smaller the value, the quicker the reflection. Higher values offer more echo-like qualities.

Mod Depth/Mod Speed/DeEseer

Moving ahead, the following section starts with mod depth which controls the reverb tail movement. Following this, we have rate, which controls how fast the modulation moves. Finally, the last parameter is a deesser that compresses sharp frequencies on the wet signal.

6 Band EQ

I was happy to discover a 6-band EQ when I opened KHSMR Reverb for the first time. I was even more ecstatic when I discovered they worked intuitively. For example, the mouse scroll controls the Q width, whilst holding the left click button over a band, and dragging allows for full movability.

Alike, every band can be changed between low-pass, low-shelf, bell, high-pass, and high-shelf curves. In today’s day and age EQ on reverb should be the industry standard. Being able to make your signal darker or brighter with full control is the future I want my children to grow up in.

Volume Manager

Now comes the fun stuff! Starting with full duck which works similarly to a compressor. You set the ducking threshold with the moveable line. This will make everything that is louder than the threshold turns down on the reverb. The release is how long it takes the wet signal level to reach the value you specified on full duck. You can get some nice swells and sidechain-like qualities out of it

Finally, Gate cuts off the wet signal when the volume reaches the threshold defined by the gate threshold.

Tone Manager

Moving on, the soft transient parameter dips the transient on the wet signal producing a pristine tail on the reverb. In addition, turning on the tonal reset button restarts the signal as soon as it detects the next transient. This is very advantageous for chords so there’s no dissonance when the tail of one chord bleeds into the next.

Special FX

Pressing on, KHSMR Reverb has a reverse parameter. It doesn’t reverse the signal but mimics that effect through volume swells. How long that swell takes is controlled by the attack slider.

Last but not least is octave, where a higher or lower octave of reverb is layered over the wet signal. I thought this sounded awesome on vocals during my time with it.

Presets

KSHMR Reverb has many presets. Believe me, I counted them. In total, you have 119 to choose from. All are neatly organized into folder categories with tags to help you navigate them. The tags are as follows:

Chords
Creative
Drums
Hall
Plate
Room
Spring
Synths
User
Vocal

I ran a variety of Amen Break samples through the drum presets and was satisfied with the assortment of colors and spacing choices available. After that, I threw some chords down with a synth made in Crystal and flicked through the presets available. I was impressed with the selection of dark or bright tones with some making good use of the reverse feature. It was evident that they didn’t hold back on trying to make good presets.

Alternatively, you can create and save your own presets for future use. These are accessed through the drop-down menu under User.

Price

WA Production is selling KSHMR Reverb for $49.99 on their website.

Support

WA Productions website states as follows:

Windows 8 and later (32 / 64 bit)
macOS 10.13 and later
AAX – ProTools 11 or higher
* Online activation is required.

My Verdict

In my time testing KSHMR Reverb I was pleased with the results it gave. Overall I like the quality of the reverb, it just sounds like what you’d expect. Nothing stood out as unique about it in comparison to high quality alternatives out there, as noted by KHSMR in the user manual. However, what you do get is convenience which put this VST up high in my books. Anything that speeds up my workflow is a welcome addition to my plugin collection after a decade of producing.

Also, I love the fact that it has a 6-band EQ coupled with curve shapes to control. This is one of the better EQ features I’ve used on a reverb plugin as it works intuitively with drag and scroll controls. It’s no FabFilterR-2 in that department by any stretch of the imagination, but its not trying to be either. Finally, I also enjoyed using Full Duck and Reverse which gave results that normally would have had to use automation for. Lastly, I loved the wobbly spring reverb mode, it sounds awesome with Vox and Percs running through it and has a nice metallic characteristic.

To conclude with full price being $49.99, this is one of the best affordable reverb plugins on the market. Nothing is unique in quality, but the tools included will save a lot of time drawing automation. After a decade of doing it by hand, I welcome this feature.