PheonixVerb by iZotope, $10 at PiB

[Boombastix]

PheonixVerb by iZotope, is $10 at PluginBoutique right now. I heard it was designed by an ex Lexicon guy.

Anyone has it?
Worth getting when you have Waves H-Reverb and Synapse DR-1?

Here is an example:

[zoidkirb]

Anyone has it?

I picked it up after seeing this, and the thread at kvr then demoing it. Sounds great, and I like the simple gui, which has a really nice and intuitive set of controls.
The free sound spot stuff was the cherry on the top although I haven't had time to install that yet.

[hurricane]

Phoenixverb has a great natural, clean, and expensive sound that might be harder to achieve (though probably achievable) using other reverbs. I like the convenience of just loading it up and getting that sound immediately. It sounds great on solo acoustic instruments, and i think it would do amazingly well in a sparse mix - but it might get buried in a heavy mix.

This video convinced me to get it (I mean, the price was also too good to pass up):

[joeyluck]

Can't ever have too many reverb plugins

I was confused that even though Exponential Audio is "an iZotope company", why the license key wouldn't register via iZotope product portal. Didn't realize this was iLok only authorization. Which is fine, since it allows machine authorization.

[MrFigg]

Can't ever have too many reverb plugins

I was confused that even though Exponential Audio is "an iZotope company", why the license key wouldn't register via iZotope product portal. Didn't realize this was iLok only authorization. Which is fine, since it allows machine authorization.

Glad you wrote this. I would probably have been up all day and all night trying to authorize it on the iZotope website.

[joeyluck]

Can't ever have too many reverb plugins

I was confused that even though Exponential Audio is "an iZotope company", why the license key wouldn't register via iZotope product portal. Didn't realize this was iLok only authorization. Which is fine, since it allows machine authorization.

Glad you wrote this. I would probably have been up all day and all night trying to authorize it on the iZotope website.

It's weird, I see no mention of it on the product pages of the iZotope site, but this info is given on the Plugin Boutique site:

• iLok License Manager required
• iLok2, iLok3, or iLok Machine License
• Exponential Audio products are not available in iZotope’s Product Portal

Again no biggie, aside from there possibly being an upgrade path available to other Exponential plugins.

On the Exponential Audio product pages of the iZotope site it says:

Sign in to see all discount and upgrade options

However, my ownership of PhoenixVerb seems to be between Plugin Boutique and iLok, and no record of it in my iZotope account. But I mean...I did only pay $10 for a $99 plugin, so hoping for an upgrade path is just wishful thinking.

[Mataya]

I don't see it anywhere.

M

[MrFigg]

I don't see it anywhere.

M

https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/5225

[hurricane]

Can't ever have too many reverb plugins

I counted mine. 36.

Do I know any of these inside out? Nope. Will I ever? Nope. Could I tell you which reverb is which in a blind audio test? Probably not. Am I wasting money on reverbs then? Probably.

[Boombastix]

Can't ever have too many reverb plugins

I counted mine. 36.

Do I know any of these inside out? Nope. Will I ever? Nope. Could I tell you which reverb is which in a blind audio test? Probably not. Am I wasting money on reverbs then? Probably.

You seem to have fun with 'em - so worth every penny...

[hurricane]

You seem to have fun with 'em - so worth every penny...

Good point.

[Spryx]

Snagged this! Pretty good deal considering it compares pretty well to the 2c Audio Reverbs.

[joeyluck]

Can't ever have too many reverb plugins

I counted mine. 36.

Do I know any of these inside out? Nope. Will I ever? Nope. Could I tell you which reverb is which in a blind audio test? Probably not. Am I wasting money on reverbs then? Probably.

I have my favorites. They all have their strengths, and many times I'm just switching out reverbs to see which one works best for that particular project.

[MrFigg]

I’ve got seriously loads of reverbs and I can honestly say I use ‘em all and can usually decide pretty easily which one I’m going to choose on any particular track. I watched a couple of videos on Phoenixverb and needed to ask...is this verb more aimed at people doing film and tv work who need to create spaces? Backyards. Car interiors etc. I know you can use any tool to experiment in whatever way you want but just wondered what niche this verb is aimed at.

[tobypearce]

I got this on a similar sale over Christmas. I was pretty annoyed that it doesn't use Izotope's regular licensing system and you can only license it to one computer.
I thought the world had moved beyond that. (Even Nexus!)

[joeyluck]

So I was logged into my iZotope account and saw a Loyalty Offer for PhoenixVerb for $39 (reg. price $99).

PhoenixVerb-Loyalty_Offer.jpg (19.51 KiB) Viewed 6519 times

I thought, "Oh that makes sense, they just had that crazy deal on it before releasing a new version...Let me see what that's about...Maybe they updated the GUI or fixed that annoying browser..." lol.

And then I remembered that I wasn't able to authorize PhoenixVerb through iZotope, and those products require iLok only. So, iZotope still doesn't know I own it. I could've accidentally bought another copy if I wasn't careful. Although, I'm not the one to upgrade to something without checking it out, but I know some other people might. I sent a support request. I'm hoping it will all be incorporated into their own system soon.

[joeyluck]

Also, whenever I create a PhoenixVerb in Reason, it automatically connects mono.

Even though both sets of L/R inputs and outputs are green. And both sets connect fine manually. I see no preferences inside PhoenixVerb to set things otherwise. This definitely should not be the default behavior for a reverb plugin. Not sure if it's a Reason bug or PhoenixVerb bug...

Anybody else observe this? I'm on Reason 11 and PhoenixVerb 6.0.1

[EDIT] Hmmm... About a year old:
https://forum.image-line.com/viewtopic. ... 548f9a0280

[hurricane]

Excalibur by EA is also on sale for $9.99 at PB and it's worth it alone for the chorus. Tried it on an EP patch and i thought "holy shit this sounds like a record".

[joeyluck]

Excalibur by EA is also on sale for $9.99 at PB and it's worth it alone for the chorus. Tried it on an EP patch and i thought "holy shit this sounds like a record".

Thanks for the heads up! Maybe they are going to go through the entire line like this.

Were you able to check that bug I mentioned above with PhoenixVerb?

[joeyluck]

Same bug seems to occur with Excalibur—hooks up mono by default. I have to manually connect the right channels. And the GUI takes quite a while to open for me.

[hurricane]

Were you able to check that bug I mentioned above with PhoenixVerb?

Yeah, I'm seeing the same thing. I'm guessing it's an Exponential Audio thing.

[hurricane]

Oh, and yeah - takes like 5 seconds for Excalibur's GUI to open for me. In Logic too. Not a huge deal because it sounds so great.

[joeyluck]

Were you able to check that bug I mentioned above with PhoenixVerb?

Yeah, I'm seeing the same thing. I'm guessing it's an Exponential Audio thing.

Ok I've sent iZotope a report already about PhoenixVerb. I'll have to test them both in Logic and Bitwig.

Also, Excalibur seems to have some noise (most noticeable on the tail), even with the "pass through" patch and/or with the VST device bypassed in the Rack...which doesn't sound like a true bypass, because it's much quieter when I remove the device completely versus bypass it. So a few things going on there...

Not bad for $10, otherwise the patches are really great. I'm confident iZotope might get to the bottom of it and optimise it a bit better too so it doesn't take 5 seconds for the GUI to open. I know they acquired EA, but seems like they've only taken over the products at this point—such as not even being available in their own product portal. Maybe they'll also update the browsers (I'd like to scroll presets rather than jumping to the browser to select a patch every time). I think the GUIs are fine, but I'm guessing they'll update those too. They've redone some of their own a few times over the years like Vocal Synth.

But yeah, try running an anything through Excalibur with a short release, select the "pass through" patch or bypass it in the rack, and hear the noise on the tail.

[joeyluck]

Oh, and yeah - takes like 5 seconds for Excalibur's GUI to open for me. In Logic too. Not a huge deal because it sounds so great.

Haha yup, that's the same amount of time I just estimated in my last comment. I'm sure that's something iZotope may fix.

[joeyluck]

Haha I was looking up when iZotope acquired Exponential Audio... A year exactly by tomorrow!

My confidence has swayed just a little. But we will see how they respond.