Sinevibes Skew £22

Cleverly dicing your input signal, Sinevibes Skew manipulates the fabric of time via some complex reverse engineering...

From Output's 'reverse engine' Rev to Initial Audio's invitingly simple Reverse to that ever-handy 'Rev' button in Ableton Live, playing our instruments backward is a lot less of a big deal in 2022 than it used to be. Only a few decades ago, reversing recorded music (and re-engineering it to make it useful) would have called for the delicate hands of a tape operator, and precision sequencing. Today, we're all but drowning in new ways to creatively reverse, treat and build up whole tracks around backward-flowing audio.

Appearing to be yet another of these straightforward tools to add to an ever-growing pile, Sinevibes Skew's methods of not just reversing audio, but granting deeper wiggle room to manipulate the type of rhythmic effects we can extract from it, surprised us with its nonlinear dexterity.

Sinevibes was founded by Ukrainian sound designer and composer Artemiy Pavlov, and he remains deeply involved in the company's product development. While we all hope for a resolution to Ukraine's current plight, the remarkably innovative software designed by Sinevibes over the years - including granular cloud reverb Albedo and shimmering space simulator Luminance - are testament to the wealth of talent that the country has produced.