Best sounding reverb plugin?

gongli

New member
I am using Tal Reverb with Reaper DAW, and wondering if I upgrade to expensive Lexicon one, I would gain in quality significantly. While I am pretty happy with the Tal, it does change the sound if I add a lot of reverb - and I am trying to get away from that - would the Lexicon do that for me?

Thanks a lot in advance for your words of wisdom...
 
The trouble is, reverb is a very personal thing...everyone has different ideas about what it should sound like.

I use Audition and 90% of the time I just use the built in stuff. However, for the other 10% I use DASample Glaceverb...which is free and I'd definitely try it before spending money.

FYI, I've never much like the sound of a lot of Lexicon reverbs. To my ear, a few (mainly plates) are okay but the rest are a bit metallic. However, as I say, that's purely a personal taste.
 
Are you expecting the sound to not change when you add a lot of reverb?

Lol. Right?


You need to tweak the delay of the reverb if you don't want it to hammer the sound. It just depends on what you want. Do you want your sound source to seem right up front, but still within a large space? Or do you want that shit to be a million miles away? That's up to you. Get to tweaking.
 
+1 to what Greg said. With reverb you need to adjust things to get the best.

...and, if you can't be bothered with adjusting all the options, start with "Early Reflections" and "Decay" (or whatever similar features are called on your reverb. Those two are the biggies to get right.
 
Thanks a million for the invaluable tips!
Will definitely experiment with what all of you said ...

Happy as a peach to have received them - please keep them coming, as I am a newby and need the words of seasoned pros...
 
Don't worry about "sounding like" some amp in the first place. Concern yourself with getting a good-sounding bass track within the context of the finished piece. Doesn't matter how you get it.
 
When I started mixing, I gave reverb a lot more weight than what it's actually worth.
Most reverbs from the last 5 years can work for pretty much everything if mixed right.
 
Jump on Youtube etc. and look for a video explaining what the individual parameters in a reverb plugin actually do and what physical concept they imitate so that you can gain greater control over sculpting the sounds you're chasing. At the end of the day, what differs from one reverb to the next is mostly just the algorhythms that determine how the parameters respond to the source. Master the controls and you'll actually be able to make a personal judgement on which reverbs are "good" in the context of your own projects.
 
Jump on Youtube etc. and look for a video explaining what the individual parameters in a reverb plugin actually do and what physical concept they imitate so that you can gain greater control over sculpting the sounds you're chasing. At the end of the day, what differs from one reverb to the next is mostly just the algorhythms that determine how the parameters respond to the source. Master the controls and you'll actually be able to make a personal judgement on which reverbs are "good" in the context of your own projects.

Wow. That really made it all clear....
 
Wow. That really made it all clear....

I'm not sure if you're genuine or sarcastic, because I don't feel as though I cleared much up. Sometimes the best answer to a question is another question!

To the OP:

I recently stumbled across a really well presented video by Mixing with Mike (youtube) where he explains the parameters of Waves Rverb and how they can be used to recreate a particular room sound, parameter by parameter. I'd definitely recommend having a look for it, even if you don't own Rverb.

Beyond that, I'd recommend youtubing a review or in depth demonstration of the actual reverb plugin you do have access to, so that you can have its parameters explored and explained to you. Once you've had a play around and feel that you can get into the basic ballpark by manually editing the controls (rather than relying on presets), then I'd say you'll be in a better position to judge whether or not you need a different plugin.
 
The only good algorithm is a dead algorithm.

Unless it's a reverb algorithm in which case it needs to be alive...in the sense of the opposite to a dead room.

Or something.

Look, it's been a long day, okay?
 
There are a whole buttload of good free reverb impulses out there, and ReaVerb is free. Put the one with the other, and...remember that it takes two instances and a little but of fucking around with routing if you actually want "true stereo" from it. But then, there aren't a whole lot of real "true stereo" verbs out there.

I use GlaceVerb quite a lot.
 
It'd be interesting to share reverb routing techniques ... each project inevitably differs, but people develop templates or "go to" set ups. I tend to go for the Early Reflections -> Medium Distance -> Plate/Far, 3 reverb set up with musically timed delays sending into them.
 
I'm going to have to be honest and say that I don't have a specific set of reverb adjustments.

I have some favourite 'verbs for various purposes but the adjustments are made by ear for the material. This is compounded by the fact that different reverb applications of totally different adjustments and names for the those adjustments.

Just to give you an example, the reverb settings I used most recently are:

Reverb-Effects_zpsbv9bjzt8.jpg

It sounded good to me but those numbers are useless if you don't have the same software as me...and equally useless if you don't have the same programme material (in this case a vocal) that I was working on.
 
I'm using Waves H-Reverb. Insanely stellar verb. TONS of control to design EXACTLY what verb you need.

Another thing I love about it is the ducking filter.... I used to run a sidechained comp after my verb, triggered by whatever I wanted my verb to duck... now I can just do it right within the plug.... stellar... I'm big on things that speed and improve my workflow, so being they added something I do a lot to such a great plugin, I'm even more stoked on it.

Seriously awesome sounding very. Can be as big, monstrous, or 'clunky' as you want - or can be super silky buttery smooth and 'transparent' if you want.... love it... absolutely love it.
 
I have lexicon Pathalon that came with Cubase LE. I think there are some great reverbs in that package. It's much better than Waves reverbs IMO. I mostly use the presets and rarely turn the reverb mix past 8. A little reverb goes a long way. I hear a lot of tunes swimming in reverb. That's not a sound I like.
 
Like I said, I actually often just stick Glaceverb on the master bus and call it good, but when I want to get serious...

I went and bought Voxengo's Space Designer. In it I built a room, and I stuck up some microphones and recorded through them four sets of impulses at progressively longer distances. I bring up each of these on its own channel and send different proportions of each instrument to them based on where I feel they should sit in that room.

In past I often did a thing where I'd have an actual true stereo verb with everything sent to it with (about) the same panning as the main mix. Then I'd duplicate it and make it longer but swap the stereo channels and mix it lower than the first.

I've been doing a lot with having a dry amp panned slightly one way and a similar amp with a whole lot of spring reverb panned further the other direction lately. Maybe not exactly what this thread is about, but a variation on a theme.
 
I have lexicon Pathalon that came with Cubase LE. I think there are some great reverbs in that package. It's much better than Waves reverbs IMO. I mostly use the presets and rarely turn the reverb mix past 8. A little reverb goes a long way. I hear a lot of tunes swimming in reverb. That's not a sound I like.

Lexicon Pantheon came with Cakewalk- same same? I still find uses for it.
 
I don't know about anyone else but I have been favoring convolution reverb to algorithmic reverbs especially with all the good impulses flying around the internet.

Not saying they are bad, just what I have been using as of late. My go to is still SIR 2, but I snagged that before Cubase started including one with the program (and REVerence is fantastic IMO)
 
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