Rimehall: cold reverb, shimmer and tape for black metal
Rimehall puts a dark hall, an octave shimmer and a tape stage on one bus, and ducks the reverb while the dry signal plays. It is part 2 of the Code Chaos Black Metal Suite by Tim Borchert, who also masters at Polished. Use it on tremolo guitars, keys or vocals to push them into the distance without washing out the riff.
Hear it: Rimehall
Rimehall demo: a dry riff at 170 BPM, six presets, then a full mix (69 s)
- Dry: synthetic tremolo riff (Black Metal Tone Kit DI + amp + cab IRs)
- Rimehall: Frozen Forest
- Rimehall: Moonlit Tremolo Bus
- Rimehall: Cassette Cathedral
- Rimehall: Ice Shimmer Choir
- Rimehall: Grim Rehearsal Tape
- Rimehall: Northern Void
- Full mix: guitars through Moonlit Tremolo Bus, bass + Black Metal Drum Kit dry
The dry riff is synthesised; the demo was rendered with the plugin code itself, no third-party samples.
Reverb that still works after mastering
A limiter lowers the peaks and brings up everything quieter, and reverb tails are quieter than the riff. That is why a mix that sounds perfectly balanced often sounds wetter after mastering. Rimehall has four controls that help you plan for that:
- Ducking pulls the reverb down by up to 18 dB while the dry signal plays and lets it bloom in the gaps. Blast beats and fast tremolo stay readable, and the hall still fills every pause.
- Frost sets the character of the hall in one knob: up gives thinner, colder lows and a little more air, down gives a darker and fuller hall. Reverb with a lot of low end eats headroom that the master needs for kick and bass.
- Width controls the stereo spread of the effect. Check the mix in mono before you export: very wide reverbs can shrink or collapse in mono, and the black metal audit lists that among the most common findings.
- Hiss in the tape stage is optional. Use it on purpose, because limiting will lift it. You can also choose whether the tape colours only the reverb or the whole bus.
One more habit that saves a mastering session: export with the full tail. Decays go up to 30 seconds, so leave enough silence at the end of the song and let the mastering engineer handle the fade.
Rimehall and stem mastering
If you send stems, print Rimehall into the stem it belongs to, or give the reverb its own FX stem. Then the reverb level can still be adjusted in mastering without touching the dry guitars. How to export stems correctly is explained in the stem mastering guide.
At a glance
| Detail | Rimehall |
|---|---|
| Price | €19 on Gumroad, free demo available |
| Format | VST3 + Standalone |
| Windows | Windows 10/11: VST3 + Standalone |
| macOS | Apple Silicon (arm64) only, no Intel build. VST3 + Standalone, not signed or notarized: macOS blocks it at first, allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security. |
| AU / Logic Pro | No AU version, so Logic Pro is not supported. |
| Copy protection | No licence server, no login, no online check. |
| Hall | 8-line feedback delay network, pre-delay up to 250 ms, decay 0.3 to 30 s, damping 1 to 18 kHz |
| Shimmer | Octave up inside the feedback loop, 0 to 100 %, band-limited before the pitch shift |
| Tape / lo-fi | Wow, flutter, asymmetric saturation, tape tone 2 to 20 kHz, optional hiss |
| Ducking | Up to 18 dB |
| Presets | 14 factory presets |
| Latency | Constant 4 ms, reported to the host |
| Testing | Automated checks on every preset, including extreme settings. Not tried in every DAW yet. |
| Demo | The free demo is the complete plugin; it plays a short noise burst every 45 seconds. |
Checkout, payment and any applicable taxes are handled by Gumroad. Polished only links to it.
Tool, mix or master?
Reverb decisions are mix decisions, and they are hard to judge on the same speakers you tracked on. If you are unsure whether the hall is too big, the written audio audit at Polished tells you before mastering starts, including whether the mix holds up in mono.
Mastering at Polished starts at €79 per track, all prices incl. 19% VAT, pay after delivery if you like. Request an audio audit.
Cheaper in a bundle
Rimehall is part of the Code Chaos Black Metal Suite. It is included in both bundles:
- Black Metal Suite Essentials: €39 instead of €59 (save €20). Contains Gravesaw, Rimehall, Black Metal Tone Kit, Black Metal Drum Kit.
- Black Metal Suite Complete: €69 instead of €105 (save €36). Contains Frostfret, Hoarfell, Gravesaw, Rimehall, Black Metal Tone Kit, Black Metal Drum Kit.
Compare the bundles. Bought separately, Rimehall costs €19.
Rimehall FAQ
Does Rimehall run on a Mac?
Is there a free trial?
Is Rimehall only for black metal?
More tools
Try Rimehall free.
The free demo is the complete plugin; it plays a short noise burst every 45 seconds. Buying and downloading happens on Gumroad, under Code Chaos Audio.