It’s always a good day when there is a new Sinevibes plugin in town, especially when it’s all about “clouds of sounds”.
Albedo is a granular cloud reverb and according to the company, it’s the first of an entirely new lineup of plugins from Sinevibes, built on a fresh foundation that delivers many highly-requested features: availability of AU and VST3 formats, user interface size scaling up to 200%, as well as built-in functions for saving, recalling and quickly switching presets.
How Does It Work?
Albedo constantly records incoming audio into a buffer, and at the same time runs up to 64 individual looping playheads – called grains – scattered within this buffer. All grains have their own random size and position, and as they are overlaid together, a lush “cloud of sound” effect is produced.
Thanks to dual envelope generators per grain, playback speed has continuous adjustment with perfectly smooth transitions between forward and reverse directions – enabling live audio manipulation much like on a tape machine or a turntable, including a fully stopped state.
With multiple detailed controls, Albedo is capable of a vast variety of other effects, too: from melting pitch shifts and chaotic reversed delays, to chorus atmospheres and dark grimy dissonance.
Albedo can also “freeze” its buffer and keep playing the granular cloud eternally, allowing you to layer the original input signal on top – and making this plugin a great performance tool.
Here below you can see Albedo at work with some synth sounds:
My Impressions
Albedo does what it says on the tin, and it does it the Sinevibes way. The resizable (yay!) and color-coded interface is easy on the eyes and straightforward to use. The sound engine offers the right number of options to create inspiring clouds of sounds, without making you feel overwhelmed.
I’ve tried Albedo on different sound sources (from the delicate plucky sounds of Jasno by Felt Instruments to Junoesque synth lines, courtesy of Tal U-NO-LX) and I’m really digging it. I love playing with its sliders, almost as it if was an instrument. I recommend automating the hell out of it, like in the video below (well, not AS MUCH as I did here, it was just a demo!):
Thinking of it, it would be really cool if the developer would add a sort of advanced mode, that would allow you to modulate some of the parameters without having to use your DAW automation or MIDI tricks.
Anyway, even as it is, Albedo already earned its place in my go-to ‘creative effects’ list. Plus, at $39 it’s super affordable (existing Sinevibes customers are eligible for special upgrade pricing).
Visit the Sinevibes product page for Albedo to download a demo version or buy the plugin.
