Bricasti M7 Alternatives: That Desert Island Reverb
Different ways to get that legendary reverb sound.
These Bricasti M7 Alternatives will help you to get that transparent, high-quality reverb sound of this modern classic high-end hardware reverb.
In this Article:
The Bricasti M7
The Bricasti M7 is a high-end hardware reverb designed by ex-Lexicon engineers Brian Zolner and Casey Dowdell. However, rather than leaning toward legendary digital reverb designs like the 480L, the M7 stands on its own as a modern classic, with a powerful algorithmic reverberation synthesis engine rather than convolution impulse responses.
It didn’t take long for the M7 to have a major impact on the industry, and in a relatively short time, it became the industry standard in studios and live sound environments worldwide. There are a few characteristics that make the M7 such a desirable processor, including the detailed and dynamic way that it handles reverb tails.
In addition, the overall transparency of its sound engine allows you to dial in huge amounts of reverb that seem to instantly become melded onto the original signal, in a very pleasing way. However, perhaps the most sought-after aspect of all is the unique quality of the Ambient Spaces algorithms and the subtle glue they bring to a mix. Any chance this can be done cheaper than $5000? Let’s find out.
Bricasti M7 Alternatives: Wave Alchemy Magic7
Magic7 from Wave Alchemy gives you all 234 presets from the Bricasti M7 in a straightforward free plugin with 11 different reverb types, including hall, plate, room, spaces, nonlinear, chambers, and ambience. To help you familiarize yourself with the library and find your go-to sounds quickly, the browser lets you mark favourites and add tags.
Although the interface is decidedly simple, you still have access to processing for sound shaping and getting your sounds to sit nicely in the mix. These include transient smoothing, ducking, and an ensemble modulation effect. Meanwhile, you also have some tone controls and an option to tempo sync your pre-delay.
When you are flipping through the presets at first, you can lock the wet/dry mix control, so you don’t lose the perfectly balanced reverb amount you just dialled in. Overall, Magic7 is a worthwhile M7 alternative option, and it’s free, so there’s no chance of buyer’s remorse. Get it at Plugin Boutique.*
Bricasti M7 Alternatives: Samplicity Number Seven
In 2010, the Dutch company Samplicity released a free IR library of the Bricasti M7, which is still available today for Space Designer in Apple Logic Pro, Steinberg REVerence, LiquidSonics Reverberate, and Audioease Altiverb. Later, in 2024, the company followed up with a fully-fledged emulation of the M7 in plugin format, called Number Seven.
With Number Seven, you have instant access to 136 reverb settings from the Bricasti M7, including halls, plates, rooms, chambers, and ambient spaces. With the various controls, you can tempo sync the pre-delay and add separate modulation to the early reflections and the reverb tail, as well as balance the levels of these two components.
What’s more, you can shape the signal precisely with the EQ (with real-time analyzer), compression, and expander/gate section. The Number Seven plugin is available in three options, including the basic Essentials version, the standard Core edition, and the Pro edition, which offers 9.1.6 Atmos support for immersive audio applications.
Bricasti M7 Alternatives: LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven
LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven gives you the coveted sound of the Bricasti M7 in your DAW and provides an additional degree of control beyond what is possible with the hardware. Besides the Seventh Heaven plugin, LiquidSonics also offers the M7 Link software that lets you take control of the Bricasti M7 within your DAW.
With Seventh Heaven, you get all the original presets (236 total) from the M7 hardware, including those from the v1 and v2 firmware updates, as well as the non-linear reverb algorithms. Without a doubt, one of the most impressive features is the 5-band EQ section that allows you to process decay times according to the frequency range.
There is also an affordable, scaled-down version of Seventh Heaven, which can be upgraded to the Pro version at a later stage. What’s more, you can find LiquidSonics M7 algorithms in Slate Digital Verbsuite Classics, which provides a wide range of other legendary reverbs too. Get Verbsuite Classics at Thomann.*
Bricasti M7 Alternatives: Strymon BigSky MX
The BigSky MX takes Strymon’s popular flagship to new heights with the 32-bit processing power of an 800 MHz tri-core ARM chip, JFET preamps, and the ability to layer and pan two independent reverbs with a choice of 12 different engines. What’s more, the BigSky MX has IR support and editing, so you can load the M7 IR library we mentioned earlier to get that Bricasti sound.
However, because the BigSky MX is a pedal, there are a few performance-orientated features like the Swell function, which can be used with any reverb engine and in dual mode. Also, there is a range of unique features, such as the Bloom Harmonics engine, the Chorale Choir engine, Magneto effects, and frequency-based Shimmer.
While the BigSky MX does cost twice the price of a high-end reverb plugin, it offers more sonic diversity than a software emulation of the M7. In addition, the included IR library expands the creative scope even further, so it isn’t fair to see the BigSky MX as just another guitar effects pedal. Get it at Thomann.*
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