Close Menu
SUBSCRIBE
News

Variety Of Sound Releases FREE epicCLOUDS Ambient Reverb For Windows

By 28 Comments3 Mins Read
epicCLOUDS by Variety of Sound

Variety of Sound released epicCLOUDS, a freeware ambient reverb plugin for Windows.

epicCLOUDS can generate soft ambient reverb textures while maintaining signal clarity. It achieves a rich ambient reverb effect without succumbing to common issues such as signal masking.

The launch of a new plugin from Variety of Sound is always cause for celebration. The developer has consistently released plugins that are among the best in the freeware market, especially in the realm of saturation and analog emulation.

I’ve mentioned numerous times that FerricTDS is still my favorite tape saturation plugin (although I also use BPB Saturator a lot).

However, the new epicClouds reverbs aims at a completely different target. Good-sounding reverb plugins are notoriously hard to develop, and this is especially true for ambient reverbs with long decay times.

Until now, SuperMassive by Valhalla DSP was considered the undisputed champion of free reverb plugins for ambient music and sound design.

Did it finally get a worthy rival in the form of epicCLOUDS?

I don’t think epicCLOUDS and SuperMassive are direct competitors, most notably because SuperMassive is more flexible thanks to its multiple algorithms. However, they are both reverb plugins that sound huge, so I think it’s fair to compare them.

In terms of sound quality, epicCLOUD is simply flawless.  Of course, this isn’t surprising for a plugin developed by Variety of Sound. The generated reverb sounds clean and lush, without nasty resonances and artifacts.

The same can be said about Valhalla DSP’s freeware reverb, so there’s no clear winner in this category.

epicCLOUDS sports a clean-looking user interface that is easy to operate.
epicCLOUDS sports a clean-looking user interface that is easy to operate.

That said, I prefer the simple user interface provided by epicCLOUDS. This is personal preference, of course, but I find it much easier to dial in exactly the type of reverb I need in a particular situation using the new Variety of Sound plugin than with SuperMassive.

However, simplicity is always a double-edged sword. Whereas SuperMassive is often harder to tame, it is far more versatile than epicCLOUDS. It provides almost limitless combinations of ambient reverb and delay, whereas epicCLOUDS focuses on one particular reverb sound.

All considered I enjoyed testing epicCLOUDS, and it is an instant addition to my collection of go-to VST plugins (which I’m trying to keep as small as possible). It sounds fantastic while being easy to operate and surprisingly easy on the CPU.

epicCLOUDS is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit VST2 plugin for Windows. You can download it directly from the developer’s website (no registration required).

Download: epicCLOUDS

More:

Tomislav is a music producer and sound designer from Belgrade, Serbia. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief at Bedroom Producers Blog.

28 Comments

  3. Angelo Furlan

     on

    “it is an instant addition to my collection of go-to VST plugins (which I’m trying to keep as small as possible)” – hahaha! Good luck with that! I find that having all these VSTs inspires me.

    Reply

    • Numanoid

       on

      I wonder why it is Windows only ? It is not made with SynthEdit I guess. Can it be so that the frequent updates of the Mac platform makes it too taxing for developers to keep up, especially when releasing free plugins ?

      Reply

      • pacapaca

         on

        Originally, VOS used SynthMaker to create VSTs (the contents were proprietary modules, as far as I know). The fact that it is limited to Windows is probably a remnant of that fact.

        Reply

  7. LUKAS

     on

    No registrations to download, score. Installation as simple as it gets, unzip, copy dll or vst3 file into your plugin folder. Score again.

    First, it’s a high quality reverb, putting it up against Supermassive-just as good. But you do not have as much control over parameters as you would get in Supermassive or Cloudseed. To me it seems like a snapshot of specific settings in Supermassive. I was able to dial in strikingly similar effect in supermassive. Compared to Cloudseed it has a different tone and not as lush. This is for people that want that specific ambient sound without tinkering with settings “out of the box.” Developer also included an in-depth manual explaining what different controls do in reality, like “Bloom” is similar to pre-delay. Great plugin, big thanks to developer!

    If you’re a fan of ambient reverbs, you should check out these free reverbs:
    Cloudseed – Valdemar Erlingsson
    Stargazer – Linda Audio
    Nepenthe – Amalgamated Signals
    Flex Reverb – Platone Studio
    Solaris – adamszabo
    All of these have their specific applications and some are of higher quality than others.

    Reply

  12. Gary Openhill

     on

    im not sure how someone can even talk about competitionbetween these two, you literally can get both for free.

    Reply

  14. Robin

     on

    Very nice shimmer verb. I might not be using this over Supermassive, Solaris, or Stargazer, but any VoS plugin is always a welcome addition to the arsenal.

    Reply
Leave A Reply