JBR Plugins has released JBR Chorus, a freeware 8-voice modulation effect in VST plugin format for 32-bit and 64-bit digital audio workstations on Windows.
JBR Chorus has the word chorus in its title, but the plugin’s advanced feature set allows for plenty more modulation effects than just plain old chorusing. This is reflected in the included factory presets as well, which cover various gating, tremolo, and even some fully glitched out patches. It would be nice to see a few more classic chorus patches added to the factory preset bank.
The plugin features eight independent voices, each with individual in/out gain, delay (range between 0 and 100 ms), depth, in/out pan, and pan law controls. The voices can also be soloed and muted. The real fun begins in the modulation section, though. It offers up to 50 modulators with up to 50 modulation targets for each one. At the moment, it is only possible to use LFOs and XY pads as modulation sources, although the developer has stated that future versions of JBR Chorus should also include ADSR envelopes and envelope followers.
Speaking of the features expected in a future version, JBR chorus will also include high-pass and low-pass filters on the output, resizable user interface, and host tempo sync (something that would come in handy for gating and tremolo effects). The most important potential update, though, and the one I’m really hoping to see, is 64-bit DAW compatibility on Windows. JBR Chorus is currently only compatible with 32-bit hosts, yet I’m pretty sure that more than 50% VST plugin users out there have moved to 64-bit hosts. The LFO module provides a choice between six different waveform shapes (pulse, square, saw, triangle, and two sine wave variants). UPDATE: The plugin is now also compatible with 64-bit host applications on Windows.
As for the user interface, it is reasonably clean and well organized for a plugin with a relatively advanced feature set. The color scheme and overall style are very similar to Ableton Live, so you’ll feel right at home if you’re a Live user. The plugin also features a built-in preset manager and adjustable parameter smoothness and modulation visualization settings. The CPU hit is reasonably low for a chorus effect, hovering around 2% on our i7-powered test machine.
JBR Chorus is available for free download via JBR Plugins (796 kB download size, EXE installer, 32-bit & 64-bit VST plugin format for Windows).
Last Updated on December 22, 2017 by Tomislav Zlatic.
