Recording - September 2016 - 39

The Plates are silky smooth, and their
metallic tone is round and thunky,
devoid of ring and ping. The Halls are
reverberant with a natural, slappy,
unpredictable bounce. Kick drum in the
Small Hall is magical; it makes you feel
the floor of the space. This is a real treat
found in many of the Bricasti algorithms.
It's especially noticeable on kick drum,
thick acoustic guitars, and even bass
guitar; you feel like you are standing on
the same floor space as the instrument.
Part of this comes from the smooth and
rounded pre-delays.
While Rooms are smaller and tighter,
their adjustable 3-dimensionality is
diverse and sublime. From subtle to
exaggerated, they are great on drums,
electric guitar cabs, and acoustic guitars. Chambers are also big and slappy,
but more like miniature halls. I like the A
& M Chamber B and Old Chamber a lot
for vocals, drums, and even gently peppering over a whole mix.
Ambience adds dimension, fullness,
and width, but not space; you can really
highlight specific instruments and their
specific frequencies. Bass XXL is magical
on a whole drum mix to bring out an
anemic kick in gelled conjunction with
the whole kit.
Spaces are as close as you are going to
get to large cavernous round deep spaces,
especially with the V2 algorithms, which
were made to offer greater and more obvious 1980s and 1990s-inspired modulation
in the reverb tails. Gated Space is instant
'80s pop drums at their best.

Non-Linear has four choices of slapback for snares, drums, and toms. There
is also a style called SM Interiors, a kind
of an extra eighth bonus reverb type. It's
meant for post production, with tight
hyperreal simulations of bedrooms to
wells to locker rooms and more.
I did my best to tweak out the M7M to
get big expansive 17-second swimming
verbs, like the Blackhole preset on the
Eventide H8000FW or the big effected
reverb from a Strymon Big Sky pedal.
While I could could get some nice big
droning spaces, the feel and tones were
quite different.
Conclusion
Is there a drawback to this amazing
reverb? Only the price, which will give
many studio owners pause. But what
you get is amazing!
The spaces created by the Bricasti M7
and M7M reverb have an uncanny ability
to be run hotter and wetter than most
reverbs I mix with. They create a space
that sounds like part of the music and the
environment, without drawing attention to
themselves... until you bypass them. Unlike
cheap, ringy, rattly, and metallic reverbs,
the Bricasti is smooth yet clear, natural
and believable, with fantastic reflections
and some of the gentlest predelay I have
ever used. It's a work of reverb art.
Prices: M7, $3695; M7M, $3200;
M10, $2295; System 1, $4995
More from: Bricasti Design,
www.bricasti.com

Exponential Audio's Bricasti M7 Control Plug-in
Late last year, plug-in manufacturer Exponential Audio (www.exponentialaudio
.com), maker of reverb plug-ins like Phoenixverb, created the M7 Control plug-in
($99). It's available for Windows and Mac in AAX, VST, VST3, and AU formats, 32
or 64 bit, and uses an iLok USB key.
In simple terms, this is a standalone software control interface for the M7 and
M7M for use in your DAW. It's like a simplified M10 "in the box", with all parameters instantly visual and adjustable in a resizable single-window user interface.
To use it you will need to run MIDI cables to the Bricasti from the MIDI interface of
your choosing. Once you do, your can adjust and tweak every parameter of the
Bricasti just as if it was a plug-in and you can save the info with your session. It
makes editing and tweaking the Bricasti very fast and intuitive, especially for those
of you raised on DAWs rather than 2-line hardware interfaces.
The communication between hardware and software, while instantaneous, is not bidirectional. Tweaks made on the plug-in will update on the unit, but not vice versa. In fact,
I found that after using the plug-in, I had to reboot the M7M to regain M10 control.
That aside, it was a joy to use, and since it can replace the M10 controlling the
M7M, it does lessen the Bricasti price by a fair bit.-PV
RECORDING SEPTEMBER 2016

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - September 2016