I don't like complicated gear. Heaven, for me, is equipment that is easy to use and just plain hard to make things sound bad with. Enter the Kurzweil Rumour. I bought it out of my frustration of using software reverbs. Granted, I love the way convolution sounds and was fairly satisfied with Space Designer, sonically, but, the thing that killed it for me was how SLOW it is to use. Just wading through the menus to choose a preset could take me 30 to 40 minutes sometimes. That KILLS your creative vibe and, makes the client wonder what the hell they're paying for!
Interfacing:
The Rumour offers stereo analog in/out operation, or, SPDIF in/out. You can only use one input source at a time, but, you can mix analog in/digital out or vice versa. The SPDIF, of course, is limited to 44.1khz and 44.8khz sample rates, but, that is fine for me as I always work at 48khz. I chose to connect it to the SPDIF outs of my Digi 002 with the analog outputs being routed to 2 returns on my console. This made me nervous as my 002 is in turn clocked via SPDIF from my Metric Halo 2882. Fortunately, things have worked perfectly. The beauty of this set-up is that I can minimize conversion (only one stage now!), I get a stereo send into the Rumour (where as my console would mostly only have mono sends) and I can automate send levels to the Rumour via Protools! This is a very slick set up and has worked wonderfully with my workflow.
The front panel of the Rumour is simplicity itself. The buttons are large, easy to press and well labeled. The LED has big enough fonts that I can read it from a fair distance and all the banks are on a de-tented knob. Other than that, there is another knob for scrolling through parameters and a larger one for changing values. If you've ever used a hardware reverb before, you'll really not need to look at the manual at all, and if you haven't you'll STILL figure things out pretty quickly.
Sonics
Let me first say that the converters on this unit sound pretty damn good. And by that i mean pretty...DAMN...good. The algorithms have all been lifted from the highly regarded KSP-8, there are just less of them. The plates are truly a standout and rival ANY other reverb that I have heard in my life. They are very special and, combined with the great converters, would be enough to make me happy (considering what the Rumour costs). But it doesn't stop there. There are some wonderful ambient and small room algorithms that I've found to be killer on drums and percussion. They are very "believable" and won't having you missing convolution too much. The halls are very cool, but, to be honest, I haven't found myself using one yet. That is not to say that they are bad, just the other algorithms seem to steal the spot light away from them, at least for now.
In Use
I've now mixed 3 songs for a very demanding client where I employed the Rumour. I really enjoy its ease of use and choosing reverbs is now a fun process! As I quickly scroll through presets, everyone listens attentively and make comments such as "oooo, that one sound nice." I am generally able to find something I like within 3 minutes, then, from there, generally all that is needed are some quick adjustments to the decay time, predelay and LP filter. Ah, just like the good old days!
The algorithms really impress me with their ability to seemingly "glue" sounds together. This is something many of the IR's in Space Designer seemed to lack. I should also mention that I've discovered that about 8 of my most used IRs in Space Designer were from The KSP-8/Rumour! That is a testament to how good they really sound!
Last night I mixed a mid-tempo rock song with a piano in it that was screaming for a dramatic reverb. I can honestly say, had I not had the Rumour, I would have REALLY struggled to make it work. I was able to call up a gorgeous, incredibly smooth and open sounding plate that gave the piano just the right sense of drama and space. In fact, it sounded so good, it ended up being splashed all over the drums, including a large amount on the kick. I haven't wanted to put reverb on a kick drum in well over a year!
Conclusions
For a street price of $500, the Rumour goes head to head with a lot of software reverbs. I think its an easy choice as it offers you a nice set of stereo converters, faster operation, its better "future proofed" and more flexible. And if you comparing it to other hardware units in the same price range, don't. There isn't anything even close! In fact, the Rumour competes with some very high end units that cost over 4 times as much! It sounds so great and is so easy to use that it'll make you look like a genius.
Kurzweil Rumour Review
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