Ableton Forum

I think Ableton needs to add a good reverb. It makes such a gigantic difference. The current one sounds horrible and it made me think Ableton was dull and uninteresting. Then I chucked a Valhalla Room reverb and the difference is night and day. I even downloaded Komplete Start and used the Guitar Rig "Nice Room" reverb setting and it sounded much better. Am I missing something? Has anyone found a good setting for Ableton's reverb?

The first thing I do is switch to high quality mode. I think it defaults to ECO which is grainy sounding.

Other than that the main parameters is tweaking size and decay. Higher size is usually smoother.

Then you have the shelving parameters to sort of EQ it and pre delay.

It also has a randomize mode to get a more chorus effect.

It definitely isn't the greatest reverb but it can sound decent when tweaked properly. It also kind of assumes you are familiar with reverb parameters as alot of reverb have more dumbed down parameters.

On the other hand, if you own Suite, the convolution reverb is awesome.

Martin Gifford wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 24, 2019 1:52 pm

I think Ableton needs to add a good reverb. It makes such a gigantic difference. The current one sounds horrible and it made me think Ableton was dull and uninteresting. Then I chucked a Valhalla Room reverb and the difference is night and day. I even downloaded Komplete Start and used the Guitar Rig "Nice Room" reverb setting and it sounded much better. Am I missing something? Has anyone found a good setting for Ableton's reverb?

There’s no one setting anyone could recommend since each different sound source needs specific treatment. I think the stock reverb is pretty decent for room sounds and chambers that aren’t too over the top. But if you’re looking for big cathedrals and huge spaces it tends not to be as impressive as eg Valhalla reverbs. I suggest starting with high quality mode, setting your decay time, then size, then the modulation on the early reflections or diffusion sections, depending on which is more important for the specific sound. Then mess with the pre and post reverb EQs to eliminate mud in the lows and to tame any metallic sound in the highs. You’ll never get the massive Valhalla sounds but really it’s hard to use those in a mix anyway without muddying things up. The stock reverb is still effective for the more practical stuff, more a work horse than a shoe pony.

That said the Valhalla stuff is great at workhorse and show pony so you may well get those and never use the stock reverb again. I still like it though cuz it uses so little cpu and works great with Push 2.

chapelier fou wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 24, 2019 6:58 pm

On the other hand, if you own Suite, the convolution reverb is awesome.

Pretty much my go to when I'm working in Live. The default reverb is decent as well, though strangely I usually like the Eco mode for it's character.