Airspace by Sound On Sound
It might get filed under the general category of reverb, but ModeAudio's Airspace could more accurately be described as a sound‑design tool. The GUI is well organised, with the Colour section to the left, the Delay section in the centre with its modulation panel below, and the Space section to the right. Each section has its own level control and bypass button. The waveform of the IRs loaded into the two sections is displayed on screen, and there’s a manageable number of controls to adjust the IR duration, wet/dry mix, pre‑delay and reverb envelope.
The modulation section offers multiple LFO waveforms including random, with separate sections for Time Mod and Pan Mod. In the centre are controls for Pitch Shift (±2 octaves) and Shift Mix. An overall wet/dry slider is available at the top right of the GUI. In fact, really the only missed trick I can think of is that there’s no option here to reverse the IRs.
The range of effects is extraordinary but most retain the musical integrity of the original, so that you end up with a playable instrument rather than an abstract noise.What makes Airspace such a powerful sound‑design tool is the sheer number of Colour IRs, which in many cases render the original sound source unidentifiable. For example, a concert grand piano can be transformed into anything from a granular synth pad to a haunting wind chime. If creating ear candy is on your wish list, there are plenty of tools here to achieve your ends. The spatial reverbs also sound good and vary from springs, plates and digital reverb units to real spaces of all sizes.
As expected, there are plenty of presets, and these are thoughtfully divided into Ambient, Blur, Cosmos, Reflect, Transform and Warp categories. Exploring these gives a good idea of the creative potential of this plug‑in. The range of effects is extraordinary but most retain the musical integrity of the original sound, so that you end up with a playable instrument rather than an abstract noise. I’m definitely going to have a lot of fun exploring this plug‑in further — there are so many permutations of IRs and control options that there will always be something new to discover, and unique results every time.