An Incredibly Flexible Early Digital Echo/Reverb With Shimmer
“Polaris” is a reverb plugin that successfully combines retro soul with modern functionality, and it excels at creative and out-of-this world spatial effects.
It generates its main reverberations using a single multi-tap delay line but there is also a Shimmer function, which adds a one-octave pitch shift into the delay loop, resulting in… well, ‘shimmering’ delay sounds reminiscent of the works of Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and other classic ambient soundscapes.
That said we can absolutely assure you it isn’t restricted to emulating the sound of early digital reverbs and recommend it to anyone working in creative sound design.
Polaris Specifications
- Single Multitap Delay Line
- Pre-Delay
- Early Reflections (8 Programmable Taps)
- Diffusion (16 Programmable Modulated Taps)
- Echo (Ms, Sync, Tuned, Long)
- Echo Modulation
- Modulation Boost
- 3 Band Feedback Equalizer
- LFO (Sin/Tri/Rnd – Hz, Sync)
- Shimmer
- Sample Rate Reduction
- Stereo Width
- Swell
50% off “Polaris” by Audiority
The Story Behind Polaris
When hardware digital reverbs first came out to the market they were really expensive!
Most manufacturers were already exploiting chains of comb and allpass filters (smoother reverbs, but expensive in both resources and chips), there were other techniques involving the use of a single multitap delay line to create a reasonable reverb while keeping the cost affordable.
That idea is so simple yet powerful: you mix a bunch of unmodulated taps (Early Reflections) with the remaining modulated taps (Diffusion) to create a cheap but convincing reverb.
Audiority extended this technique by making the Echo tap recirculating with the Diffusion section, allowing longer reverb tails. Furthermore you can easily edit all taps to create your own room responses.
Explore The In-Depth Plugin Parameters
The “Polaris” User Interface is very straightforward, allowing you to easily shape your sound.
Top Row
- Input (0..100%) – Incoming signal volume
- LF/HF Cut (-10..0dB) – Low/High Shelving Filters. Low Shelving is set to 300Hz. High Shelving to 2kHz
- Pre Dly – Adjust the pre-delay time (up to 255ms)
- Dry/Wet (0..100%) – Direct and Processed signals volume
- Smp Rate – Set the internal sample rate. Useful to get the grit of vintage digital effects and samplers. Unlike usual decimation effects, this resampling algorithm reduces the artefacts by reconstructing the new signal with a 4-point interpolator
- Shim – Shimmer volume
- Width – Ping-Pong delay mix
- Swell – Adjust the attack time according with the current delay time. Use this to create atmosphere and pads
Early Reflections
- Magnifier Icon Open/Close ER Taps settings
- ER 1-2..7-8 (0..100%) – ER couples volumes
- ER Mix (0..100%) – Global ER volume
Diffusion
- Magnifier Icon – Open/Close Diffusion Taps settings
- Level (0..100%) – Global Diffusion amount
Echo
- Time (ms / Sync / Tune / Long) – Set the Echo time in either milliseconds, beat sync and notes (C0 to B4). “Long” mode allows delay time up to 2500ms. Click on the Time label to switch between modes
- Feedback (0..100%) – Echo feedback amount. Also influences reverb duration when Diffusion is up
- Smooth (0..50ms) – Increase this parameter to get tape delay/echo effect while modulating the Echo Time parameter
- LFO Wave – Switch between Sine, Triangle and Random
- Mod Rate (Hz, Sync) – Set the LFO Rate in either Hz or Beat Sync (1/1 to 1/16th, including dotted and triplets). Click on the Mod Rate label to switch between modes. Mod Amount (0..100%) Modulation amount. Press x10 to increase the modulation range by 10 times.
Early Reflections / Diffusion / Echo settings
You can set the duration of each of the 8 Early Reflections and 16 Diffusion taps by clicking the Magnifier icon near each section label.
Taps are coupled and hard panned: odd numbered taps are panned to left, while even taps are panned to right.
On the Early Reflections page you can set the time of each tap and the volume of each couple, while on the Diffusion page you can also individually mute unused taps.
In the Echo page you can color the feedback signal with a 3 Band Equalizer:
- LOW FREQ: 31Hz – 1kHz; MID FREQ: 80Hz – 8kHz; HIGH FREQ: 1kHz – 16kHz
- MID Q: 0.1 – 4.0; GAIN: +/- 24dB
50% off “Polaris” by Audiority
So What Can I Do With “Polaris”?
“Polaris” is a classic retro style reverb plugin inspired by early hardware digital reverbs of the late 1970s (like the Ursa Major SST-282). Not only is it ideal for producing music in the styles of Brian Eno or Daniel Lanois, but it also excels at creative and out-of-this world spatial effects.
Polaris’ classic design combined with extensive modern functionality makes it perfect for:
- Ambient Music
- Trance/Meditative Music
- Sound Design
Still not convinced? Try the Demo HERE (under “Downloads” tab)
Note: Please be aware you will be required to visit the Audiority website in order to create an account, redeem and download your product. We do not host the download at VSTBuzz.
Normally €38 – get it at 50% off before it’s gone!
- 50% off the normal price (normally €38)!
- Single Multitap Delay Line
- Pre-Delay
- Early Reflections (8 Programmable Taps)
- Diffusion (16 Programmable Modulated Taps)
- Echo (Ms, Sync, Tuned, Long)
- Echo Modulation
- Modulation Boost
- 3 Band Feedback Equalizer
- LFO (Sin/Tri/Rnd – Hz, Sync)
- Shimmer
- Sample Rate Reduction
- Stereo Width
- Swell
- PC – Windows 7 64bit or later – Intel i5 or higher, 2GB RAM, Screen resolution: 1024×768, VST2, VST3 64-bit host, PT11 or higher, AAX 64-bit host
- MAC (Intel) – OSX 10.8 or later, Intel i5 or higher, 2GB RAM, Screen resolution: 1024×768, VST2, VST3, AU 64-bit host, PT11 or higher, AAX 64-bit host
- MAC (Silicon) – macOS 11.0 or later, Apple M1 or higher, 2GB RAM, Screen resolution: 1024×768, VST2, VST3, AU 64-bit host, PT11 or higher, AAX 64-bit host
- Note: Please be aware you will be required to visit the Audiority website in order to create an account, redeem and download your product. We do not host the download at VSTBuzz.
- This is a classic retro style reverb plugin that is perfect for music in the style of the works by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and for out of this world Sound Design!
What People Think About 50% off “Polaris” by Audiority
-
"More of a sound-design and special FX 'verb, Polaris successfully combines retro soul with modern functionality, at a reasonable price."
Music Radar
Music Industry Blog
-
"Polaris allows you to fine tune the early reflections, echo settings and diffusion network in a way that makes each preset truly unique, ranging from minimal echo effects and ping pong delays to swirling chorus and tuned comb effects, and of course, a wide variety of classic plates and halls and otherworldly shimmer-verbs. It really is one of THE most flexible delay-based effects I ever used."
Bedroom Producers Blog
Music Industry Blog
OLEG – :
Nice plugin. There is a great shimmer that is suitable for ambient and experimentation, and not every reverb has. It is probably impossible to consider a full-fledged delay plug-in, but it has very interesting options for settings. First you need to tinker to understand which settings affect what, but then you want to use it again and again.
Chris – :
Not your conventional reverb alternative, Polaris is more of an addition to the growing choice of different flavours in your reverbs toolbox. It’s capability for an instant sonic gratification whenever I’m looking for that old school vibe or drum thickening makes it a great find, especially at 50% off.
Andy – :
A perfect day tool for creating lush pads and soundscapes. The selection of presets should help you get an idea what you can do with the plugin.