Reverb suggestions

[mikehalloran]

For those of us who spent a lot of time in analog studios, the Eventide is what a few racks and rooms of classic reverb units sounds like. You kept the plates and large springs in their own rooms to minimize acoustic interference. I'd pay the current price if I had to.

Otherwise, the hybrid convolution reverb in Ozone 5 Advanced and the 'verbs in DP do everything else I need.

I can see the need for a high end plug for sound track work, I suppose but that's not a need for me now.

[cbergm7210]

Valhalla, Eventide UltraReverb and Ircam VerbSession covers things nicely in a standard template.

http://www.fluxhome.com/products/plug_i ... session-v3

[bayswater]

Folks on the board here have said that UltraVerb's superb for contemporary stuff

Just to add to the confusion, when I got Ultraverb with the no brainer deal last year, the first thing I thought of when I heard it was Yardbirds. Is that contemporary? (I think Mike had a similar suggestion above).

[Tesionman]

I use the Lexicon Reverbs a lot!

cheers

[Shooshie]

1. Altiverb was great. It used to be, bar none, the best reverb plugin. Unfortunately there are a lot of comparable options these days, and for the prices and features Altiverb is still living in the days of when it was still the only major player. It's not that Altiverb is worse, it's simply that everyone else has stepped up their game tremendously.

I think I understand what you're saying, and yet it doesn't quite come out right when you say "Altiverb was great."

Altiverb is great! It is still the most respected of IR reverb products. I think it's a good thing that others have started catching up and providing competitive prices. Altiverb is the reason they exist, and they are the reason that Altiverb keeps getting better.

Ah, it's complicated, isn't it? And I suppose each person has their own way. So, let me distill mine down to a few points:
1. I rate things positively on how much I'm able to do with them, or how likely they are to achieve the sound that's in my mind's ear.
2. I rate negatively based on how limited/frustrated they leave me, even after learning them the best I can. (many algorithm-based reverbs fall in this category, along with simple IR verbs and many free impulse responses)
3. Price is a consideration when it feels extortionist, or out of touch with what's out there. (Lexicon comes to mind)
4. competition among various top-ranked products is generally irrelevant, except as it falls in the above 3 categories. I try to avoid brand-name influences, whether pro or con, and focus on the actual product.
5. Demos can impact my opinion of an audio processor or VI or DAW.

Altiverb does just about anything I want, rarely leaves me frustrated, is priced on the higher side, but not extortionist or out of touch such as Lexicon. I've used about 6 IR reverbs, and I still prefer Altiverb, though I haven't used Reverberate, which I'm sure must be one of the greats given the endorsements in this thread. In any case, Altiverb is not a "was." It's still among the top IR's of all time, still improving, and it has some of the finest IR's ever recorded. (THAT alone is at least 80% of an IR reverb's greatness.)

Shooshie

[Michael Canavan]

[though I haven't used Reverberate, which I'm sure must be one of the greats given the endorsements in this thread. In any case, Altiverb is not a "was." It's still among the top IR's of all time, still improving, and it has some of the finest IR's ever recorded. (THAT alone is at least 80% of an IR reverb's greatness.)

That's the big selling point to me, the high end IR's, the stage positioning device in there is another.

I am torn though, because Reverberate is pretty immediately a work of genius. Plus I loaded in a really nice high end free sample pack into ProVerb and it's shockingly good sounding.

Audio Ease goes on 20% off sales at Audiodeluxe and one is going on right now which drops it down to about $416, compare that to about $80 for Reverberate, which has a huge amount of controls over the IR after you load it... in a perfect world I would buy both...

Just to mention, I have Ultrareverb and it is pretty great, as well as the Lexicon LXP, also pretty great.

[dewdman42]

what is the free high end sample pack you referred to?

[Rick Cornish]

Hi....
The built-in MOTU verbs are very usable and produce good results, but Sparkverb—as previously mentioned—is fantastic.
http://www.uvi.net/en/software/sparkverb.html
I find I use algorithmic verbs like this more often than convolution reverbs. Maybe I'm old school. At $199, it's a little spendy, but well worth it. Also, UVI puts this on sale from time to time and I got it for $99 by signing up for UVI's newsletter and watching for the sales.

Also want to mention Valhalla Shimmer. I like supporting independent developers and this is a good one. A value at $50.
https://valhalladsp.com/shop/plugins/valhalla-shimmer/

Happy tracking!

[cowtothesky]

They're all pretty good these days. I prefer Audio Ease's Altiverb, for the controls, displays, expertly recorded IRs, wide variety of halls, clubs, and other spaces; and the sound. Truthfully, you have to work with it to get the sound you want. There are many options, and sometimes one approach will sound great, while another time it is the opposite of what you want.
Shooshie

Altiverb is my go-to reverb. I love it. I am constantly getting new free IR's. The interface is perfect and updates could not be simpler. It is automatic, so whenever you have the plugin open, you can update it in your DAW. You do have to tweak it, but I would have to do that with any conv reverb. I have found a few IR's that I absolutely love, so I usually use those. But, I wish I had the time to really delve into the numerous IR's that it offers. Or, better yet, make my own IR's, which you can do in Altiverb.

I also have the Vienna Suite package. I used to use the reverbs in it, but find Altiverb to work as well or better. Also, VSL does not give free IR updates. You have to pay for them and they aren't cheap. You get a small selection of IR's with the purchase, however. I love the eq and compressor, but don't use the convolution anymore.

[Shooshie]

what is the free high end sample pack you referred to?

Ditto. That's all that separates me from ProVerb. Come to think of it, I've got a whole CD or DVD of Waves IRs. I wonder if they'll work in ProVerb without modification?

Anyway, this thread has been worth it for me, because I'm going to try out Reverberate — which may be my next IR reverb, and I might even try out SparkVerb. The last algo reverb I really liked was RealVerb, which I used before it was locked up on a PCI card. (That was about 1999 or 2000, until DP4 for OS X came out in May, 2003) Maybe SparkVerb would replace that. Actually, I like Waves' TrueVerb and RenVerb. Just not as much. Plate reverbs are my favorite of the algo-verbs. But I use Altiverb for nearly everything these days.

Shoosh

[Robert Randolph]

what is the free high end sample pack you referred to?

Ditto. That's all that separates me from ProVerb. Come to think of it, I've got a whole CD or DVD of Waves IRs. I wonder if they'll work in ProVerb without modification?

Anyway, this thread has been worth it for me, because I'm going to try out Reverberate — which may be my next IR reverb, and I might even try out SparkVerb. The last algo reverb I really liked was RealVerb, which I used before it was locked up on a PCI card. (That was about 1999 or 2000, until DP4 for OS X came out in May, 2003) Maybe SparkVerb would replace that. Actually, I like Waves' TrueVerb and RenVerb. Just not as much. Plate reverbs are my favorite of the algo-verbs. But I use Altiverb for nearly everything these days.

Shoosh

You HAVE to try out the ValhallaDSP products. They are very high end products despite the price, created by someone who is well-respected in the scene of reverb development.

[Tritonemusic]

That's all that separates me from ProVerb. Come to think of it, I've got a whole CD or DVD of Waves IRs. I wonder if they'll work in ProVerb without modification?

I don't know, and I'm sorry if I'm off the track, but I really love the free Bricasti M7 Samplicity IRs. I use them in ProVerb all the time and they can be manipulated to great extent with ProVerb's controls.

[Tobor]

I've been obsessing about Reverbs lately as well, probably because I just had Proverb in my templates set to MedHall with a little +18 predelay and rarely feel the need to change it! I really should get around to throwing the Bricasti IRs in there as I downloaded them long ago.

For Vocals I either used Proverb or more recently the CLA Vocals plugin which has three great settings and with more or less send it's perfect 90% of the time. I always plug this plug and it's my most used plugin. I picked up the MM set a while back but its Reverb seems to work better on drums than vocals.

So it's been quite a while since I investigated Reverb plugs and since I love a deep sound on my horns thought I'd bring myself up to date and check things out. I bought the Ultrareverb during the no brainer sale and it is indeed great. I probably could have stopped there as I haven't even checked out all the presets yet. Great delay in it as well.

But I stumbled on to Valhalla. Wow. Valhalla Room, Valhalla Vintage, and Valhalla Ubermod. Buy them. Have fun. Just what the doctor ordered. Highly recommended. $50 each.

You also hear good things about Exponential's Phoenix and R2 reverbs, I bought their new Excalibur plug during the introductory sale and it is excellent, has a little bit of everything in it. Their reverbs will have to wait as I have more than enough to keep me busy.

Waves just released H-Reverb and as much as I love the H-Delay, this will probably have to wait too. Meant to be a bit of a resource hog, but a nice layout and some unique features.

[Shooshie]

That's all that separates me from ProVerb. Come to think of it, I've got a whole CD or DVD of Waves IRs. I wonder if they'll work in ProVerb without modification?

I don't know, and I'm sorry if I'm off the track, but I really love the free Bricasti M7 Samplicity IRs. I use them in ProVerb all the time and they can be manipulated to great extent with ProVerb's controls.

Not off track. That's great info. Thanks!

[edit] Found a link.

Shoosh

[Shooshie]

You HAVE to try out the ValhallaDSP products. They are very high end products despite the price, created by someone who is well-respected in the scene of reverb development.

I'll keep Valhalla in mind for future experimentation. Right now I'm just going to focus on Reverberate, as most of what I do really works best with a great IR. Of course, I'll be comparing it to Altiverb. I'm sure either one will get me where I'm going, but I always like to try out good products. I'll almost surely buy it at the end of the demo period.

I've got it downloaded, along with the Samplicity M7 IRs.

Thanks for the suggestion, Robert and all others who recommended it.

Shoosh