Arts Acoustic Reverb appreciation thread

[nick at artsacoustic]

Just to add my appreciation here too... having read all the posts, and listened to the mp3s, and downloaded the demo, I've now done the only thing remaining, which was to eat the pie/ sorry, I mean buy the reverb!:-)
Excellent indeed (and great customer service too.. I had a slight "online" problem with my order, which they sorted out for me in no time at all! )

good to know it worked (phew )
btw, thank you all for your warm words, the`re highly apreciated.

[Sascha Franck]

Well, finally I just downloaded and installed the demo...
This is a fantastic reverb. Very flexible, very good sounding, what else could one ask for?
The only gripe I'd have would be that whenever you select a preset using the arrows, the pulldown menu won't automatically take you there (by highlighting the path) as well.
But that's a pretty much minor thing.
Others than that, this is a truly great reverb and defenitely to be rated among the best I heard so far. Not sure whether I need it though (oh well, I may, but not right ATM, there might be other things to purchase first).

[greendoor]

The menu works the other way around - you can select the presets by groups - sorted according to room type (Hall, Plate, Room etc) or Instrument type (Drums, Voice, Piano etc). Once you have picked a group, the arrow buttons let you browse the entire folder. So - for example, if you are looking for a Snare reverb, you select the Snares folder and you can browse them all using the up/down arrows. It works pretty well. I tend to tweak the parameters to taste anyway - that's the fun thing about this.

[PaulG]

Hey, Nick - just got a chance to start A/B'ing this with Sonar's Lexicon Pantheon and Sonitus. The A/A sounds awesome, and that's the key. I'm sure there's all these technical reasons and all this other "impulse" stuff to say why "so & so" is technically "better", but dam, yours sounds really good, and that's only with a 5 minute test.

I'll let you know more and maybe when I get a chance I'll mix a song with the 2 Sonar's then yours then send you a copy...but it'll be a little while due to my schedule right now...

Thanks!

- Paul

[PaulG]

Oh, and the category menus are a fantastic feature. I picked snare hit, etc, and didn't even have to do much tweaking as on the others I mentioned.

I hope you become really successful with this because I think you guys deserve it.

- Paul (again)

[Sascha Franck]

The menu works the other way around - you can select the presets by groups - sorted according to room type (Hall, Plate, Room etc) or Instrument type (Drums, Voice, Piano etc). Once you have picked a group, the arrow buttons let you browse the entire folder. So - for example, if you are looking for a Snare reverb, you select the Snares folder and you can browse them all using the up/down arrows. It works pretty well. I tend to tweak the parameters to taste anyway - that's the fun thing about this.

I got how the menu is working - all I'd been missing was some sort of "highlighted" path to the last patch called up (regardless whether you used the arrows or the pulldown).
But then, maybe it's just Logic users asking for something like that, because that's one of its features when dealing with plugins and presets - the last used path (to a plugin, a sampler patch or a preset) will allways be highlighted.
Pretty much a minor issue though.

[nick at artsacoustic]

The menu works the other way around - you can select the presets by groups - sorted according to room type (Hall, Plate, Room etc) or Instrument type (Drums, Voice, Piano etc). Once you have picked a group, the arrow buttons let you browse the entire folder. So - for example, if you are looking for a Snare reverb, you select the Snares folder and you can browse them all using the up/down arrows. It works pretty well. I tend to tweak the parameters to taste anyway - that's the fun thing about this.

I got how the menu is working - all I'd been missing was some sort of "highlighted" path to the last patch called up (regardless whether you used the arrows or the pulldown).
But then, maybe it's just Logic users asking for something like that, because that's one of its features when dealing with plugins and presets - the last used path (to a plugin, a sampler patch or a preset) will allways be highlighted.
Pretty much a minor issue though.

no sasha, you`re right.
how could i miss that?
i thought of it before.
i`ll check if it can be done and drop a note here.

[nick at artsacoustic]

Hey, Nick - just got a chance to start A/B'ing this with Sonar's Lexicon Pantheon and Sonitus. The A/A sounds awesome, and that's the key. I'm sure there's all these technical reasons and all this other "impulse" stuff to say why "so & so" is technically "better", but dam, yours sounds really good, and that's only with a 5 minute test.

I'll let you know more and maybe when I get a chance I'll mix a song with the 2 Sonar's then yours then send you a copy...but it'll be a little while due to my schedule right now...

Thanks!

- Paul

Oh, and the category menus are a fantastic feature. I picked snare hit, etc, and didn't even have to do much tweaking as on the others I mentioned.

I hope you become really successful with this because I think you guys deserve it.

- Paul (again)

thanks a lot, paul.
let`s see.
however, i`m very interrested in songs made with our reverb

[Cinemascore]

Nick: I just posted this over on the "best reverbs" thread just now - thought you'd like to read it if you miss it over there:

I'd have to agree both with greendoor, bobby and bduffy (Hi, guys!): I bought AAR after a long exhaustive search for a real-time NO LATENCY (sorry Powercore or UAD-1, but I track everything "live and in person!") VST reverb plug-in. I was on the fence for a while about RoomverbM2 – it’s pretty good, but sounded just a bit on the metallic side once I put the “acid test” on it (I’ll explain below in a minute). Once hearing AAR, and testing it as below, I bought it right away.

Here is that “acid test” that I use to find out how metallic or rough a reverb can sound. These two factors, in my opinion, have hampered native reverbs for as long as they have been around it seems. They are getting better and better, though, which is great for us all!

Try this test and you'll see:

- Play something (like a piano patch) that's fairly dry to begin and run it through the reverb on test at 100% wet - running it through ONLY the surround bus / surround speakers while sitting in your usual sweet spot. If you aren’t set up for surround, just throw up a simple prerecorded sequence or something, and turn yourself 180 degrees around from your usual listening position (obviously, you can’t play anything this way, hence the need for the prerecording). The object of this is you will be listening to the reverb AS IT'S OUTPUTTING PHYSICALLY BEHIND YOU ONLY.

For some reason, at least for me, if the reverb being tested this way has even a slight hint of having a metallic or rough sounding character, in its body sound or tail, you will really hear it for sure. Put that up on the front set, and you don't hear these anomalies nearly as much - I'm not sure why that is.

Try this test if you can – it’s never failed me.

The AAR plug-in, again to me, exhibited the least amount of anomalies of the bunch that I tested in this very test. This reverb very much reminds me, in the tail design anyway, of the aforementioned Roland SRV-330 hardware reverb. I bought the newer SRV-3030D thinking it was an updated digital I/O version – boy was I wrong! I remember the great Eric Persing (one of the designers of the original 330 algorithms) mentioned on another forum in the past, that the 3030D was a brand new Japanese design, and didn’t take it’s algorithms from the 330 at all. Using this test I mentioned above – the 3030D failed miserably. I remember spending like $800 on that darn thing to be so disappointed with it. I sent it back consequently.

Well, now I’m rambling! Take your reverb out for that test – you might be surprised! AAR is my choice!:o

[nick at artsacoustic]

Nick: I just posted this over on the "best reverbs" thread just now - thought you'd like to read it if you miss it over there:

I'd have to agree both with greendoor, bobby and bduffy (Hi, guys!): I bought AAR after a long exhaustive search for a real-time NO LATENCY (sorry Powercore or UAD-1, but I track everything "live and in person!") VST reverb plug-in. I was on the fence for a while about RoomverbM2 – it’s pretty good, but sounded just a bit on the metallic side once I put the “acid test” on it (I’ll explain below in a minute). Once hearing AAR, and testing it as below, I bought it right away.

Here is that “acid test” that I use to find out how metallic or rough a reverb can sound. These two factors, in my opinion, have hampered native reverbs for as long as they have been around it seems. They are getting better and better, though, which is great for us all!

Try this test and you'll see:

- Play something (like a piano patch) that's fairly dry to begin and run it through the reverb on test at 100% wet - running it through ONLY the surround bus / surround speakers while sitting in your usual sweet spot. If you aren’t set up for surround, just throw up a simple prerecorded sequence or something, and turn yourself 180 degrees around from your usual listening position (obviously, you can’t play anything this way, hence the need for the prerecording). The object of this is you will be listening to the reverb AS IT'S OUTPUTTING PHYSICALLY BEHIND YOU ONLY.

For some reason, at least for me, if the reverb being tested this way has even a slight hint of having a metallic or rough sounding character, in its body sound or tail, you will really hear it for sure. Put that up on the front set, and you don't hear these anomalies nearly as much - I'm not sure why that is.

Try this test if you can – it’s never failed me.

The AAR plug-in, again to me, exhibited the least amount of anomalies of the bunch that I tested in this very test. This reverb very much reminds me, in the tail design anyway, of the aforementioned Roland SRV-330 hardware reverb. I bought the newer SRV-3030D thinking it was an updated digital I/O version – boy was I wrong! I remember the great Eric Persing (one of the designers of the original 330 algorithms) mentioned on another forum in the past, that the 3030D was a brand new Japanese design, and didn’t take it’s algorithms from the 330 at all. Using this test I mentioned above – the 3030D failed miserably. I remember spending like $800 on that darn thing to be so disappointed with it. I sent it back consequently.

Well, now I’m rambling! Take your reverb out for that test – you might be surprised! AAR is my choice!:o

i`ve read it allready.
yes, we did a lot of testing, also like you described .in fact, this is a (one of many) common technique to analyze the sound of a reverb, allthough, if you test it like upper described, the room itself plays an important roll, as the room itself could have reflected resonances also.
i`ve worked in many studios over the time, and sadly to say, but there were not many where i didn`t hear resonance problems at a specific position.
anyhow, there were many ways we analyzed by ear.
we changed the positions (listener), tested it and analyzed it in different rooms, on several monitors, from tiny to really big, from headphones to radio speakers. but we are not set up for 5.1 so we didn`t test this. however, we have really good speakers (adam audio, quested, etc). so that helped us a lot.
it`s weird though:
some people spend a lot of money for expensive highend gear, but when it comes to the speakers, they don`t. in fact, if one wants to hear the important differences, one should have speakers that allow to hear them. if one cannot hear them because of the speakers there`s no need for high end gear. so we were lucky with this .

[bobby yarrow]

A side note on the manual: I love manuals, read them for things I don't even own, and this is a particularly good one. A worth-while read, even for folks who aren't buying the plugin. The translation into English is charming; probably could use a little touch-up, there are moments where a bit of metaphorical thinking is required to sort out what's being said. Anyhow, I liked it, worth the bit of effort for sure.

[metrik]

I was a doubter until I tried the demo. Probably the best Native reVerb out. I'm waiting for the group buy...

ditto

[andrew_k]

Group buy?

[nick at artsacoustic]

hi guys,
no, a group buy is not planed atm.
subject may change without further notice, though.

[nick at artsacoustic]

Nice work AA. Honeymoon review to follow . . .

enlight me, please:
what`s honeymoon?
is that an online forum?