New Music Gear Monday: Rare Signals Transatlantic Plate Reverb Plugin
There are so many reverb plugins on the market and unfortunately many have a problem with the attention given to the detail in the reverb decay. I hate it when a reverb starts to sound boingy at the end, or uneven and tinny as it fades. You won’t find that with the Rare Signals Transatlantic Plate Reverb plugin though, as the modeling of two classic plates show a detail in the decay rarely found in similar products.
As stated above Transatlantic Plate is built around the sound of 2 plates – one from the U.S. and the other from Europe (labeled EU here). The EU version modeled a German EMT 140 plate from the 1960s that sat at Bearsville Studios for many years, while the “US” plate was a 70s era Nashville-built Audicon. Both plates were pristinely tuned before they were modeled, with great attention given to the decay of each. As a result, what you’ll hear is extremely smooth reverb tails that meld into the track just like the best version of the real thing.
The controls on Transatlantic Plate are pretty simple, but totally adequate, meaning that you can get right to work without pouring over a manual first. There’s a Mix control, an Output control with ± 20dB of gain, and High and Low-Cut filters that are linkable. The Low-Cut goes from 20Hz to 300Hz, while the High-Cut goes from 1kHz to 20kHz. Then on the right side we get the business end of the reverb with the US/EU plate selector, a Pre-Delay that goes from 0ms to 160ms, and the Decay control. This is set up from 1 second to 6 second in 12 separate 1/2 second increments.
The reason why this is important is that each decay segment is modeled separately instead of blended or calculated like other reverb plugins. That’s what gives the Transatlantic Reverb decay its pure sound. Oh, and there’s also a very cool signal presence meter in the center of the plugin as well.
The Rare Signals Transatlantic Plate Reverb plugin sells for $149 with a 7 day free trial. It’s available for Mac only in AAX, VST, and Audio Units plugin formats. You can find out more here, or check out the video below.
