Free PA1 Dynamic Plate Reverb (BETA) By Physical Audio (Mac OS)

PA1 Dynamic Plate Reverb is a plate reverb that specializes in creating lush and immersive reverberation effects. The beta version of the product is currently offered as a free download from the developer’s website. The limitation of the beta version is that it will stop working on December 31st this year.

The Audio Unit plugin made by Physical Audio has a very transparent sound that doesn’t create the artifacts of a typical digital reverb. It achieves this by using a physical model of a plate in real-time. There are no impulse responses or delay networks. The reverb response is custom to the source material and can be adjusted to the user’s exact specifications.

Other than the standard controls of dry/wet, pre-delay, and gain the PA1 offers some interesting options for creating one-of-a-kind reverb effects. The Frequency Dependent Decay feature lets the user adjust the decay times of eight different frequencies from 0.3 seconds all the way to 10 seconds. Moreover, the size, tension, and material of the physical plate model itself can be adjusted. There is also the ability to modulate the input signal by shifting it slightly forward in time. This can be used to create unique chorus and phasing effects in the output signal. Conveniently, there is also a control for stereo width which is, unfortunately, missing on many reverb plugins on the market today.

The GUI of this plug-in is straightforward and easy to operate. The user can easily click and drag the plate display on the left side of the screen to adjust the parameters of its size. What looks like a graphic equalizer on the right side of the screen is actually the control of the Frequency-Dependent Decay. All the bands can be adjusted by clicking and dragging as well.

Overall, the PA1 plate reverb sounds fantastic, the engineers at Physical Audio have definitely spent a lot of time fine-tuning this plug-in for the best possible sound… and it shows.

PPA1 Dynamic Plate Reverb (Beta) is available for free download via Physical Audio (200 KB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit AU plugin format for Mac OS).