KVR Audio

v1o · Post by **v1o** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 3:30 pm

Softube Tsar1 and Tsar1R.

I like them for adding an ambience to the mix because they give a real sense of depth and 3Dimensaional position to the sounds.

And also Softube Spring Reverb. Most realistic digital spring emulation I've heard. This is great on some sources and was recently used for Adele's vocals. It works great for bright vocals.

Tronam · Post by **Tronam** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 6:58 pm

v1o wrote:Softube Tsar1 and Tsar1R.

I like them for adding an ambience to the mix because they give a real sense of depth and 3Dimensaional position to the sounds.

And also Softube Spring Reverb. Most realistic digital spring emulation I've heard. This is great on some sources and was recently used for Adele's vocals. It works great for bright vocals.

I really like the Softube TSAR1 as well. They don't explicitly state any particular emulation, but surely the Lexicon 224 had to have been one of the primary inspirations.

asnor · Post by **asnor** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 8:06 pm

I love the vocal reverb on "Morning Has Broken", as done by Cat Stevens. It envelops you, makes you part of the track.

asnor · Post by **asnor** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 8:13 pm

I've been wanting to make an IR file of the bottom level of the underground parking garage at Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut. It's probably a couple hundred yards long down there and the reverb is tremendous. Unfortunately, due to its nature, it's a little noisy.

valhallasound · Post by **valhallasound** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 8:57 pm

Tronam wrote: I really like the Softube TSAR1 as well. They don't explicitly state any particular emulation, but surely the Lexicon 224 had to have been one of the primary inspirations.

I think that the TSAR-1 is closest to the 224 Plate. The TSAR-1 sounds denser to my ears than most of the other Lexicon algorithms. Not in terms of reflection density or modal density, but "colored" in a way that make me think that there is more stuff going on in parallel.

Sean Costello

valhallasound · Post by **valhallasound** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 9:23 pm

I'm not sure if this is a "favorite" reverb. It sure is a strong reverb:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VerK4zwMRQw

Not sure what the reverb source is. It could be Quantec QRS, AMS RMX-16, or one of the "weirdo" 224XL algorithms. Or it could be a strange real room, with highly compressed and gated room mikes. Whatever it is, it's weird and metallic.

Sean Costello

jumper24 · Post by **jumper24** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 10:12 pm

valhallasound wrote:I'm not sure if this is a "favorite" reverb. It sure is a strong reverb:

Sean Costello

I love the kate 80's era reverb...
Maybe a Quantec..

We have a room simulator called a Quantec, which is my favorite. It would be lovely to be able to draw the sort of room you wanted your voice to be in. I think that's the next step."

from here (Hounds of Love interview):
http://gaffa.org/reaching/i85_key.html

Turello · Post by **Turello** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 10:18 pm

Over the reverbs: You have good taste Mr. Costello, I love Kate!!! <3

Serious: I think a good reverb must have also some element of casuality... Es: Elvis, Lennon, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra etc etc...

Cheers from Sick-cily!!! :-D

jumper24 · Post by **jumper24** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 10:30 pm

Just searched the web thin for this Quantec.. GAS...
.. someone need to model that unit ..

Here are some IR's
http://rhythminmind.net/STN/?page_id=4188

antithesist · Post by **antithesist** » Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:32 am

I always guessed HOL was AMS, and speaking of AMS, these are a lot of fun (well, at least for me, anyway... but, I'm a cheap date when it comes to particular things: old mailers like these, Studio Sound magazine, etc.):

http://ams-neve.com/news-and-events/his ... erberating

I seem to remember having to jump through some hoops to download them as PDFs. I ended up getting an issuu account, though I don't know if that was a necessity.

Arrested Developer · Post by **Arrested Developer** » Sun Oct 20, 2013 10:12 am

I recently bought Phoenix (exponential Audio) and it's replacing mostly my Lexicon LXP bundle...

Then, I'm still really fond of the Early Reflection Section (with reverb turned off) in Waves True Verb.
p.s. the approach, where you can type in the distance is really very useful in lots of situations, I'd llike to see this
more often....

For drum loops and metallic sounds i often take psp spring verb (in subtle settings)

For small ambiences, the reverb in Ozone 5 is a real weapon.

In some situations i rather use Uebermod instead of a "real" reverberation.

daxliniere · Post by **daxliniere** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 11:40 pm

valhallasound wrote:No Valhalla DSP reverbs, please.

I know this kinda breaks that request, but I feel it's with good reason.
I really LOVE EOS and would like to see the same cross-platform support that VDSP plugins have.
Also, I'd love to be able to make the room size larger and also have a width control (preferably multi-band width). Reverb time is long enough, but IMHO larger room sizes would offer an even more flexible palette of sounds.

All the best,
Dax.

kelldammit · Post by **kelldammit** » Tue Oct 22, 2013 3:06 pm

First off, what an incredible thread! Lots of fantastic stuff to investigate further.

As with at least a few others, 4AD was big for me. Back in the day, when one bought vinyl, I'd picked up an EP on the merits of the cover art alone. I put it on the turntable to check it out, and record it to cassette for portable use, and this is what I heard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-sSFCgkd_U

As a beginning guitar player, I just couldn't believe that guitars could sound like THAT! U2's Unforgettable Fire was another such tune, but seemed to be more delay than verb...though in the cited example above, he clearly fed a long delay into the verb. Anyway, it was pretty earth shattering for me, as most of the alternative stuff i was listening to was more garage-y than anything else. Classic rock figured largely into my experience as well.

Fast forward a few years, and first the Alesis Midiverb III, and then Quadraverb Plus became the love of my life. I still love the sound of the Q+ to this day, especially for guitars. My friend had a PCM70 a few years on, but the overall sound of it pretty much left me cold. Boy do I wish I could've played with some of the "big boy toys", like the 224.

These days, I'm very happy with Aether, and will be repurchasing the ArtsAcoustic reverb too. They have very different characters. It's hard to describe sound subjectively, but to me, Aether has a really nice "misty" quality, sort of like grain, but more liquid, like droplets. It works really well on mixes. I'd lean toward the ArtsAcoustic for more "solid" sounding verbs. I would really really love a virtual Quadraverb to round things out, though

ryansupak · Post by **ryansupak** » Thu Nov 28, 2013 8:23 pm

Cool. Evidently I made a KVR account at some point, for some reason. :)

Easily my favorite reverb sound ever is Blade Runner, and I see a lot of people feel the same way, including my favorite person in the world to read reverb essays from ;) I was maybe 3 when I saw bits of Blade Runner on somebody's HBO and "That Sound" has been etched into me ever since.

I love the Lexicon PCM-60. It has like 10 buttons on it total. As others have said, I can respect that many reverbs give you lots of options, but in practice (which for me is using reverb live usually over a whole track) I never, ever tweak anything other than reverb time and mix. If the basic sound works I keep it and if not I move on. The Original MidiVerb by Alesis is cool too for the exact same reason.

When "tasting" reverbs, I always rate Yamaha low, but I have to acknowledge that they have a certain way of sitting in the mix that is unique and very useful. If one can't make it work with a Yamaha, however unexciting it may be, maybe the problem isn't the reverb.

I love the reverb sound on 60's-era Chinese and Vietnamese pop recordings, ballads from people like Yao Su Rong. I'm going to guess Springs, and I'm guessing they would sound bad on most things but they were supremely "dialed in" for their purpose.

The Aether is really beautiful sounding but it makes me think of modern action movie trailers. Probably wonderful for someone in that business, at any rate.

rs

valhallasound · Post by **valhallasound** » Sat Nov 30, 2013 6:52 pm

ryansupak wrote:Cool. Evidently I made a KVR account at some point, for some reason.

Easily my favorite reverb sound ever is Blade Runner, and I see a lot of people feel the same way, including my favorite person in the world to read reverb essays from I was maybe 3 when I saw bits of Blade Runner on somebody's HBO and "That Sound" has been etched into me ever since.

I saw Blade Runner at the Cinerama theater in Seattle when I was 12. 70mm, 6-track Dolby, GIANT screen. Unbelievable experience. The 4 outputs of the Lexicon 224 must have been put to good use for the surround effects. Dang, now I want a surround setup for home and the Blade Runner Blu-Ray.

I love the Lexicon PCM-60. It has like 10 buttons on it total. As others have said, I can respect that many reverbs give you lots of options, but in practice (which for me is using reverb live usually over a whole track) I never, ever tweak anything other than reverb time and mix. If the basic sound works I keep it and if not I move on. The Original MidiVerb by Alesis is cool too for the exact same reason.

I figure that the Lexicon PCM60 has 128 total settings on it, if you look at the possible button combinations. I really like the sound of that unit. The 10.9 kHz brickwall filter tends to flatter any mix.

I have a Midiverb II, and it seems to have more algorithms than the PCM60. I think that the PCM60 has 2 basic algorithms, with different size/diffusion/tone settings. The Midiverb II will switch between very different algorithms for the presets. NO controls on the Midiverb II, other than the preset used and the level, but it still has that mid-90s Warp sound in spades.

I love the reverb sound on 60's-era Chinese and Vietnamese pop recordings, ballads from people like Yao Su Rong. I'm going to guess Springs, and I'm guessing they would sound bad on most things but they were supremely "dialed in" for their purpose.

Maybe tape echos as well?

Sean Costello

What are your favorite non-Valhalla reverbs, and why?