Denise Audio Perfect Room 2 review: Did perfect just get better?

When Denise Audio first released Perfect Room, it quickly became a favourite for music producers and engineers seeking a natural-sounding, transparent reverb plugin. With the release of Perfect Room 2, Denise Audio has not only refined the original algorithm for even smoother, more natural reverbs, but has also added several new features which has taken it to a whole other level.

While Perfect Room set a high standard for room simulations, Perfect Room 2 elevates the experience with new features that make the plugin more intuitive, dynamic, and precise than ever before. A much more beautiful (and very purple) aesthetic this time around, and the introduction of a visible EQ curve and a ducker adds levels of control that for me personally, and my workflow - particularly with vocals - are game-changers. Why? Because I spend a bit of time bringing in a multi-band EQ and compressor into my reverb buss chain every single time I create one.

I’m not really one for templates, which I know would save time here, but I like an organic approach (like Denise Audio, evidently…), and try to treat each project as ‘new’; for me, that keeps everything fresh and avoids everything sounding incredibly similar.

In addition to a little rolloff in the lows and the very highs, I like to compress my reverbs at a pretty high ratio, then it’s a case of finding the sweet spot - and I’m normally pulling out some problem frequencies around the 6kHz mark when working with vocalists, and of course each one sounds different from the other - you get where I’m going here, I’m sure

And with Perfect Room 2, when I dived into both those functions, I got to where I wanted to be without a compressor or an external EQ on the reverb buss whatsoever. As I said, game-changer.

And yes, I know loads of reverbs have nice EQs built-in, but in my opinion, not like this - I love how instant it is to work with, how responsive it is, and how good it is, sonically. And as for the ducker, it’s absolutely fantastic to work with, and I soon find myself addicted to tweaking its settings both in isolation (just the reverb itself) and in the mix on my lead vocal, which is where I did most of my testing.

The ducker basically lowers the volume of the reverb in response to the dry signal, ensuring that the reverb doesn’t interfere with the clarity of the original sound during louder moments. It does everything my compressor (occasionally two compressors, in fact) would normally do, but in a smoother fashion, with true transparency, and at zero latency.

When the dry signal softens, the reverb swells back in - so on my vocal track, for example, the reverb dips in volume when the vocalist hits a loud note; and when the vocal softens, the reverb tail is allowed to bloom, adding depth without muddying the mix. It allows you to cut vocals through easily in a busy mix, and with voice and acoustic guitar, it’s just stunning.

More Natural, More Transparent

Even when pushed to extreme settings, such as increasing decay time or room size, the reverb stays smooth and controlled, with no noticeable distortion or glitching. This transparency makes Perfect Room 2 an excellent tool for creating realistic room simulations, whether you’re aiming for a small, intimate space or a vast, atmospheric reverb tail - bright or dark, gentle or aggressive, it can do it all, and very easily.

And for those who aren’t perhaps as adept or confident with their audio engineering tools, there are also some quality presets for a whole manner of applications here, so if you’re new to EQ and less of a deep diver in terms of processing a reverb, you can learn a lot from seeing what Denise Audio has done with these presets - even ‘default’ sounds amazing before you touch a dial, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a bit of that magic sauce pretty quickly.

With Perfect Room 2, Denise Audio has taken an already strong reverb plugin and made it much, much better. The improvements in sonic transparency, combined with the introduction of the ducker and the visible EQ curve, make this an indispensable tool for anyone who wants to craft high-quality mixes with relative ease.