Halo Reverb: the manual

Halo Reverb is an algorithmic reverb with eight distinct spaces: Hall, Chamber, Plate, Room, Ambience, Cathedral, Nonlin and HALO. Each space is its own engine with its own topology and tuning, not a preset of one algorithm. Over every engine sits the same editing surface: a six-band decay contour drawn as a curve of light directly on the display, so reverb time per frequency region is a shape you drag rather than a pair of damping knobs.

This manual covers installation and activation, the interface, common session workflows, and the reference material for the v1.0 series, current through v1.0.1. It applies to the VST3, AU and AAX builds on Windows 10 and later and on macOS, Intel and Apple Silicon.

Three things distinguish the unit and each has its own section below: the eight-engine space architecture, the decay contour whose measured reverb time really follows the curve you drew, and the HALO regeneration layer, a granular pitch shifter feeding back inside the tail, from a barely-there tuned air on a lead vocal up to full shimmer.

Overview

The eight spaces run on four engine families. Hall, Chamber, Room, Ambience, Cathedral and the HALO base run an eight-line modulated FDN, tuned per space. Plate is the published Dattorro figure-eight plate topology. Nonlin is a gated and reverse engine in the classic rack lineage, built from 32 decorrelated taps per channel with no feedback loop at all. HALO adds the regeneration layer on top of the FDN: a granular pitch shifter feeding back through the reverb.

The display is the light field: the wet tail rendered as light across frequency and time, with the decay contour drawn over it as an editable curve. Freeze visibly holds the light; ducking visibly dims it. Switch spaces and the whole machine re-lights in that space's colour.

The plugin reports zero samples of latency to the host, and it is real: there is no lookahead anywhere. CPU cost is 1.21 percent of one core measured at 48 kHz with 512-sample blocks in the most expensive space, HALO, in a Release build. Sample rates from 44.1 to 192 kHz are tested, block sizes 1 to 4096, and the build passes pluginval at strictness level 5. Every control carries a tooltip, switchable off in the options menu.

Install and activate

Halo Reverb installs as VST3, AU and AAX; any DAW that loads those formats will see it after a plugin rescan. Licensing runs through the license panel inside the plugin, and it is built so that an offline studio machine never needs an internet connection.

The machine code

Open the plugin's license panel and it shows a machine code in the form VTM1-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. Every activation, trial or full, is bound to this code.

Starting the 3 day trial

The trial is the full plugin for 3 days, every space and every feature, no locks. To start one, go to /license/trial on the Vitric site, pick Halo Reverb, paste the machine code from the license panel, then sign in with your email. A trial license file bound to that machine arrives at your verified address; load it and you are running. One trial per product, per person and machine.

When the trial ends, processing locks until a purchased license or valid subscription is installed. Saved session settings are preserved but not applied while locked. The plugin never requires a network connection and never blocks loading.

Activating a full license

A purchased license key looks like VT-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX and arrives by email. It includes 3 lifetime machine bindings. On a machine with internet access, activate from inside the plugin's license panel.

Offline activation

For a studio machine that never touches the internet, use the license portal at /license from any online device. Enter your license key, type in the machine code the offline plugin shows, and download the license file the portal generates. Carry the file over on a drive and load it in the plugin's license panel.

Moving machines

Deactivation is self service. Look up your key in the license portal to see every activated machine and deactivate one you are retiring. Permanent offline files cannot be remotely erased, so a deactivated binding still counts toward the 3-machine lifetime allowance. Lost keys can be resent from the same portal; contact support for a legitimate hardware replacement after the allowance is used.

Interface tour

The window is resizable at a fixed aspect ratio, from 900 by 620 up to 1650 by 1110. The toolbar holds the eight-space selector, the preset menu with its section headers, A/B compare with a COPY button, FREEZE and BYPASS. Below it the light field fills the face, with the floating control bar, the tail-shaping strip and the utility strip underneath.

The eight spaces

Space changes are handled inside the engine so switching while audio runs does not click, and each space carries its own light family on the interface.

The decay contour

Six bands, split at 150, 400, 1200, 3500 and 8000 Hz, each scaling the master decay from 0.25x to 4x. The contour is drawn over the live tail and every node is grabbable: drag a node and its band's reverb time follows, with a readout showing the ratio and the resulting seconds. Shift-drag is fine adjustment and double-click resets a node. The filters doing the work are absorptive filters inside the feedback loop, so the measured reverb time really follows the curve: RT60 tracks the displayed value within 10 percent at 0.5, 2, 8 and 20 second settings, verified by the automated test suite.

The floating bar

The main knob row under the display, plus the per-space panel:

• Decay. 0.1 to 60 seconds of master reverb time. The contour scales this value per band.
• Size. 50 to 200 percent, scaling the space's internal geometry.
• Predelay. 0 to 500 ms free, or synced to the host tempo from 1/32 to 1/4 including dotted and triplet values via the sync selector beside it.
• Bloom. Density build-up rate, from tails that speak immediately to the late swell of a large hall. In Nonlin the same knob is relabelled SLOPE and sweeps the envelope from reverse through gated to decaying.
• Diffusion. Input diffusion amount, 0 to 100 percent.
• Mod Rate and Mod Depth. Tail modulation, 0.1 to 5.0 Hz and 0 to 100 percent.
• Early/Late. Balance between early reflections and the tail: 0 is early reflections only, 100 is tail only.

In the HALO space the per-space panel carries the regeneration controls: Halo Bloom, the Interval choice (octave up, fifth up, octave plus fifth, octave down, detune), Halo Decay for the regeneration feedback, and Halo Tone, a tilt inside the shift path. At low bloom the effect reads as tuned air behind a vocal rather than an effect; pushed, it is the full climbing shimmer wash.

The era switch

Three voicings of the whole machine, on the utility strip. The tabs read MODERN, CLASSIC and VINTAGE, and they are bandwidth and modulation choices with honest numbers rather than marketing decades:

• MODERN. Clean, full bandwidth, colorless modulation.
• CLASSIC. A 15 kHz bandwidth cap with noisier modulation.
• VINTAGE. A 10 kHz cap, darker and noisier modulation still.

Freeze

Freeze is a true infinite hold. The frozen loop is exactly lossless: the automated test holds a tail for 10 seconds within 0.1 dB. Engage and release are click free, and tone, width, ducking and mix stay live while frozen, so a held chord becomes a pad you keep sculpting. The display holds its light while you do.

Ducking

Built-in ducking driven by the dry signal, with amount, attack and release controls. Attack runs 1 to 100 ms and release 20 to 2000 ms, and at full amount the wet signal ducks by up to 24 dB. The reverb leans back while you sing and swells back after, and the light field dims visibly as it does.

Tail shaping

The wet path carries a low cut from 20 to 1000 Hz and a high cut from 1 to 20 kHz, plus two tone shelves: Lo Tone at 150 Hz and Hi Tone at 6 kHz, each running from -12 to +12 dB. Cuts fence the tail in; shelves tilt what remains.

Width, mix and output

• Width. 0 to 200 percent on the wet signal, mid/side based and mono compatible at every setting.
• Mix and mix lock. Dry/wet balance with a lock that holds your mix while browsing presets, so a send at 100 percent wet stays a send.
• Output. Trim from -24 to +24 dB.

Presets and A/B

42 factory presets in six banks: Vocals, Drums, Guitars, Keys and Synths, Mix Bus, FX and Sound Design. Preset values follow documented engineering conventions, so the vocal plate sits at 1.5 seconds with 25 ms of predelay, the snare plate at 1.2 seconds, the drum room at 1.0 second and the scoring stage at 2.2 seconds. A/B holds two complete states with instant switching and a COPY button, and mix lock is honoured through preset changes.

Workflows

Lead vocal

Start from the plate: 1.5 seconds with 25 ms of predelay is the documented convention, and the predelay keeps the consonants ahead of the tail. Set ducking so the reverb leans back during the phrase and swells after it, then pull the two low contour bands under 1x so the tail carries air rather than mud. If the vocal wants a halo rather than a room, switch to the HALO space, keep Halo Bloom low and choose octave up: at that setting the regeneration reads as tuned air, not an effect.

Drums

Nonlin is the drum space: gated and reverse tails in the classic rack lineage, click free by construction because there is no feedback loop. The SLOPE knob sweeps reverse through gated to decaying. For a realistic kit, use Room at a short decay instead and shape with the contour: keep the band below 150 Hz short so the kick stays tight and let the 1.2 to 3.5 kHz band ring so the snare blooms.

Sound design

HALO regeneration with freeze. Pitch the tail an octave up, let a few regeneration passes climb, then freeze: the loop is lossless, so the held field never decays, and tone, width, ducking and mix stay live. Play the tail-shaping filters and the mix like an instrument, and automate freeze in and out, since engage and release are click free.

Mix bus and score

Cathedral or a scoring-stage hall, with the contour shaping length per region: long warm lows under short airy highs, or the reverse, is one curve. Zero samples of latency means the reverb sits anywhere in the chain without delay compensation, which matters on a print chain. Use the era switch to date the tail honestly: MODERN for full bandwidth, CLASSIC or VINTAGE when the arrangement wants the tail to sit behind a bandwidth cap.

Reference

What it does not do

A manual is more useful when it says where the tool stops. As of v1.0:

• Stereo only. Bus layouts are mono to stereo and stereo to stereo. No surround and no Dolby Atmos.
• No external sidechain. The ducker is driven by the plugin's own dry input, not by another track.
• No latency modes. There is no oversampling switch and no lookahead. The unit is always zero latency.

FAQ

Is the HALO space a shimmer reverb? It contains one and goes further. A granular pitch shifter sits inside the tail's regeneration loop with five interval choices. At low settings it reads as tuned air behind a vocal; pushed hard it is the full climbing shimmer wash.

What does the decay contour actually control? Reverb time per frequency region. Six bands, each scaling the master decay between 0.25x and 4x, implemented as absorptive filters inside the feedback loop, so the measured reverb time follows the curve within 10 percent.

Does freeze colour the held tail? No. The frozen loop is exactly lossless, verified to hold a tail within 0.1 dB over ten seconds, and engage and release are click free.

What are the eras? Three voicings of the whole machine: MODERN is clean and full bandwidth, CLASSIC caps the tail at 15 kHz with noisier modulation, VINTAGE caps it at 10 kHz, darker and noisier still. Bandwidth and modulation choices with honest numbers.

Does it add latency? No. Zero samples reported and real, with no lookahead anywhere. It sits in a tracking chain as comfortably as on the mix bus.

Can I sync the predelay to the session tempo? Yes. Predelay runs 0 to 500 ms free, or host-synced from 1/32 to 1/4 including dotted and triplet values.

Will presets blow up my send balance? Not with mix lock on. The lock holds your mix setting while you browse, so a send instance stays 100 percent wet through every preset audition.

What DAWs does it support? VST3, AU and AAX on Windows 10+ and macOS covers Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Cubase, Studio One, FL Studio, REAPER and every other major host.

Can I try it before buying? Yes. Every Vitric plugin has a free 3 day full-function trial, requested at /license/trial with the machine code from the license panel. One trial per product, per person and machine.

What happens if I use all 3 machine bindings? A permanent offline license cannot be remotely erased, so deactivation does not create a fourth binding. Write to support if you replaced hardware and we will review the legitimate move.

Support

Questions, activation trouble, or anything this manual does not cover: support@vitricaudio.com. Every purchase also carries a 14 day money back guarantee, no questions asked, so the real test is always your own sessions.