The 1986 Alesis MIDIVERB has a unique and fabulous sound – peak budget 80s digital reverb preset trash in just the right way. So why not recreate it for free with some high-quality impulse responses?
You can load this into any convolution reverb tool. That’s a digital reverb that accurately recreates the sound of a reverb tail by digitally combining an impulse file with an input. Ableton Live Suite has its own Convolution Reverb; Impulse Records Convology XT (see also Wave Arts) is a free option for macOS and Windows.
You get 59 true-stereo 24-bit impulse responses, one for each preset minus the reverse presets. (For reverse, it’s better to just use the reverse function in your convolution reverb of choice – which opens up more options than on the original hardware.) And we do mean the OG MIDIVERB, not the follow-up revised versions that came later.
Doug Stechishin created these to honor his “favorite trashy reverb.” On his Gumroad, you’ll find other paid goodies like the Tapco 4400a spring reverb, too.
Thirsty for more? Here are four more interesting downloads to check out from the Resound Sound blog.
But I love this ad from ’86 – via mu:zines, of course, from International Musician, April of that year. Now who wants to go down a rabbit hole of mu:zines scans for a few hours, too?
