Bettermaker BM60

In which I reminisce about the good old days when consoles were real analogue consoles, and all the digital stuff was in a rack to one side. And a review of the Bettermaker BM60 along the way.
Bettermaker BM60:
www.plugin-all...
Music: "Always And Forever" by Dan Worrall
Bandcamp link:
dan-worrall.ba...
If you like this type of content and you want to see it more often, consider signing up for Channel Membership: / @danworrall
Or you can just buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/danw...

[@usedusermoser]

That’s Dan Carlos Wantana on guitar 🎸 ladies and gentlemen 🎉

[@TeeDubz]

Finally, a hand reveal ;) Nice playing Dan! Also great improvement suggestions too!

[@SALEENS7GTR5]

He started his channel in 2006. At this rate we may get a arm or shoulder in 18 years!

[@Selman2]

@@SALEENS7GTR5 elbow reveal at one million subs?!!

[@DanWorrall]

I feel safe to promise a penis reveal at 1M.

[@robinvinith]

On​lyfans coming soon

[@TeeDubz]

@@DanWorrall Hehe! How would we know it's not a body double? ;)

[@Harrysound]

Is this the first footage of the Worrallmeister in known existence ? That’s quite a vibrato you got there. Mike Oldfield would be impressed. And I agree there is always room for a knob in the bottom section.

[@qyu]

I think we saw footage in one of the FabFilter videos on distortion, though he was just playing single notes in that one.

[@BleuNoirProductions]

Your pun is not going by unappreciated. 👍

[@Lazored1]

I think when it comes to the IR mentions, i think thats how they got the sounds from the old hardware version, capturing Ir from all the different settings. The buttons are the presets and the IRs. Might be wrong though, but i bet thats how they got the reverb types anyways.

[@DaftyBoi412]

^^ This; I was going to make the same comment, but I'll just upvote this one instead now. ;)

[@michipeka9973]

exactly my thought

[@bonolesso]

Which wouldn't really work, anyway. IRs only work for linear, time-invariant processes. Lexicon reverbs have, apparently, lots of baked-in modulation, which makes them time-variant. Which is why IRs don't really capture the Lexicon sound. Or plate reverbs, or spring reverbs (but here it's more due to the fact that plate and spring reverbs have some nonlinearities due to the electronics involved). They might get close but they don't really "nail" it.

[@BananasananaB]

Check part 2!

[@anteshell]

Gotta say it was a genuine joy to watch you play your wonky music. Your music becomes so much more human.

[@martinweber988]

I'm a simple man: I see the bandcamp song announcement and I come to youtube waiting for the video.

[@DayBeforeTomorrow]

I find this channel to be the most sage and intelligent channel on KZbin regarding the science of sound!

[@markr9069]

"This 'little mix' I've put together" ... and then a great drop in. Love it. Keep up the good work, Dan

[@headspacetheace]

you're actually the goat man, i dont care about this reverb plugin at all but i still love every video you make, you just explain so many things so well it makes me HAVE to care

[@elgamerico]

"embiggen the dry sound" A cromulent description 😏😏

[@wardharrison]

Thank you thank you Simpsons

[@samkenny3075]

You beat me to it!

[@breitbartsimpson4940]

i recently mistakenly called my wife's cat "corpulent" instead of the desired "cromulent"... it still fit

[@wardharrison]

tubby tabby.

[@bronxcartel6193]

Not only a master of sound, but the English language!

[@FromTheHipp]

Crazy how the playing took such a simple idea and made it sound so much better.

[@jeremylarue4503]

Always love Dan's music/ guitar playing. Great as always.

[@highbred]

I'm a simple dude, I see a Dan Worrall video, I like.

[@C_F_M]

As a regular handler of sheet metal in my day job, I know for certain that sheets of metal will transmit a high frequency transient rather than a dull semblance 🙃 I like cool sounds no matter the source

[@5amJones69]

I really like how you're able to give a lot of very useful information, stuff that we're all wanting to know but never gets said, yet you're also very good at leaving your opinions out of it or at the very least having your opinions(in regards to preference) be someothing of a footnote as we all differ and most things in music (especially which reverb you like) are very subjective.

[@0e0]

I truly love vintage digital reverb plate settings. Such a nostalgic sound

[@Mik3l24]

Yeah, Lexicon reverbs. Not as fun as some of the other options, but in the mix - they absolutely do sound great.

[@tidalwavestudio]

great video as always! I replayed the last 30 seconds 10 times for the music...what a beutiful nostalgic mood that music creates

[@adrianpitscher157]

Great that you are at your regularly uploading pace … great content thank you 🙏

[@gscottanthony7483]

Just wanted to say thank you for both your main content and your fabfilter/shaperbox videos, there's always something new to think about with these. Your videos are uniquely enriching✨ :)

[@Rhuggins]

I quite like the color of this. You can really pump up the “level” parameter on the dry signal (or with the unit in “bypass” mode) and it acts like a really vibey and interesting limiter. I actually bought it partially for this reason. You had mentioned the input parameter adding saturation, which it does- but the “level” saturates in a totally different way

[@IntheDAW]

legend says Dan is actually just a talking hand

[@jaydy71]

and he's in a band called The Talking Hands

[@ChemaMrua]

The other day I told my girlfriend I'm a big Worrall's fan and how much I've learned with his videos, and she looked for a photo on internet. "Don't bother", I said, "He is a ghost, an anima, an old spirit from ancient times". Anyway, about reverb on guitar, It came to my mind Steve Hillage watching the video, and I wonder what type of delays and reverbs he used. Allan Holdsworth, who has been my hero all my life, didn't like reverbs and only used delays (yeah, essentially are the same thing), lots of taps, I guess to have more control creating reflections.

[@_mickmccarthy]

Haven't used this one, but Wave Alchemy's Pulse (also emulating the PCM-60) is one of my go-to reverbs

[@aaronseigel9898]

Embiggen the sound? It's a perfectly cromulent reverb unit.

[@MrNicknayme]

As always - awesome! Thank you, Sir.

[@shmups_hobby]

Nice to see this, as i’m enjoying my time with number 3. Like the other comment states, the second half of the run is no joke- they want you to work for it! Also nobody else has a homing attack like Kohtaro, so you will have to use the normal shot more. It becomes a test of skill to use the Shikigamis effectively!

[@anatomicallymodernhuman5175]

That mix took me back as the returns were muted/unmuted. It surprised me how much it reminded me of the hundreds of mixes I did in Pro Tools with nothing but two instances of D-verb.

[@AG-mz7vm]

Thanks Dan!

[@BoAstrup]

The PCM 60 is still a great verb. Mixed quite a few albums having only PCM 60, 70 and Roland SRV-2000 available back in the 80s. This plug in definitely has it’s place.

[@francescozani9488]

Proud owner of a gtx2 here to praise this work!

[@HumanBeingWithFeelings]

This reverb is amazing. Of course it's not perfect but the good news is, it doesn't have to be perfect anyway :). Really easy to use and almost inmediate good results. cheers!

[@ileutur6863]

Always love the contrast between studio and live audio. All the meticulous phase alignment, listening for ringing or aliasing, worrying about dozens of channels and all their sends and groups, goes out the window in favor of "screw it, this will do"

[@DanWorrall]

I think that rather depends what level of live sound you're talking about. If you're crewing a big show you won't last long with a screw it attitude.

[@hujaboy]

thanks Dan great video as always! love the music :)

[@LETTMusic]

Main comment I left on Plugin Alliance's BM60 video was suggesting they add a built in gate section just like they have the built in ducker section, and they seemed receptive to the idea. It's definitely marketed more as an 80s throwback reverb, so leaning in on giving built in features like a gate for the classic 80s gated reverb would be an easy win for the developers here to squeeze in on the bottom row. I agree with you that simple lowpass/highpass cutoff knobs on the bottom would go a long way for standard quality of life must haves in reverb plugins these days. It's interesting seeing companies like Cableguys figure out reverbs with gate functionality built in, so I'd love to see it patched in on this one. Plugin Alliance/Brainworx is generally really solid about giving us something modelled off something old, but with some newer bells and whistles, so hopefully Bettermaker leans in on some of these ideas to take this one a little further. That bottom section has plenty of space for a few new ideas to pop down there.

[@marcoose777]

Really nice track Dan

[@shmups_hobby]

Nice to see this, as I’m enjoying my time with number 3. Like the other comment states, the second half of 2 (and 3!) is no joke. They want you to study!! Also, nobody besides Kohtaro has a homing attack. It becomes a test of skill as to how much you can max the multiplier with a short distance weapon. Not sure there has ever been a video that tells people how the different weapon types affect your playstyle/capabilities…

[@eranddroory9987]

Dude you grew up on Mike Oldfield for sure.. 😊

[@hodshonf]

Bought a PCM60 new back in the day Great unit

[@ITBProEng]

Athough we often saw the 60 in our FOH and Monitor racks in my 20 year career in live production audio we also had other lexicon verbs show up including ye Olde 200, as well as 224 and 480s with Larc for FOH. Agree that quick setup and repeatability of the 60, especially at festivals was always welcome though.

[@JohnnyVbeats]

Pulse by Wave Alchemy (also a PCM 60 model) sounds just as good if not better, is a lot cheaper, and includes more controls, for example ducking, gating, mid side eq, modulation, transient shaper. I received a free plugin update yesterday via mail that added some great improvements.

[@DaftyBoi412]

I used to love the old Lexicon plug ins when I was bold enough and insignificant enough to get away with pirating plug ins. Now I buy any plug in I decide to use more than a handful of times, but I just can't bring myself to pay THAT much for a single vst plug in reverb (with varying stages of locked of features the cheaper you go), but they did sound absolutely amazing in the mix back when I did use them. Good to know some more alternatives are coming out now though!

[@davewestner]

Putting saturation on the input to the reverb is a smart move....definitely something that's been lacking from the reverb plugins that I've used...I've always put a saturation plugin before the verb....really makes it sound more like an 80s/90s digital unit.....those things were kinda trashy!

[@timgosden5519]

Waiting for the new Harrison 32Classic Channel Strip review…

[@Notinserviceij]

I think everyone is As harrison have said it, it's just a single channel version of their daw lol which is a clean eq and some optional tape saturation

[@TransistorLSD]

​@@Notinserviceij And a great compressor. Their compressors are good, on par with SSL channel compressors.

[@iam-music]

Yes finally a hand reveal...but far far more than that...hehe...the ubiquitous late 70/early eighties thumb curl on edge of fret board so we now know that hammer on were unlikely vocab and more likely Floyd’s or zep influence perhaps?

[@iam-music]

Oh and combined with the penchant for transistor clipping and not valve type

[@leonardojobst6784]

always love the pcm60 and this plugin is almost similar to the real thing... simple reverb like you say... I used to use the wave alchemy PULSE version which is also very similar but without the option to saturate the input and thats is a plus in the bettermaker version.... great review dan!

[@RobinParmar]

One technique here should be emphasised: use just one or two reverbs on your whole mix. Keeps things clean and consistent. Yeah, I am old school as well.

[@InFiNiGhTe]

Man, I still remember those Mike Oldfield vibes from my millenial childhood. I could imagine you doing some sort'a Tubular Bells influenced song in your own way to be honest!

[@schmutzigo]

I have both this and Acustica Audio Silver Volume E. Comparison hasn't left questions, the Silver E sounds better overall (plates too). It offers more like a transcendental experience.

[@TjMoon91]

I’ve never used a real plate and have always struggled to identify what makes a reverb algorithm a ‘plate’ reverb, because it seems to vary so much between plugins. Now I know why.

[@djGreenALERT]

If there is a single solitary flaw in a VST, I trust nobody more than Dan to find it!

[@GloveBunniesVideos]

I had a Lexicon MPX 100 back in the 90s, the cheapest way to get into the Lexicon club, and it still had an effect on vocals and pads that I can't find on any modern reverb plugin, even other Lexicon clones. This one might be different...

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

Thank you

[@LeCheFTube]

About the convolution - my guess is this is not an algorithmic reverb Instead - this is a convolution reverb in which you choose the correct IR by means of switching specific set of buttons (each combination of buttons results loading of a different single impulse response)

[@pyratellamarecordingstudio1062]

I bought a real one recently and bought a oto bam to compare the two. I ended up keeping the bam and selling the pcm. The one thing that surprised me about the pcm is that its converters made it sound very “hard” or kind of aggressive while also being lofi which I kinda liked. However I would actually use something with that sound pretty rarely so didn’t make sense to keep it. I do not hear that same effect in this plug-in. The oto bam does kind of a similar vintage lex digital lofi verb thing, but it just sounds better to my ears, and has all the options you’d want in a more modern take.

[@quietdeep8663]

It would be interesting to hear your thoughts about replacing a limiter with converter plugin.I heard about some engineers clipping their converters instead of using a limiter otb.Very interesting concept but not much info out there.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

I mean, they don't have to reverse engineer the code. Just create impulse responses using the unit and build the plugin around that. That's what Acoustica does. That way you just need the Lexicon and don't have to worry about the legal implications of potentially using intellectual property without permission from the owner.

[@milestag1857]

It doesn't seem like the kind of thing I would want as a primary reverb in a mix - the kind of music I generally work with is a bit too "modern" sounding for that, I think. But I can easily think of scenarios where I would want to make something a bit grimier that this would be perfect for. I'm also LOVING the way it clips those keys when redlining the input

[@minsteraim]

I have a sneaking suspicion this might be a convolution reverb in disguise, especially since type, size, length , and tone controls are just simple push buttons (it would be just 64 impulses if i am not wrong). Saturation could be modeled on original unit i suppose. Of sourse this is just an uninformed guess. And still, if it sounds good, and it really does, nothing wrong with that.

[@DerekPower]

Lexicon also sells its own reverbs via a plug-in form if money isn't an issue.

[@helmanfrow]

Okay, wow; I am still positively reeling from that impromptu hand reveal.

[@JanMichalSzulew]

"Bessermacher" would sound even better :)

[@Alchemetica]

I wish you would do some of the narration/explanation/review to camera. Humans gain more information when we can see the facial expressions and the lips. In the simplest terms they draw focus. Nonetheless, I enjoy your podcast videos.

[@cornerliston]

The stereo width is something I often complain about in plugin reverbs. Especially since the modelled original hardware doesn't have that but a natural sounding stereo field. Some plugins even go into negative phase meaning they sound absolutely horrible for ears like mine that has a brain that just can't decode that weirdness.

[@kaori-3882]

Dan, would love to see a review of Threebodytech Deep Vintage AI analog modelling.

[@timalright]

came for the tutorial, stayed for the music

[@Sintrania]

I'm not here for the content. I'm just here to appreciate a good sound both of Dan and the music.

[@nero00kyrie]

"You can't see me" Dan Cena

[@qyu]

Hey Dan, some of my friends make music as a hobby and while they aren't into any mixing work, sometime's they'll want some tone shaping options like increasing the sub, or air frequenices. But the stock options in their DAW are fully fledged Parametric EQs, so a lot of the time it slows down their workflow with all the options and graph display. In the DAW they use, you can create surfaces to map controls from plugins, and I've been thinking I could create a simple preset to simplify the interface of an existing stock EQ. (remove the graph display, linear phase options, oversampling, etc) However, I'm not sure what control scheme I should use. I could create a console type layout, with only a few frequency bands, but with knobs for gain, frequency, & width, or I could create a Graphic EQ based control scheme, with preset frequencies that control the gain via sliders, and have a small width knob below each. I'm leaning towards the Graphic EQ style, as they most likely wouldn't want surgical control over each band, however I believe the console layout would teach more about EQ and how to use it incase they start getting more into mixing, whereas they might rely too much on graphic style eqs otherwise. What do you think? Tips for either control schemes would be greatly appreciated.

[@DanWorrall]

I commend you for trying to help your friends, but if it was possible to create an EQ that you could use without knowing how to use EQ someone would have done it by now... I would suggest pointing them to the free Slick EQ, and let them get comfortable with three bands and relatively gentle curves. That can do 'more bass' or 'brighter': if they want to go further they're going to have to learn how, or just let someone else do it.

[@Beatsbasteln]

it's cool they made a plugin about something you can connect with nostalgically and I could hear how it improved your guitar solo just right, but I'd never get a plugin that has excuses written across the interface with why it doesn't make this and that a continuous parameter. i'd find it cooler if they just took the original algorithm and gave it a new spin with modern plugin features

[@brucewayne251]

Air Windows KPlate series is a very faithful emulation a real plate reverb and it’s free

[@RaKanMusik]

I think the Monofier control would be helpful for sound design and electronic music styles based off pumping sub like techno.

[@lk0707]

Pretty cool when you mute returns, but what I've noticed is that sound is moved back in the field so much. Maybe too much ? If that's on return, dry signal should stay in the front with transient intact, and only wet signal should moved back in the soundfield, right ? or am I missing something ?

[@horizontalblanking]

I dig the “Robert Fripp-esq” tone and style on the solo. Tasty.

[@stephenfeldman8957]

I had one for years

[@TheBumblebee84]

from the size of it I guess its made using IR ran through the original unit, since there are not many parameter combinations possible on the original unit anyway

[@soundtoys795]

Dan can you give more details on the ProQ3 preset you used. I'm having trouble recreating it.

[@thomasbroker69]

That explains everything….

[@ErickT_MX]

Thank you Dan!!! Would be interesting your take on Bettermaker's flagship product, the analog mastering limiter... worth it?

[@davejohnsonmusic]

Nice playing Dan and cool tone as well... sounds like a fuzz of some kind? I did notice when you were comparing the BM60 plate to the UVI (and saying how it was night and day), that you had a long decay for the BM60, but more of a medium decay for the UVI. But I'm guessing you were referring to the overall quality of the plate algorithms themselves? Adding a gate does make sense to dial in that 80's snare sound, but for that, you really want to gate the snare before it hits the reverb and then another gate after. Might be hard to pull off for one unit.

[@DanWorrall]

Big Muff into a dirty amp

[@davejohnsonmusic]

@@DanWorrall Right on man. Keep sharing your lead guitar stuff with us.

[@djvoid1]

Sounds like a perfectly cromulent plug-in

[@DaftyBoi412]

He has hands! :O

[@RZkillz11]

This is what I call a review. Thanks!

[@AndreasLyngstad]

Dan has a cam!

[@bobschwarz1]

The monofier is a thing, when mastering material for release on vinyl. There is a problem if the lower frequencies are too much off phase

[@DanWorrall]

That's a whole mix thing though. The sub bass gets filtered out of my reverbs anyway, there's no excessive stereo width down there, there's nothing at all.

[@dragonemortale9056]

Probably the reason the damping regulator is not available, and the claim of the IR are due to the fact that the entire plugin is a record of IR with the fixed options of the unit. And not a code knock off

[@Durkhead]

Hey mister dan you made a video where you nulled out song so it only played the distortion. I was looking for it and cant find it, do you know the video im looking for?

[@onteraction8294]

What might feel primitive and odd about this is that it copies the pcm60 very closely. Sound and function.

[@neighbourhoodmusician]

Embiggens the sound? Seems like a perfectly cromulent reverb.

[@DoubleDoubleU]

Is this the first time we see his hands? If yes, now we know what his hands look like. Seems like he is not fully AI.

[@SR1B]

Okay, so Dan Worrall has two hands. In addition to a mouth. He looks more and more like a human.

[@RickyLandi]

Can i load my IRs reverb with this, like in Reverberat3?? Is this feature present?

[@DanWorrall]

No. Perhaps there's some way to hack it to play different IRs, haven't tried. But there's lots of other plugins that can do that.

[@johnwilmer2551]

My PCM 60 just gave up the ghost. who can fix it in LA ?

[@happyshadow]

Dan can you make a video about how most distortion plugin's wet dry mix knob doesn't mix well

[@DanWorrall]

Yeah, it's the same problem I moaned about in compressors recently. I'm not sure it warrants a separate video: I did mention the same thing also applies to distortion.

[@happyshadow]

@@DanWorrall what is it with distortion, it's like the top end starts to phase or something. Ends up sounding dull if there's a 50 50 mix

[@owencmyk]

Have you released the song in this video ? I really really like it and want to add it to my playlists

[@DanWorrall]

Yes. Bandcamp link in the description. It's up on Tidal already, should be arriving in all the usual places shortly.

[@owencmyk]

@@DanWorrall Alrighty thank u !!

[@_DRMR_]

Do you have any recommendations for cross-platform reverb plugins? This one doesn't run on my OS unfortunately.

[@DanWorrall]

I wasn't aware this wasn't available on all platforms. It might help to know what OS you're using... But the Valhalla reverbs are good and fairly priced.

[@Pummelfay]

But Dan it has that analog look. It must be good then

[@stoopidvideoz]

5:15 Darude, Sandstorm?

[@stephenmaxam]

Yeah what he said 🤓

[@genejas]

there's another way to reverse engineer a reverb, reverse engineering the code itself and porting it to a plugin. That way, it can be entirely accurate without requiring the rights to the original, though i doubt they did that here

[@NoizFloor]

One could do that, but after the release of the said plugin you would be in a lot of legal trouble business wise.. Better to capture the impulse from it and use it or decode it somehow without actually stealing the code from the original unit..

[@genejas]

@@NoizFloor if the algorithm specifically is not patented, it should be straight up legal