Listening to effects: Quality over cost

[XTREEMMAK]

I'm actually having a small bit of difficulty in generalizing effects like what makes Reverb A different from Reverb B ex. What makes Reverb A out of the Nuendo package different from the Renessaiance Reverb from the WAVE's bundle? When listening to effects like this (or any other effect), what should I be listeing for or to? I really dont see what would a $60 plug make from a $500 plug reverb....how the reflections are reacting or something....?

 

[DM1]

With reverbs in particular, the difference is mainly in how accurately the software reproduces "real life". For me, it's most obvious in the reverb tails. The cheaper reverbs sound "fake" if the reverberations last long enough to give a sense of the size of the room they're emulating. The longer the reverb lasts, the more the echoes sound unnatural.

One thing that can help a lot in learning the difference is to set up some blind A/B tests for yourself. Basically, practice listening to different manufacturer's effects in a blind scenario, and learn how to tell them apart.

This software is great for that: http://www.pcabx.com/


(And in general, the "do what sounds best" rule applies. Sometimes, the $60 reverb plugin works better for a task than the $2000 outboard unit.)