Silverspike RoomMachine 844 [Freeware]

Silverspike's RoomMachine 844 is a free piece of software that is available as a VST plug-in. It is a few years old, as I used to run it when I had Cubase SX on PC, and no longer do so since I switched to Pro Tools LE on a Mac. As far as I can remember, I didn't have any installation issues at all. As long as you're properly equipped with the right platform and don't encounter any compatibility issues, you should be able to download and install this plug-in within a matter of minutes. Learning the plug-in is really simple, as everything is set up nicely and it isn't convoluted at all. The parameters that the 844 has include those for left and right pan, distance, stereo, room size, decay, damping, color, and dry and wet mixes. It's a pretty straight forward room modeling plug-in, and even if you don't have much experience with reverb plug-ins, this should be an easy enough place to start for any user. I haven't ever had a need to check out a manual for this plug-in, so I can't say anything about it.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

When I was running Cubase SX, I was running the Silverspike RoomMachine 844 plug-in in it and on a Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv8000 lap top with 2 GB of RAM and a 3.0 Ghz processor. It's not too hard to see after using it for a little while that this plug-in won't take up too much of your processing power. The system I was running it on definitely wasn't one of the best and it still did the job fine. However, it's hard to say how well a piece of software will run on a system without trying it, so I'd recommend just downloading it and seeing for yourself.

OVERALL OPINION

While maybe not the most realistic sounding or most in depth reverb plug-in, for being free, I've got nothing negative to say about the Silverspike RoomMachine 844. It's incredibly easy to use, and users of all types should be able to catch on quickly here. There are certainly a lot of free VST plug-ins out there, but as far as room emulators go, this is definitely one of the best that I've used. I don't know that I'd have a place for it in my current Pro Tools rig, but if you've got a VST based DAW and are looking to get a decent enough sounding reverb plug-in without spending any money, look no further than the RoomMachine 844.