Rae user guide

Rae is a spacious and creative reverb. It can create anything from clear, natural-sounding room reflections to lush, modulated and shimmery reverbs. It is designed to be easy to use, but also has a lot of depth for those who want to explore.

We will go through and explain the controls first, but if you want to understand more about how it works you can skip to that section.

Interface at a glance

Below is the full interface. If you are viewing in a browser you can interact with the controls. Don't worry if it's all a bit much, we will be going through this in order below.

The examples in this guide are silent, and each one has its own settings. Changes in one won't affect another. Use them to try the controls, and open Rae in your DAW for the listening suggestions.

Changing controls

• For most controls, click and drag up or down to change the value.
• For 2D sliders you can click and move around on the box, or drag the values up and down underneath it.
• Hold Shift while dragging for finer control.

Try both ways on the damping panel.

The top bar is where you can find presets, save your own sounds and change the display settings.

Note the above interactive display is just an illustration - preset, file and application actions are disabled in the guide. The steps below should be tried properly in the plugin.

Click the preset name to open or close the browser, then click a preset to load it.

• The up and down arrows step through the current list.
• You can search or filter the list, and use the heart beside a preset to keep it in your favourites.

If you change a preset, an asterisk appears beside its name.

• Click + to save the current sound as a new preset, give it a name and click save.
• The disk button saves changes to an existing user preset.

For a factory or pack preset, use + to make your own copy.

On the right, the panic button clears the ringing sound if things get out of hand. It shows stop when you hover it. Click the Rae logo for information, or the three dots for display settings.

In the top left we have the main controls. These are the most important parameters to shape if you are starting from scratch or modifying another preset.

Decay

How long it reverberates.

More technically this sets the target RT60 time, which is the time it takes for the reverb to decay by 60 dB. The damping filter will affect the decay time of different frequencies depending on how it's set.

Size

The size of the room.

In a larger room, sound has to travel further between walls, so the reflections arrive further apart, and the reverb will sound deeper. Smaller sizes may sound brighter and more metallic.

Mix

The balance between your clean signal and the reverb. Turn it up for more reverb.

Warmth

Adds saturation and compression to the reverb input and wet output. This squashes and colours the sound. Raising the input level will increase the effect as it starts to push against the compression.

Pre delay

Adds a delay before the sound enters the reverb. Can affect the perception of room size, or add interesting rhythmic slapback at high levels.

Changes the character and frequency response of the room.

This sounds quite different to filtering the input or output directly. You'll hear it most clearly in the tail, especially as the reverb dies away. See how it works for more information.

Shape

Morph between lowpass, bandpass and highpass filter shapes. Highpass settings can shorten the reverb considerably.

Frequency

Cutoff of the filter, or the centre frequency in bandpass. Control either by dragging the dot on the 2D slider, or by dragging the frequency label up and down.

Amount

How filtered the reflections are. At 0% the filter is completely bypassed. Like frequency, control either by dragging the dot on the 2D slider, or by dragging the amount label up and down.

Width

How gentle the cutoff is. At 100% the lowpass and highpass transitions are gentler, and at 0% they are steeper. In bandpass, it changes how wide the passing band is.

The diffusion panel is another component that has a large impact on the sound.

Like many reverbs, Rae lets you control the early reflections and late tail separately.

• Early reflections arrive as a series of little echoes, helping give a sense of the room's size and shape.
• The late sound is the meat of the reverb - the tail - and tends to want to be more dense and smooth (we still give you control over this).

Each pad pairs diffusion with level. Try moving its dot, or drag the values underneath separately.

In the plugin, turn mix fully up when you want to hear the early or late sound on its own.

In

Input gain . This also controls the level of any feedback when that is applied.

Out

Output gain . Volume of the final output, including the clean signal.

Early diffusion

Control the character of the first reflections.

• Less diffuse = sharper sounds, and more direct sound from the source (see map).
• More diffuse = blurrier reflections, with the direct sound fading out completely at full diffusion.

Early level

Gain of the direct sound and early reflections. Turn off to leave the late tail.

Late diffusion

Control the character of the late tail.

• Less diffuse = sharper reflections and a more "raw" spatial sound.
• More diffuse = smoother and more dense tail, fewer distinct reflections.

Late level

Gain of the late tail. Turn off to leave the direct sound and early reflections.

It wouldn't be like us to give you a reverb without some stuff to make it get a bit weird.

These controls let you take the reverb into some more unusual territory.

In speed

Speed up or slow down the input audio entering the reverb. This can effectively pitch shift the audio coming in.

The button to the top right of the in speed cube is the stepped button .

• When stepped is enabled (default: on) it moves in certain musical speed ratios (creating 4ths, 5ths, octaves etc).
• When stepped is disabled it can move in a continuous range.

Hover the speed label to reveal the plus/minus button - this switches between forward and reverse speed.

Note: when automated the modulation also respects the stepped control. Use this to change how it modulates.

Rate

The relative sample rate that the reverb network runs at.

Lowering the rate, e.g. from 1 to 1/2, makes the inner reverb loops run at half the speed.

• Any late tail already ringing inside the reverb slows down and drops in pitch.
• Once the rate has settled, new input keeps its pitch, assuming in speed is at 1.

The sample rate of your DAW input and output stays the same.

Lower rates lose some high frequencies, giving the reverb a nice lo-fi character.

Like in speed, when stepped is enabled it moves in musical ratios. When stepped is disabled it can move in a continuous range.

In the plugin, try letting a sound ring out, then lower rate to hear what happens to the tail.

Feedback

The most dangerous parameter. Use with caution!

This sends the wet output back through the input. With in speed above 1, turning up feedback can create a shimmer style reverb, a cascading set of ever rising pitches. Below 1, the pitches fall instead.

If speed is set to 1 then you get room feedback, the same as if you placed microphones and speakers in proximity. This can get intense, and can be used to turn the reverb into a self-oscillating drone.

Freeze

Holds the late tail inside the reverb! Input to the reverb is blocked to prevent build up, while the direct sound and early reflections finish.

You can still move the mics around to gain new perspectives on the frozen sound.

The right hand panel hosts our room. This is a controllable representation of our reverb space.

Try changing sides, curve and ratio above the map, and watch the room change. The source and mic controls sit beside them, so you can see what happens when you link their nodes.

Sides

Change the number of walls.

Each shape will have its own character and room resonances. This may not be completely obvious with certain sounds - try it in the plugin with drums and a small room size and you might hear the different qualities to the room reflections.

Curve

Bow the walls inwards (negative) or outwards (positive).

This subtly changes the reflection patterns, making it useful for gentle modulation when changing the room size would be too much.

Ratio

Width to height ratio of the room.

Like sides and curve this changes the distances between walls, and so changes reflection patterns. Especially useful for making small, symmetrical rooms sound less metallic by breaking up their regular reflection patterns.

Source

The source is the point in the room where the sound originates - where your input audio starts.

Press this control to link or unlink the left and right source positions on the map. Linking brings them together at their midpoint, so they move as one. After unlinking, drag them apart again.

Mic

The mic represents the audio pickup in the room.

Like source, you can link or unlink the left and right mic positions. Bringing them together narrows the spatial image, though diffusion can still add stereo width.

Map

The map shows the current shape settings and the positions of the source and mic.

Drag the source and mic nodes to change where sound starts and where it's picked up.

In the plugin, you can play with source positions and change the timing of reflections - for instance try it against a wall vs in the centre, close to or far away from the mic.

When early reflections are not diffuse, moving the mic closer to a source increases the direct sound contribution. This means you can effectively mix and spatialise the incoming audio. This direct sound is still part of the wet signal.

If changing the room shape leaves a node outside its boundaries, a dotted line shows where you originally placed it. Rae keeps the node inside the room, but remembers its original position. Change the shape again and it can return there.

If you drag a node on the map whilst a sound is playing in the plugin, you may hear some pitch shifting. This is something akin to the Doppler effect (like when a siren passes you by) and can be used creatively to add some natural modulation. Larger rooms can make this pitch glide more noticeable for the same movement across the room.

Now for the most dynamic and complex part of the plugin.

We built our modulators around the concept of a 2D path, rather than a 1D LFO which you might be more used to if you've used modulation before. This lets us send the source or mics on interesting journeys around the map. Other parameters can follow the path's movement along either the X or Y axis.

Applying modulation

At the bottom of the map lives a row of shapes:

The first four shapes represent modulator slots. If you are reading this in a browser you can try this out now.

1. Hover over the first slot to show an assignment arrow above it.
2. Drag this arrow onto curve at the top of the same example. If that worked correctly you will see a coloured dot appear above the target control, and the control and room should start moving.
3. Hover the control to show and edit its base value. The modulation keeps running.

You can also drag an assignment arrow onto a source or mic node to send it along the path.

Here's a separate example with curve already set up:

You should see the curve control moving until you hover it. Try changing its base value, then move the pointer away to see the modulation around that value.

Changing a modulator

This example starts with the same straight path and assignment, with the green modulator open. Click its shape at the bottom to switch in and out of this view.

Modulator paths

Let's learn how the modulator paths work!

1. First look at the green line on the map above - the dot should be moving along it.
2. Next notice the curve control at the top - this is being modulated by the dot's movement along the X axis.
3. You can drag the cross-shaped handle on the modulator path to change its rotation or size. Try rotating the line until it lines up with the Y axis shown on the map.

The movement in curve gets smaller, and stops when the line sits along that axis.

Changing axis and depth

Keep the green modulator open.

1. You can see a green X underneath curve, meaning it is following the X axis.
2. Try hovering the Y symbol beside it and dragging up to +100% depth.

Now the Y symbol should be highlighted green, and our curve control is moving again!

For a normal parameter you choose X or Y; editing the other axis switches the assignment to it. Lower the depth for a smaller movement.

Modulator controls

Underneath the modulator shape live its controls. This separate example has no assignments, so you can concentrate on the path.

Try changing sides and curve, then rate and direction, and watch how the dot travels.

Mode

Choose from:

• free or sync LFO.
• envelope , which follows the input level.

The browser example uses a fixed tempo for sync. You can switch to envelope to see its controls, but it has no audio input to follow, so the dot holds still. Try the envelope response in the plugin.

Sides

Change the base shape of the modulator. Two sides with curve at zero gives a straight line.

Curve

Change the curve of the modulation path.

Rate

Speed of the LFO. free uses Hz, and sync uses musical divisions shown in bars.

Direction

Direction the dot moves along the LFO path. Choose from forward , backward or bounce (back and forth).

Gain

In envelope mode, how far the input level pushes the dot along the path.

Att / rel

Also in envelope mode.

• Higher attack makes the dot react more slowly to input.
• Higher release makes the dot drop back more slowly after the input drops.

Jitter

Adds random fluctuation to the dot movement. The browser example gives a visual approximation of this.

Assignments

Click the three lines at the bottom of the right panel to enter the assignments page. This brings all your modulation assignments together in one place. The example below already has a few set up.

Each row shows which modulator is controlling which parameter. From left to right:

• The switch turns that assignment off or on, keeping its settings.
• The coloured shape shows the modulator. Click it to move the assignment to the next modulator that doesn't already have it.
• The name shows the target parameter. New targets are assigned from the modulator tabs in the map view.
• X or Y chooses which axis of the path the parameter follows.
• The ± button switches between bipolar modulation, which moves either side of the base value, and unipolar modulation, which moves to one side.
• Drag the percentage up or down to change the depth. Dragging through zero reverses the modulation. The number shows the amount; the signs beside it show the direction.
• Hover the row to reveal the cross at the end, which removes the assignment.

Source and mic assignments keep both axes together. Their rows show L or R instead of X or Y, and the +/− button reverses the movement.

Try switching room curve to Y, then changing its depth.

The dice adds one random assignment, and clear removes them all, keeping the modulator paths.

Travelling raes

Imagine a soundwave emanates from some source and spreads out around the room. Rae represents the room with eight connected points around its shape.

Each point then disperses and reflects energy towards the others. We delay each "ray" of sound according to the distance it travels, and apply a damping filter to simulate the loss of energy from the material. Then we send the little rays off on their journey to each other point, continuing to reflect and disperse in a loop until the energy dies out.

Meanwhile, the microphones are spying on the sound at each point, picking it up according to their distance and sending it to the output.

Material damping

Damping lives inside the reverb network, filtering the sound each time it bounces around the room. It works gradually on the sound - the sound passes through these filters again and again as it travels around.

This damping is meant to simulate the loss of energy when a sound wave reflects off a surface. It acts a bit like the wall material; brick, metal, glass. Most materials absorb more high frequencies than low ones, so a lowpass filter is usually a good approximation.

But since we're not just interested in being realistic, we allow you to make unreal materials by supplying a flexible filter shape that can morph into bandpass or highpass filters.

A few things to try in the plugin, and some useful checks when it isn't doing quite what you expected.

CPU

If Rae is using too much CPU, try:

• Hide the map visualiser. Open the three-dot settings menu in the top right and click hide map visualiser. This reduces display and metering work without changing the sound.
• Lower the reverb rate. This can reduce audio-processing load, but also gives the reverb a darker, more lo-fi character.

Start with the visualiser if you don't want to change the sound. Lowering rate doesn't reduce every part of Rae's processing by the same amount.

Long decay, short tail

If a long decay setting still sounds surprisingly short, try reducing the damping amount. The filter removes energy each time sound travels around the room, so strong damping can shorten the tail considerably.

Still hearing direct sound at 100% mix?

Rae's wet signal includes sound travelling straight from source to mic. This is separate from the clean signal controlled by mix.

• Turn early diffusion fully up to remove this direct contribution.
• Turn early level down to zero to leave only the late tail.

Playing with a frozen sound

1. Let a chord fill the reverb, then turn on freeze.
2. Lower the reverb rate to bend the pitch of the sound already inside Rae.
3. Move the mics to find a different perspective on the held sound.

In speed changes the incoming sound instead, so it won't retune the frozen tail.

Taming feedback

Turning down out makes feedback quieter, but doesn't reduce what's circulating inside Rae. Turn down feedback to reduce the build-up, or use the panic button to clear the ringing sound.

Map both X and Y on different controls

Choose a path that moves along both X and Y, then use the same modulator for two parameters:

• Assign X to damping frequency.
• Assign Y to late level.

Start with a little depth on each. Try changing the path's shape and rotation to change how the brightness and level move together.

Gated Snare

Set a modulator to envelope, with two sides and curve at zero to make a straight path. Rotate it along the X axis, then assign X to damping frequency.

The room's tone can now follow your playing instead of repeating a fixed cycle. Use the modulator's gain, attack and release to change how it responds, and the assignment depth to control how much the frequency changes.

Saving and recall

Your DAW project saves Rae's settings, including its room positions, modulation assignments, link settings and stepped modes. Save a separate preset to use those settings in another instance or project.

Presets are .xml files and don't depend on external sample files. They store settings, not the audio currently ringing inside the reverb. Loading a preset changes the settings without clearing the existing tail; use the panic button to clear it.

File paths

macOS

Windows

The User folder is created when you first save a preset. Pack folders only appear when that content has been installed. On Windows, logs are directly inside the Rae folder, not in a separate Logs folder.

Backing up and sharing presets

Back up the User folder to keep your own presets. Copy user-preferences.json too to keep your favourites.

To share a user preset, copy its .xml file into the other computer's User preset folder. Use the same Rae version on both machines to avoid compatibility surprises. Factory and pack presets are read-only in the plugin; use + to save your own version first.

Diagnostic logs

When logging is enabled, Rae writes files named rae_<timestamp>_<instance>.log to the locations above.

When reporting a problem, include the Rae version, your DAW and operating system, what happened, and the relevant .log files. Send the log files rather than the entire Rae folder.