Hey everyone! Here's what I have been working on over the last week.
Deep Tuning DuskVerb
The bulk of this week has gone into making DuskVerb sound right to my ears. I thought it was sounding pretty good until I compared it to my favorite algo reverbs (looking at you Valhalla) and I was left a bit disappointed. It was a little too dark , there was ringing around 1.5kHz and I really didn't like the overall sound of the room mode.
If you've ever wondered what goes into tuning an algorithmic reverb, it's a lot. We're talking about getting the high-frequency damping to roll off naturally over time, making sure bass doesn't build up and get muddy, dialing in the modulation so it adds life without getting warbly, and ensuring the treble feels bright and airy without being harsh. Every algorithm mode (Hall, Plate, Chamber, Room) has its own personality, and each one needs individual attention.
Here are some of the tuning tweaks:
Structural HF damping: High frequencies now decay more naturally across all modes, with a nonlinear treble curve that keeps the tail smooth instead of abruptly cutting off
Dynamic low-frequency correction: Bass energy is properly managed so longer decay times don't turn into a rumbling mess
Room mode fixes: Decay time scaling and modulation behavior got a complete pass, along with treble brightness tuning
Gate envelope: New gated reverb behavior for more creative sound design options
A full spectral analysis test suite: I built an extensive comparison and measurement framework (~15,000 lines of test infrastructure) to objectively evaluate reverb quality across dozens of presets and metrics. This lets me catch regressions and measure improvements with real data instead of just my ears
Hardware Emulation Refactor for Multi-Comp
I also did a significant refactor of Multi-Comp's hardware emulation code and the shared AnalogEmulation library. This was a net reduction of about 300 lines, so cleaner code, less duplication, and a better foundation for continued work on the opto compressor mode.
What's Next
All builds will be updated to add new paid Patreon member's names to the plugins. In case you weren't aware, if you support me you get some love in the credits. I will add a section for "Past Supporters" as well, so even if you cancel, you will not be forgotten. Clicking on the plugin's name shows the following screen:
Once I push the build releases for the latest DuskVerb tuning and the Multi-Comp opto mode improvements, my focus will shift back to getting Multi-Q much closer to a production release. It's been on the back burner for a while and it's time to give it some real attention.
I am going to put out a survey on here to see what you would like me to build next. I have just been doing my own thing for the last six months, but I would love your input and direction to help build plugins that we all need. Here is the current feature list and open issues on Github:
As always, if you run into any bugs with any of the plugins, please open an issue on our GitHub, that's the fastest way for me to see it and get it fixed: https://github.com/dusk-audio/dusk-audio-plugins/issues
Thanks for the continued support, it genuinely keeps this project moving forward.
Marc