Sound Author has released Pristine, a FREE FDN-style reverb for NI Reaktor. Pristine is a free FDN-style reverb for users of Native Instruments Reaktor 6.5.0+.
A Feedback Delay Network is essentially a network of delay lines (feedback matrix) in which each line’s output is fed back into another’s input.
This method of creating artificial reverb has been around for many decades and is a very popular alternative to wave-based algorithms.
The specific type of feedback matrix Pristine employs is a 16×16 Hadamard matrix. When discussing FDN artificial reverberation, people often mention smooth and colourless reverb, and in this particular case, lossless feedback at unity gain.
If you are interested in reading more about the background of the Hadamard matrix and this type of reverb in general, Stanford University published a useful paper on the History of FDNs for Artificial Reverberation.
Pristine sounds lush, and the stability offered by the Hadamard matrix makes it ideal for expansive ambient atmospheres.
While Pristine can also replicate smaller spaces, it’s not the reverb I’d go to for something small and natural because ultra-realism isn’t the goal here.
As the developer suggests, you come to Pristine for something big that almost sounds like a sustain because the reverb is so close to the source material.
The interface is pretty pristine, too, with neatly displayed controls for Delay, Size, Decay, Density, Width, Rate, Depth, and Hi/Lo-Pass.
It also has Dry/Wet sliders and Kill, Freeze, and Bypass buttons.
The Freeze function makes things more interesting and provides alternative ways to use Pristine beyond a typical reverb. When engaged, the Freeze function bypasses the filter and switches off linear interpolation with the delays, preventing high-frequency loss in the feedback path.
Instead, you get infinite, lossless feedback that becomes an excellent tool for sampling and creating pad-like instruments.
Admittedly, I’m easily impressed by a nice pad or anything that sounds like it would lend itself well to an atmospheric film score, but I think that’s pretty cool.
If you’re looking for atmospheric reverb but are not a Reaktor user, you could try Atmospheres by ZAK Sounds, which is free for macOS and Windows.
Otherwise, give Pristine a shot, and feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.
Download: Pristine (FREE – Native Instruments Reaktor 6.5.0+ required)
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Last Updated on May 24, 2024 by Tomislav Zlatic.
