BLEASS Shimmer

Name: BLEASS Shimmer
Price: 19.9 USD
Author: BLEASS

by BLEASS · Reverb · Pitch-shifting shimmer reverb

Not rated yet

BLEASS Shimmer is a pitch-shifting reverb that adds harmonics to the reverb tail.

It runs as a VST3, AU or AAX plugin on Windows and macOS for $19.99, with a separate iOS version.

Best for: Keys & Synths, Guitars, Sound Design. Genres: Ambient & Cinematic, Electronic & EDM, Pop.

Keywords: shimmer, pitch-shifting, AUv3/iOS, electric guitar, ambience, clean, ducking, room, silky, pads, AAX, bright, cinematic, CPU-light, enhancement, infinite, metering, mixing, polish, smooth, sound design, vocals.

What it does

BLEASS Shimmer is a pitch-shifting reverb, built for "emphasizing harmonics" and a smooth reverb trail. Two pitch shifters can sit before, after or inside the reverb's feedback, so it ranges from a light octave sheen to rising, endless tails.

Input stage: input gain, pre-delay and a filter with low-shelf and high-pass modes, to keep mud out of the tail.
Two pitch shifters: each set to Pre, Post or Feedback mode, with pitch from -24 to +24 semitones, fine tuning of ±0.5 semitone, a delay time and an amount control.
Reverb stage: room size, Color for the high frequencies, and length from 200 ms to 30 seconds.
Size modulation: amount and rate controls that move the room size for a chorused, drifting tail.
Ducker: a compressor keyed from the dry signal, with threshold, attack, release and metering, so the reverb pulls back while the source plays.
Mix and layout: a dry/wet control and a clean, small interface; the developer stresses low CPU use.

KVR lists version 1.7.0. A demo is available.

Source: BLEASS product page

When to use it

BLEASS Shimmer is a single-purpose shimmer reverb at a low price; its two placeable pitch shifters and built-in ducker give more direct control over the shimmer itself than most general reverbs. Supermassive and Blackhole both offer huge, shimmering spaces with many more modes than it, and Supermassive is free. Unlike VintageVerb, which covers classic hardware sounds, or Pro-R 2, the clean, precise choice for realistic spaces, it is aimed at pads, guitars and swells rather than natural rooms.

Best for: shimmering pads, ambient guitars, octave-up vocal tails and swelling transitions.
Genres: ambient, cinematic, electronic and pop.
Look elsewhere if: you want many reverb types in one plugin or a plain, clean reverb; Supermassive or Blackhole give more range, and users point to the regular BLEASS Reverb for plain tails.

What producers say

There are few reviews; iOS users find its tail silky but some hear artifacts.

Loopy Pro forum thread users compared it with BLEASS Reverb and found Shimmer "more on the silky side", while the plain reverb is "very bright".
Criticisms: one user heard odd artifacts in the tail even with both pitch shifters off, so it doesn't replace a plain reverb.

Loopy Pro forum thread

Where to buy

Best Service: $19.90
BLEASS: $19.99
Plugin Boutique: $19.99
PluginFox: $19.99
AudioDeluxe: $19.99

Tutorials and reviews

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