I chase the bright elusive butterfly of reverb (apologies to Bob Lind.)

B

bmg

Member
Listening back to some old tapes, what struck me was how tough it was for me to find a classic reverb sound.
I tried a few, but was always disappointed with the results.

My first attempt was taking a direct out from an old Fender guitar amp, and the sound was surprisingly pretty good.

Next was the effect from a Kustom live board, which was rather simple, but also pretty good for what I was doing.

I then bought an LT Sound (remember them?) EC-2 from Lacey Thompson and, although it was a fairly nice unit, it drove me crazy trying to get a good balance between the sounds.
The problem was in the layout, with the ‘blend’ knob controlling both delay and reverb.
Anything past ‘1’ engaged the reverb while in the delay mode, and it was hard to dial back, so everything sounded like it was swamped.
(Not to mention the teeny-tiny ‘decay’ trimpot, which wasn’t very accurate, and was a hassle to adjust.)
It also distorted on the high end (which was a fault with the actual unit, which had to be returned and repaired.)

Then came the 2 Lexicon units - the LXP1 and 5 - which I really didn’t care for at all.
The sound was lush, but not what I was looking for - too dense, though I never really gave them a chance.

I was looking into actually getting an EMT plate, as they were kind of affordable in the 90’s, but didn’t have the room for it.
I was also told of an AKG unit that was supposed to be incredible for vocals, but the owner wanted $7,000, which was out of my budget.

Anyhow, my question is: what would be a good unit for sale nowadays that will give me a basic, no fuss, classic reverb sound?
Getting back in the game, I’m not too sure what to go with - an outboard unit or software plug-in.
I'm basically recording acoustic music.

One song that always sticks out in my mind as having great reverb is ‘The Night Before’ by The Beatles; you hardly know it’s there, but it sounds great nonetheless (transparent, I think they call it.)
Another is the tambourine on the intro and the bridge(?) on ‘The Things We Do For Love’ by 10cc - such a long, lovely decay.

I’m aware delay and reverb can be subjective things, and hard to translate into gear, but here’s hoping I can finally get the sound in my head out onto tape.
 
Interesting a Fender amp tank and the verb on Night Before' are sort of similar -simple straight decay, not much predelay, sort of upper mid 'splash.
Just to go with what I got here..
First off how you are on the basic parameters? The basic stuff that defines how verbs act.. IMHO give you a leg up at least to 'what you have, why, hopefully how to get wherever 'there is :>)
'Acoustic music, may not need nearly as much as expected :>)
'Reverb 'speaks about as much by what it's fed -tone, content what isn't put in etc., as it's parameters. (Well almost :>)
Love to get into the parameters and stuff ..me to sleepy :>)
 
The only thing that I use for Reverb (other than in a guitar amp) are the Bricasti M7 IRs that were published by Samplicity some years ago. They aren't available anymore although you might be able to recover a set from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. There's everything from large halls, small rooms, 20+ plate reverbs, chambers. I've always been able to find something that I liked, although I tend to work with a vocal chamber, a few plate reverbs, and a few ambience settings. I'm not recording classical music where some types of hall reverbs might be appropriate. There's 134 different reverbs there, so there's a lot to choose from.

Of course, if you want to go hardware, you can buy a Bricasti M7 rack unit for $3000+.
 
Hey BMG, just wanted to say, I'm up for following this up here ...if you'd like :>)

I will add this ....
- an outboard unit or software plug-in.
I'm basically recording acoustic music.
Click to expand...
While a 'simple hardware solution might seem attractive, likely that's not true, plus you can get there just as well in plugs.
Just to go with what I got here..
First off how you are on the basic parameters? The basic stuff that defines how verbs act.. IMHO give you a leg up at least to 'what you have, why, hopefully how to get wherever 'there is :>)
'Acoustic music, may not need nearly as much as expected :>)
'Reverb 'speaks about as much by what it's fed -tone, content what isn't put in etc., as it's parameters. (Well almost :>)
Love to get into the parameters and stuff ..me to sleepy :>)
Click to expand...
 
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