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Each fx slot has a selector for the effect type, a Bypass button, a Mix control, and four soft knobs for one to four adjustable parameters. When left alone, displays above the soft knobs show parameter names; when you mouse-grab a knob, the value is displayed. This is a very efficient use of space and gives all the information you need very quickly and cleanly; I wish Tone2 would add it to the Mix knobs and to the global Feedback amount knob as well. (A Bypass button for the Feedback section would be nice, too.) The effects The 31 different effects include a nice spread of digital processes both familiar and arcane. In several cases, multiple versions of an effect are included to cover for the fact that only four parameters can be tweaked: the classic example is the reverb, which comes in Large, Small, and Ultra (a fairly CPU-heavy sound that’s huge and very diffuse). Reverbs, delays, modulation effects, filters, waveshapers/bitcrushers, and overdrives/distortions are joined by unusual effects like vowelselectable talkbox, formant-tuned vocoder, several different stereo enhancement algorithms (including Dolby Pro Logic II compatible surround encoding!), and a Superstrings chorus that creates multiple detuned stacked voicings similar to the Super Saw waveform on the Roland JP-8000 synthesizer. To my ears, the effects in Warmverb sound quite good on their own; they may lack the world-class richness and density of much more expensive dedicated sound processors, but they’ll do fine on day-to-day tracking and mixing tasks. More importantly, they all layer well and interact well, so really grand multieffects presets can be built up without turning into muck. Tone2 hasn’t done anything to protect you from yourself if you set up a preset with runaway feedback or overloaded levels; the program will happily generate bonecrushing audio mayhem long before it crashes. But that’s fine—for experimenters, sometimes it’s important to know that a processor will let you color outside the lines. In use Warmverb was very stable on my test system, a 2 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook with 2 GB RAM. Aside from my requested userinterface additions mentioned above, I don’t have many complaints about how Warmverb worked for me; in particular, it was very elegant at scaling back its CPU demands by disabling unused modules and resetting itself after reverbs tailed off. I created a highly CPU intensive preset with four Reverb Ultra modules in series, and it topped out at 33% CPU load when processing audio... but dropped right back down to about 6% when the audio stopped. My only real procedural complaint with Warmverb was with the patch load/save process, which I had a hard time understanding. It’s easy to create initialized or randomized presets, and naming and saving
RECORDING SEPTEMBER 2011

presets and banks does work, but not in an obvious way. Speaking of which, the PDF manual is for an old version and is missing several features (including patch management!). Tone2 says a new manual is on the way; that’s good, because this one doesn’t do justice to a program as cool and fun to use as Warmverb.

And that’s where I’m stopping, with the words “cool and fun to use”, because that sums up Warmverb perfectly. It’s a goodsounding, easy-to-use equivalent to the all-inone multieffects boxes that small studios lived on in the ’80s/’90s, and it does its job very well. It would be a bargain at twice the price; at $79, what the heck are you waiting for?

Delivery: Web download Formats: Windows 95/98/e/2000/XP/Vista/7 VST; Mac OS X 10.3+ (PowerPC or Intel) VST/AU; 32-bit or 64-bit Copy Protection: user keyfile License: single user/multiple computer installs if not used at once Documentation: PDF included with application (including demo version) Price: $79 More from: Tone2, www.tone2.com

http://www.tone2.com http://www.KH120.Neumann.com http://www.KH120.Neumann.com

Recording - September 2011

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