Aetherial FreeVerb Overview¶
Aetherial FreeVerb adds a Freeverb-based reverb tail to your transmitted audio, giving your voice a sense of room or hall ambience. It applies to the TX path only — there is no RX counterpart.
Before you start¶
- The Reverb stage must be enabled in the CHAIN widget inside the Aetherial Audio (TXDSP) applet. The "Aetherial FreeVerb" sub-container and its controls remain hidden until the stage is enabled.
- A radio connection is not required to adjust reverb settings.
How it works¶
Aetherial FreeVerb inserts a Freeverb reverb processor into the client-side TX audio chain, after any upstream DSP stages. When the VERB stage is active, the five knobs — Size, Decay, Damp, Pre, and Mix — shape the character and level of the reverb tail added to your transmitted voice.
The controls appear in two places that stay synchronized at approximately 30 Hz:
- The "Aetherial FreeVerb" sub-container — a compact five-knob row embedded inside the Aetherial Audio (TXDSP) parent container in the applet panel.
- The floating editor titled "Aetherial FreeVerb — TX" — a larger version of the same controls, opened by double-clicking the VERB stage in the CHAIN widget. You can also right-click the "Aetherial FreeVerb" sub-container titlebar to float, pop-out, or hide it.
Turning any knob in either view immediately updates the other. Settings are persisted automatically when you change a knob.
Live reverb visualisation¶
The floating editor includes a compact live visualisation (90 px tall) that updates in real time as you turn the knobs. It depicts three signal components against a dark grid background:
- Cyan — the dry signal packet, gradient-faded toward the right.
- Yellow — first-order reflections, spaced and damped according to the current Size and Damp values.
- Magenta — the reverberant tail, whose length and decay envelope track the Decay and Damp knobs.
The Pre knob shifts the point at which reflections and the tail begin relative to the dry signal. The Mix knob scales the amplitude of both the wet components and the fade of the dry packet. The visualisation matches the layout used by the strip-side reverb panel, so the two views read consistently.
What each control does¶
| Knob | Default | Valid range | Behavior | Setting key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size | 50 % | 0–100 % | Sets the modelled room size. Linear mapping. | ClientReverbTxSize |
| Decay | 1.20 s | 0.3–5.0 s | Sets the reverb tail length. Exponential mapping — the knob travels from 0.3 s to 5.0 s with finer control at shorter values. | ClientReverbTxDecayS |
| Damp | 50 % | 0–100 % | Higher values damp high frequencies faster in the tail, producing a warmer, less bright reverb. Linear mapping. | ClientReverbTxDamping |
| Pre | 20 ms | 0–100 ms | Sets the pre-delay between the dry signal and the first reflections. Linear mapping. | ClientReverbTxPreDelayMs |
| Mix | 15 % | 0–100 % | Sets the dry/wet balance. 0 % is fully dry; 100 % is fully wet. Linear mapping. | ClientReverbTxMix |
The enabled/disabled state of the stage is persisted as ClientReverbTxEnabled.
Tips¶
- For voice, a Mix of 10–15 % is typical. The default of 15 % is a reasonable starting point.
- High Decay values (above 3 s) can muddy speech. Start at the default 1.20 s and increase only if the room effect sounds too short.
- Raising Damp reduces high-frequency sparkle in the tail, which can help reverb sit behind speech rather than on top of it.
- The floating editor ("Aetherial FreeVerb — TX") provides larger knobs and the live visualisation for precise adjustment. Its position and size are saved automatically between sessions.
- Use the live visualisation to get a rough sense of tail length and reflection density before transmitting. The magenta tail length gives a visual approximation of how Decay and Damp interact.