Why bring Raum into your live setup, and how do you keep it reliable?
The theme of my album DO YOU lives at the intersection of doubt, healing, and fulfillment. Emotions that can feel different every night. I wanted a reverb that I could play in real time, rather than just set and forget.
That doesn’t mean there is no reverb in my backing tracks. I just think that having a live reverb such as Raum is an excellent way to set the mood. It’s an ambient instrument to play in the quieter parts of songs. I use freeze to set the tone or short decay times to wash out the whole mix in the break before the drop. That makes it really impactful when everything gets tight and punchy again.
Reliability is mostly about architecture and restraint. I only run Raum on returns, keeping my CPU headroom generous. Mapping is simple and range-limited, so I can’t accidentally flood the mix in an adrenaline moment. Raum is designed to respond well to real-time control, which makes it a good partner for performance.
Regarding the freeze function, I have an automated “Freeze Off” control over the IAC Driver at the end of each track.
Pro tip from Felix Raphael: Work with a two-return method. Use a short Grounded return for presence and a longer Airy or Cosmic return for lift. Crossfade between returns rather than switching algorithms mid-line.
