It’s always great to see something truly innovative, and today sees the launch of REV, designed by Gregg Lehrman and his team at Output. It’s going to get producers, composers and artists really excited - saving hours of time - as it offers you tons of instruments, loops, rises, pads, pulses, and swells all in reverse, in real time. Not to mention the supersonic stutters!
Gregg Lehrman
Greg is a producer and composer working in film and tv on productions like Avatar, Inglorious Basterds, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood and Martin Scorsese’s new Boardwalk Empire, as well as for companies like Apple and Scion. It was his own frustrations in the studio that drove him to make something new.
We set out to make a product – for us – that we REALLY wanted. When we write/produce music we dive pretty far into the sounds and a personal favourite was flipping various elements in reverse. And yet, the process of flipping/cutting/sliding it all around was painstakingly frustrating. So two years ago we set out to build ourselves a great toy.
Here’s a taste of what it can do.
The project went so well that they hooked up with 40 collaborators and partnered with Native Instruments to get it out into the wider world. The team’s previous credits include major feature films and TV shows, trailer campaigns for Avatar, The Avengers, 127 Hours, sound design for films like Prometheus and software for Propellerheads & Apple.
As they worked on it, it became more than just a problem-solving bit of software - there were new aural delights!
REV started out as a virtual instrument meant to solve a technical problem, to play things in reverse in real time. But as we sampled musicians we began playing around… creating pads, pulses, swells etc. and were struck by the organic and unexplored nature of these sounds. Who had ever heard the sound of a piano in reverse looped to create a pad? And how did that sound when we doubled it with a guitar harmonic, stuttered sine wave, or a reverse beat?
So they dumped the first version of their software and went on to make something that was not only functional but included a ton of brand new sounds.
The team created a new Los Angeles based music software company called Output to launch REV, and it is built within the Native Instruments Kontakt engine, and installable through the NI Service Center.
A few early endorsers include: David Kahne (Producer of Paul McCartney, Lana Del Rey, Sublime, The Strokes, Kelly Clarkson) Bill Brown (Composer CSI) Jeff Beal (Composer House Of Cards, Ugly Betty) Greg Townley (Producer, Mixer: Sideways, Up In The Air) Jeff Rona (Composer, Lead figure in Building MIDI).
We’ve got a top producer testing it out for Kitmonsters and will bring you more soon.
Output say that REV offers users the first chance to play instruments in real time in reverse and includes over 1,000+ pre-sets spread over 4 unique engines.
The sounds lock to tempo and work within all major DAWs. Engines include a wide array of filters, stutters and FX that can help the user tweak the sound both in the studio and on the fly.
Available from outputsounds.com, REV will be sold as a full collection for $199,