sourceverb

a game in the late 90s did not simulate a room. it picked one off a list. every space you walked into — a vent, a stairwell, a cave, a flooded basement — was one of the same 29 rooms, and after enough hours you knew every one of them by ear. SourceVerb is that list of rooms.

there is a second half to it. back then the sound had to fit on a disc, so everything got squeezed until it was thin and grainy. SourceVerb does that squeeze too, and you decide how far it goes — a little, for something that just sounds old, or all the way, until a clean modern vocal comes out the other side sounding like a sound effect somebody pulled off a 1998 disc.

it is not trying to be a real room. it is trying to be the memory of one.

pick a space and the CRT shows you where you are standing — a cave, a hangar, a sewer pipe, underwater — with the glitch wipe and the title card the era came with.

macOS (AU and VST3) and Windows (VST3).

• 29 rooms, from a padded cell to somewhere going badly wrong
• squeeze the sound until it falls apart, or barely at all
• a switch for the underwater half of the era
• a CRT that shows you the room you are standing in
• macOS (AU + VST3) · Windows (VST3)

SourceVerb is an independent product. it is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Valve Corporation or Creative Technology Ltd. Half-Life is a trademark of Valve Corporation. it is named here only to describe the sound this plugin emulates.