The Sound Board

“HitVerb is a collaborative effort with years in the making. Historically, there have been a total of 26 recording studios across the seven Hit Factory locations since 1975. 12 of the room reverbs within HitVerb were collected over the years as impulse responses and proprietary captures.

Seminal albums were recorded and mixed within all of these studios; pop, rock, R&B, hip-hop, blues, jazz, and soundtracks we all have come to listen to during the past half century. We’re confident you’ll enjoy using these spectacular sounding virtual live rooms on your music for many years to come.” - Troy Germano, Owner of The Hit Factory Studios

More info here:

HitVerb | Hit Factory Studios

The Hit Factory | Wikipedia

Hit Factory Studios Debut First Plug-In: HitVerb | Mixonline





HitVerb is available for Mac or Windows in AAX, VST3, and AU formats. It costs $199; and there is no intro pricing, although I presume there will eventually be discounted sales on the product.

I was lucky enough to work in sessions at both the London and New York Hit Factory locations back in the ‘90s, and I was impressed by the sound quality of their rooms. The New York facility of the nineties no longer exists, but they have a new location in NYC now. I wouldn’t be surprised if HitVerb contains IRs of the old and new New York locations; but there have been a number of Hit Factory spaces over the years, and I haven’t found any information yet about which rooms are part of this product.

Best,

Geoff

Tried it. Didn’t keep it. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s a pretty good reverb, but I couldn’t make it do anything that I can already get from other software reverbs. I am also not in the least interested in the fame of famous rooms (as if that is a musically meaningful parameter), or receptive to the idea that because a room is famous, or because famous people recorded 'seminal albums' in it, that a convolution-based emulation of it will be more likely to improve my work more than any good plugin which hasn’t any such connection with celebrated history.

The last reverb I bought, a few months ago, is the Acustica Rice. (Didn't really need this one either, but I happened to get really good results with it the first time I tried it, so I got it.) One of the special things about this one, is that it’s got a built-in, completely configurable resonance supressor. Which can work incredibly well. (Rice also has a couple of things which I would be prefer to be different, but we needn’t go into all that here.)

Anyway, back to HitVerb: I certainly don’t want to dissuade anyone from buying what is certainly a well-made, good-sounding and quite versatile software reverb, but if you’re not too particular about the character of the space in your mixes — and if the bulk of your sound sources are sample-based, especially orchestral ones, you can’t really allow yourself to be particular about that, not even slightly — or if there’s no real reason to get an accurate HitFactory-imprint on the spatial presence in your recordings/productions — you might, for example, get asked to do some overdubs on material that was recorded in one of the HitFactory rooms, or maybe mix stuff that was recorded there), I don’t really see much special appeal in this one.

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Certainly, fame is no reason to buy (or to reject) the plugin. It's a moot point, other than being an indication that the rooms were designed well enough that people with high budgets repeatedly chose to record there.

Also, I agree that these rooms aren't exactly a scoring stage. If you're doing full blown, orchestral music, then this probably isn't going to be your first call. That said, I worked on a string date at the '90s Hit Factory; and it was a great setting for that session. I don't know, however, if that room is one of the 12 included in HitVerb.

I always advise people to choose with their ears, and this product is no exception. I'm glad there's a 14-day demo. That ought to be enough time for anyone to decide whether it's right for them.

At this point, I already have more than enough great reverb plugins; so the main appeal for me is nostalgia for the time I spent there. I'll probably give it an audition when there's a sale and perhaps buy it then.

Best,

Geoff