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Review - Nimbus By Exponential Audio

In this video review Pro Tools Expert team member Julian Rodgers takes a look at the new reverb plug in from Exponential Audio - Nimbus. A development of the excellent Phoenixverb, Nimbus offers the same algorithmic room simulation with comprehensive, discrete control over the early reflections and the tail portions of the reverb.

This review covers:

  • Preset navigation using the keyboard
  • The compare function
  • Tail Suppression - a new feature in Nimbus, this a facility to duck the reverb tail keyed against the input
  • Warp - Another new feature in Nimbus, this is a section which introduces additional character to the reverb using compression, limiting, overdrive and bit reduction. Every preset has warp parameters programmed. The whole warp section is globally bypassable using the Warp button allowing easy auditioning.

Warp Makes Nimbus Twice The Fun

Nimbus is an amazing plug-in. The UI encourages experimentation and tweaking in a way similar plug-ins don’t. Warp is the star of the show, with the potential to gently, or not so gently, alter material. I wasn’t sure about the name “Warp” at first as I expected something more dramatic and probably less musical but that is probably more to do with the association I make between the word “warp” and timestretching - something warp definitely doesn’t do. As soon as you understand what Warp does and doesn’t do this isn’t important.

Nimbus is everything an algorithmic reverb should be. It's flexible, intuitive and excels at convincing room simulation but is capable of radical treatments suitable for sound design or pseudo delay effects. I've only begun to explore this plug in, you owe it to yourself to try this one. It's that good.

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