DankVerb by PerforModule

Dank Dystopia.

“What if we blend all the reverbs together and make a super reverb? What can possibly go wrong?”

– Infamous Pre-Apocalypse Scientist.

DankVerb is a collection of 150 luscious reverbs suitable for post-apocalyptic sound design. These are not meant for happy, pristine spaces, but rather for pouring on vibe and character with blatant (or subtle) dosages of rich, gritty dankness. These reverbs are meant for dirty places. Dark places. Scary places. Places you know you shouldn’t go, but something inside compels you to.

A Robust Collection Covering All Needs.

The DankVerb IRs range from minimal ambiences to vastly huge spaces, sampled at 192kHz/24-bit, ideal for usage in professional sound design for film or audiobook to perceptibly place objects in creepy locations. DankVerb IRs are suitable for a dystopian, post-apocalyptic science fiction sort of setting as well as a dark sorcery fantasy style setting — as indeed a dramatic modern psychological horror setting. Need the chamber echo of an ooze-infested monster’s lair from the depths of a subterranean dungeon? Or perhaps the cavernous ambience of a massive sentient robot office building that occupies the space of an entire continent? Or maybe a crazed lunatic’s personal torture lab…

Color-Based ComboVerbs.

There are ten colors (flavors) of IR, each comprised of an amalgamation of various reverberation processors which have been grouped by color and set to carefully calculated settings, blended simultaneously to form ultra-thick sustain tails that are packed with a lush density far beyond that attainable with any of the individual units on their lonesome.

The Varieties:

• Void
• Blood
• Bone
• Catacomb
• Frigid
• Gloom
• Neurotic
• Putrid
• Ruse
• Sulfur

Ultra-Lush.

By combining different multiple algorithmic reverb tails in this manner, “extra-big” sounds have been achieved, blending solid early reflections that present psychoacoustic cues evoking physical placement in environments as well as opulent, fertile decay tails each with their own nuanced behavior as they fade to silence.

Many reverb processors have the detrimental result of making sounds feel “thin” or “overly washed out” when applied, but these IRs tend to avoid that problem.

Five Sizes. Three Tones.

Each of the 10 varieties of DankVerb has had a matrix of multiple IRs crafted for it: (5 sizes) x (3 tonal foci). This gives fifteen total IRs for each “flavor”, for a grand total of one hundred and fifty different presets to choose amonsgt!

The sizes include…

• Ambient.
• Room.
• Chamber.
• Hall.
• Arena.

“Ambient” is the minimal length and is good for imparting a sense of realism (3D depth) to raw sounds without adding much of a perceptible tail.

“Room” to “Hall” all tend on the larger sizes given their archetypes. If one you try is too large for your intended purpose, try the next corresponding smaller size.

“Arena” is of near-infinite decay time, for exceedingly vast spaces.

The tones include…

• Low (for a darker, warmer, boomier sound).
• Mid (for a more mid-focused, relatively neutral sound).
• High (for a brighter, chillier, more shimmery sound).

Easy To Hone.

Honing in on the desired reverb for a given application is not as daunting as it might seem at first. Just select an appropriate color/flavor for the sort of vibe you are looking to evoke. Second, choose the likely size or length of reverb needed (short, medium, long, longer, vast). Finally, choose the tonal focus that you prefer for the audio part (low, mid, high). After auditioning the selection, swap it out for some other IRs — of different flavors but of the same tone and size — to determine which suits the audio source best.

Void.

Dusty hiss from the depths of time. Color: Black.

Use Case Examples: Outside the airlock. Underneath quicksand.

Blood.

Slick and dripping earthy reverb. Color: Red.

Use Case Examples: Subterannean lake. Bathroom with full tub.

Bone.

Odd nonlinear reverb for emphasis and contrast. Color: White.

Use Case Examples: Pillared gallery. Latticed treasure chest.

Catacomb.

Dingy & damp stone walls with plenty of open passages. Color: Grey.

Use Case Examples: Outdoor labyrinth. Underground cavern.

Frigid.

Vitality-draing shivers of frosty chill. Color: Light Blue.

Use Case Examples: Glacier. Walk-in freezer.

Gloom.

Uncomfortable, uneasy, oppressive spaces. Color: Dark Blue.

Use Case Examples: Sentient machine building. Office room with bad feng shui.

Neurotic.

Unnerving reflective walls with a despairing, cloistered feel. Color: Orange.

Use Case Examples: Mental institution cafeteria. Paranoid thoughts.

Putrid.

Wafts of lingering rankness hang in the air. Color: Green.

Use Case Examples: Stenchy bog. Troglodyte’s lair.

Sulfur.

Steamy, torrid haze. Color: Yellow.

Use Case Examples: Volcano interior. Elvish sauna.

Ruse.

Sorcerial, reality-shrouding illusions. Color: Rainbow.

Use Case Examples: House of mirrors. Summoned astral phantom.

DankVerb: The Ten Varieties.

Moredification.

Don’t forget that you can modify the base IRs even more (depending on the convolution reverb engine you are using to load them). Ableton’s Convolution Reverb Pro, for example, has all sorts of parameters you can tweak to customize the IR’s playback, from realistic distance and panning position to length adjustment to a lot more, making IRs much more versatile like algorithmic reverbs.

Between the assortment of raw IRs to select and the means to modify them further, you have a nearly endless universe of creativity available.

But WhyRs?

To emulate any one these IRs algorithmically in a session would require stacking 5-10 reverb plugins while running at 192kHz, which is doable for a few of the chains, but choked our test CPU on a few of them. The others could doubtfully load many duplicated instances before hitting max load. By capturing “snapshots” of these complex, impractical, parallel effect chains as Impulse Responses, they can now be re-used anytime by anyone, with far less CPU overhead, meaning you can apply multiple different of these reverbs to tracks in a session, quickly and without worry.

Neato! Also… these IRs will continue to work indefinitely, which is not a gurantee for all the reverb devices generating them.

On Formats: The files are provided as wav because more programs are compatible with that format than aif. If you need them as a different format (or at a lower sample rate), just convert them to your needed specifications and archive the original files.

DankVerb was developed by PerforModule.

PLEASE NOTE: All files are supplied as WAV files to be used in any Reverb that supports Impulse Responses.