Vacuumsound

VacuumSound’s Poor Plate is a free plug-in designed for both Windows and Mac operating systems and available in VST and Audio Unit plug-in formats. Like the name states, this plug-in is designed to be a poor man’s plate reverb. You can download it straight from their website at not cost whatsoever. I don’t know how long this plug-in has been around for, but I’ve only recently downloaded it and added it to my plug-in suite. It only was a few minutes before I had the plug-in downloaded and ready to go, so as long as you’ve got proper compatibility, it should be a pain free process. Learning the interface and how to use the plug-in isn’t hard at all, as it’s simply got a number of sliders to work with. These sliders control dry and wet levels, predelay, decay, bandwidth, high frequency damping (low pass filter), and both DecDiff and InDiff. A manual most likely wasn’t made for this plug-in. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Although this plug-in is only available in VST and AU format, I’m currently running it in Pro Toole LE 8 using the FXpansion VST to RTAS wrapper. Without this it isn’t possible to run it in Pro Tools. The computer that I’m running it on is a Mac Book Pro with 4 GB of RAM and a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I run Pro Tools LE 8 with a Digi 002R audio interface primarily, or a Digidesign Micro Box if I’m on the go. Poor Plate won’t take up much of your processing power at all, especially if you run it on an auxiliary channel like I always do. OVERALL OPINION I have to say that the VacuumSound Poor Plate definitely lives up to it’s name! While it is definitely reminiscent of a plate reverb, it’s more reminiscent of being poor more than anything. While it doesn’t have an awful sound for a free plug-in, it’s not anything that I’d write home about. Plate reverb is generally my favorite type of reverb, but definitely don’t think that this will replace any sort of real plate reverb or even a decent reverb plug-in. It’s worth checking out if you have a need for a free plate reverb, but don’t expect too much from it.