Bold claim: Sunset Sound Studio Reverb II from IK Multimedia finally makes the legendary Hollywood rooms feel within arm’s reach, and it’s bigger and more capable than you might expect. If you’ve ever dreamed of mixing as if you were right inside Sunset Sound, this plugin delivers a close approximation that goes far beyond a routine update.
But here’s where it gets controversial: this is not just a smoother reverb or a larger impulse library. IK Multimedia introduces Volumetric Response Modeling (VRM), a technology designed to simulate how a real room responds to where you sit, which way you’re facing, and how you’ve set up your space. In practice, that means the reverb breathes with your mix instead of sitting statically behind it.
Sunset Sound Studio Reverb II expands to cover all three famous Sunset Sound studios, with up to 27 distinct live room source positions per studio. Each position was captured as its own acoustic event rather than interpolated from averages, preserving early reflections and the true sense of space far more convincingly than typical IR libraries.
A key enhancement is variable dampening for Studios 1 and 3, letting engineers tune absorption characteristics and reshape decay to mirror how the studio’s acoustic panels can be adjusted on the fly. This isn’t just library depth; it’s tunable room behavior you can hear in real time.
Two fully independent reverb engines run in parallel, which drastically expands production options. You can mix live rooms with chambers, iso booths, EMT plates, and AKG spring reverbs, each with its own EQ, stereo controls, and routing. The result is a spatial palette that shifts beyond traditional room emulation into immersive, production-ready sound design.
Size control in Sunset Sound Reverb II isn’t handled by simple decay time scaling. Instead, the plugin dynamically stretches or compresses the impulse response from 0% to 200% while keeping the original tonal character and spatial cues intact. This lets you tighten a large space or expand a smaller one into something cinematic without losing early reflections or detail.
To round out the package, two console signal paths are emulated: the API/DeMedio Sunset Sound Custom and the Class-A Discrete NEVE 8880. These add harmonic depth and tonal flavor drawn from the studio’s own vintage gear, giving you a richer, more textured mix as a starting point.
The library itself has grown to 336 stereo impulse responses from the live rooms alone, a substantial leap from the original version and a notable boost for any producer chasing authentic room sound.
If you already use T-RackS Sunset Sound Studio Reverb, you’ll receive an automatic discount at checkout. For more details, visit ikmultimedia.com.
