Duck
The reverb steps back while you play and blooms in the gaps, so a big room on a snare or a vocal doesn't muddy the groove. At 100% it drops by up to 24 dB under a loud hit and comes back within about a quarter of a second.
Rooms that
aren't there
Liminal Hz is a free convolution reverb for Akai MPC and Force. Play through empty malls, stairwells, backrooms and stranger spaces, made from impulse responses and running on the hardware itself.
Tested on an Akai Force and an MPC Live III, MPC OS 3.10 and 3.10.1
Switch the room on and off
Each sound plays dry and through Liminal Hz at the same time, so you can flip between them mid phrase. This is the plugin's real output, level matched with its Output knob so the louder one doesn't win.
Press play, then switch between Dry and Liminal Hz while it plays.
Real rooms and impossible ones, on the MPC itself. No computer, no latency, nothing to pay.
New in 1.4
Four additions that came from using it on records: big rooms that stay out of the groove, echoes locked to the tempo, sounds that aren't rooms at all, and presets in the MPC's own menu.
Tempo sync
Pre delay in note values at your project's tempo, following tempo changes as they happen.
- 0
- 1/128
- 1/64
- 1/32
- 1/16 T
- 1/16
- 1/16 D
- 1/8 T
- 1/8
- 1/8 D
- 1/4
Textures
Five impulse responses that aren't rooms. Play a drum loop through a struck pipe or a tuned chord, scatter a voice into grains, or make hi hats breathe.
- Struck Pipe
- Grain Cloud
- Tuned Chord
- Breath
- Bouncing Ball
The MPC's preset menu
Every preset sits in the menu at the top of the MPC's screen, grouped by what it's for, followed by the IRs on your cards. Picking one of your IRs starts it from Init, and a project always reopens with its own sound.
- Init
- Drum
- Vocal
- Keys
- Pad
- FX
- My IR
Everything on one page
Made for the touchscreen, with nothing hidden on other tabs. The knobs are grouped the way you reach for them.
- Space
- Mix, Pre delay (0 to 250 ms, or a note value with Sync) and Feedback, for longer tails that darken with each repeat like tape.
- Tone
- Low cut and High cut on the reverb only, and Width from 0 to 200%.
- Out
- Duck and Output.
- Trim, fade and time
- Start, End, Fade in and Fade out shape the IR. Stretch makes it longer and lower, Decay makes the room ring longer without changing its colour, and Reverse swells into the sound.
- Q-Links
- All 16, in the order you turn them while playing: Mix, Decay, Feedback, Pre delay, Duck, then the rest.
Nineteen places to start
The factory IRs are generated rather than recorded, so they're free to use like the rest of the plugin. Here they are as the MPC's menu groups them, with what each one suits.
Any of them on anything is fair game. Your own sounds go in My Presets: save the knobs and the IR, load them back exactly as saved, and name them from your phone.
Demos
Each video plays the dry sound first, then the same phrase through Liminal Hz, with the page showing what the plugin reported while it played. Every sound is synthesized, so nothing here is a sample.
Presets and features
Sound design
Your own IRs, and your phone
Drop any .wav into a folder named reverbs on your drives and cards. Rooms work, and so does a drum hit, a vocal phrase or a chord from your MPC: your sound plays through it.
- Tap Browse and open the address it shows on your phone to pick IRs from TONE3000. They download straight to the MPC.
- The MPC has no keyboard, so My Presets are named on the same phone page.
- No app to install. The pages close themselves after 15 idle minutes.
Install
On MPC OS 3.10.1 and later the MPC loads Liminal Hz by itself: one download for every unit, no install script. Earlier firmware uses the builds further down.
MPC OS 3.10.1 and later
Every MPC and Force on 3.10.1 or later, Gen 1 and Gen 2. This one folder holds both builds.
- On the MPC, open Preferences, then Enhancements (Beta), and turn on Enable Enhancements and External Plugin Support.
- Unzip the download.
- Copy the
Gm0rb - VST - Liminal Hzfolder into a folder namedVST2 Pluginsat the top of a USB drive, SD card or the internal drive. - Add an insert effect to a track. Liminal Hz is under External Plugins.
Coming from an older install? Copy your presets folder into the new folder, then remove the old install so Liminal Hz isn't listed twice. Before you switch, save the sound in each project you care about as a My Preset: if a project opens without the plugin, add Liminal Hz again and load it. Akai doesn't test or support third party plugins, so save your work often.
Earlier MPC OS
Gen 1
Force, MPC Live and Live II, MPC One, MPC X, MPC Key
- Download
Liminal-Hz-for-MPC-OS-<version>.zip. - Copy the
Gm0rb - VST - Liminal Hzfolder into yourSynthsfolder. - Run
vstscanner. Liminal Hz appears under Gm0rb in the MPC's plugin list.
Gen 2
MPC Live III and other RK3588 units, 64 bit
- Install
Liminal-Hz-<version>-mpc-aarch64.zipfrom the MPC OS Plugin Catalog. - Or unzip it on the unit and run its
install.shas root, following its INSTALL.md.
Gen 1 and Gen 2, side by side
Gen 1 keeps IRs to 5 seconds to spare its CPU. Long IR lifts that to 20 seconds when you want it, and Gen 2 always runs at full length.
| Feature | Gen 1 | Gen 1 with Long IR | Gen 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| IR length used | 5 s | 20 s | 20 s |
| A 5 s room at Decay 300% | stops at 5 s | rings about 15 s | rings about 15 s |
| IR resampling | cubic | windowed sinc | windowed sinc |
| Decay analysis | 2048 point | 4096 point | 4096 point |
| Latency | zero | zero | zero |
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. Liminal Hz is MIT licensed and free to use on anything you release, factory IRs included: they're generated, not recorded, so there's nothing to clear. If it ends up on your records, you can buy Gmorb a coffee.
Which MPCs and Forces does it run on?
Gen 1: Force, MPC Live and Live II, MPC One, MPC X and MPC Key. Gen 2: MPC Live III and other RK3588 units. It runs on the hardware in standalone mode; it isn't a desktop plugin.
Do I need MPC OS 3.10.1?
No, but it's the easiest way in. On 3.10.1 and later you copy one folder into VST2 Plugins and turn on External Plugin Support. Earlier 3.x firmware uses the Gen 1 and Gen 2 builds, installed the older way.
Can I use my own impulse responses?
Any mono or stereo .wav in a folder named reverbs on your drives: 16, 24 or 32 bit, any sample rate. Up to 5 seconds are used on Gen 1, or 20 with Long IR, and 20 on Gen 2. You can also download IRs from TONE3000 with your phone.
How much CPU does it use?
On an Akai Force, a 5 second stereo IR costs the audio thread about 3.4% of a block on average, with the long tail computed on a second core. Gen 2 has plenty of room for 20 second IRs.
Does it add latency?
No. The start of every IR runs in the MPC's own blocks, so the reverb begins exactly with your sound.
Will my old projects open with the new install?
That hasn't been confirmed yet. Before switching to the MPC OS 3.10.1 install, save each project's sound as a My Preset. If a project opens without the plugin, add Liminal Hz again and load that preset.
Something isn't working. Where do I report it?
Open an issue on GitHub with your device, MPC OS version and what you did. Akai doesn't support third party plugins, so please don't contact them about it.
Rooms that aren't there
Free, for every MPC and Force. One folder on MPC OS 3.10.1.