Best reverbs ?

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 3:49 am

I realize more and more that a big key to really good sound is carefully tweaked good-sounding reverb. This naturally leads to the question of which reverb is best.

I'm sure both convolution and synthetic reverbs have their uses, but I am leaning towards a synthetic reverb because I work primarily with synthetic music and I find the tweak-ability of synthetic reverb useful. This reverb will be used in the studio, and also live, so flexibility with the CPU-usage is a plus.

So what's the cleanest, most transparent software reverb?

How much better is hardware?

How does the best-sounding software-based synthetic reverb compare to, say, an Alesis Quadraverb?

3dot... · Post by **3dot...** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:47 am

Alesis Quadraverb sucks ballz....
but I generally prefer a hw unit to sw reverbs...
but thats because of their liveliness and not transparancy...

I like tc powercores reverbs smooth and lush.(although dont own it anymore)
and waves reverbs... (sorry hatas!!)

lately..except the PCR (hw)
I find myself using lives built-in reverb most of the time!

mizer · Post by **mizer** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:10 am

depends on what you are asking kind of. do you want an old style reverb or a convolution reverb? the oxford reverb is great for the former and there are several good convolution reverbs out. something like altiverb or the IR1 plug will sound fantastic with the right impulses. i think the altiverb plug even comes with some impulses like the 480L.

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:40 pm

Vari verb pro

4ace · Post by **4ace** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:31 pm

I use reverence by www.audiodamage.com

As with most reverbs it has it's place and i think a hardware reverb would be more of an all in one solution with many different types of halls,rooms,and plate's.

The most important thing is that it suits the song and is mixed properly...

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:36 pm

IK Multimedia Classik Reverb

Voxengo Pristine Space

UAD reverbs (Dreamverb, Realverb pro)

freebies

SIR

Ambience

Kjaerhus Classic Reverb

mdk · Post by **mdk** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:39 pm

altiverb.

easy as that.

tried them all, altiverb wins every time.

at first i though, 300 quid FOR A REVERB? can i really justify spending that much?

but yeah. i use it all the time. its amazing and the impulse library is full of great stuff.

here :

http://www.audioease.com/Pages/Altiverb ... bMain.html

and read these :

http://www.audioease.com/Pages/Altiverb ... tials.html

theyre right. all of them. its amazing.

seriously. and the support is great too. i needed re-authorising for an OS change on christmas eve. It took about 20 minutes for an email response to sort me out.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:51 pm

Altiverb is a great reverb but convolution reverbs are not always the best solution.

Synthetic reverbs such as Classik Reverb are really gaining a lot of praise and credibility. Everyone has been doing convolution for the past 2-3 years, it has been done to death and more people are reverting to algorithmic reverbs.

In terms of modelled acoustic spaces and impulses, Altiverb can create the ambience of a wide range of acoustic spaces for sure. I don't think anyone will say it's not excellent and even for it's high price it is worthy. But you would probably want a contrasting reverb, especially if going for metallic, artificial sounds often heard in electronic or industrial music.

morerecords · Post by **morerecords** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:59 pm

pcm60

polyslax · Post by **polyslax** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:59 pm

leedsquietman wrote:Altiverb is a great reverb but convolution reverbs are not always the best solution.

Synthetic reverbs such as Classik Reverb are really gaining a lot of praise and credibility. Everyone has been doing convolution for the past 2-3 years, it has been done to death and more people are reverting to algorithmic reverbs.

In terms of modelled acoustic spaces and impulses, Altiverb can create the ambience of a wide range of acoustic spaces for sure. I don't think anyone will say it's not excellent and even for it's high price it is worthy. But you would probably want a contrasting reverb, especially if going for metallic, artificial sounds often heard in electronic or industrial music.

I hear what you're saying but with the proper IRs you can still do a lot with Altiverb beyond spaces. I use the Spirit Canyon IRs with Altiverb for some very different fx.

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 12:01 am

That's true. Creative minds will always find a way to push the envelope...

R.J.Dubya · Post by **R.J.Dubya** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 12:11 am

Arts Acoustic Reverb is many people's favorite, and it is quite excellent.

I like wavearts masterverb quite a bit too. A big part of why is that it's very cpu friendly.

I have quikquak's rayspace, which is very powerful and fun to program, what with shaping the room and everything, but a bit more of a hog.

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 12:17 am

anyone tried VirSyn's "Reflect" ??
http://www.virsyn.de/en/E_Products/E_RE ... flect.html

mdk · Post by **mdk** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:09 am

leedsquietman wrote:Altiverb is a great reverb but convolution reverbs are not always the best solution.

Synthetic reverbs such as Classik Reverb are really gaining a lot of praise and credibility. Everyone has been doing convolution for the past 2-3 years, it has been done to death and more people are reverting to algorithmic reverbs.

In terms of modelled acoustic spaces and impulses, Altiverb can create the ambience of a wide range of acoustic spaces for sure. I don't think anyone will say it's not excellent and even for it's high price it is worthy. But you would probably want a contrasting reverb, especially if going for metallic, artificial sounds often heard in electronic or industrial music.

sure, i still use other stuff for un-natural reverbs (particularly reaktor) but for those times when i want a reverb its altiverb. arts acoustic is pretty good but it never quite had that transparency i wanted, its kind of hard to define but where you feel the space more than you hear the reverb.

mizer · Post by **mizer** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:22 am

leedsquietman wrote:Altiverb is a great reverb but convolution reverbs are not always the best solution.

Synthetic reverbs such as Classik Reverb are really gaining a lot of praise and credibility. Everyone has been doing convolution for the past 2-3 years, it has been done to death and more people are reverting to algorithmic reverbs.

I don't really think you can do convolution reverb "to death" anymore than you can do reverb in and of itself "to death". in addition to modeling actual spaces you can also model old school reverb boxes like the 480L. convolution reverbs don't really have a signature sound like old school boxes do, it's just a matter of how close they can sound to the real deal. I love the oxford reverb and certainly high end hardware reverbs but if you want versatility and good sound a convolution reverb is easily the best choice. They are just as well suited to electronic and industrial as any other reverb, you just need the right impulses. i agree with mdk on this one that altiverb is prob the best, along with the IR1. The only real reason to use a non-convolution verb is if the reverb does something strange with modulation, etc.