Thanks for taking the time to give some advice. Perhaps I will give Magalov a second try using your recommendations. It just sounded a bit metallic for my purposes. I find that these type of reverbs often work very well for pop music styles but don't blend quite as well, IMO, with ambient type sounds. Again, it all comes down to taste.greendoor wrote:Reverbs are obviously subjective, and highly dependant on the source material. JohnV - I have strong opinions and you have strong opinions. Probably we will never agree. But sometimes i've found that I can go back to a reverb (or whatever) that i've previously discounted as crap, and find that actually it is perfect for certain uses.
You say you are into Ambiant music, where the reverb is very exposed and almost an instrument in itself. While not my prime interest, I can relate to those types of reverb. You say you like Freeverb - is that the Sinus Freeverb2? Sounds like filtered white noise to me - maybe I should try it again.
Seriously - have another look at Magalov reverb, because I think it is perfect for huge ambiant reverbs. Try with maximum high end damping, the largest room size and control the length with total damping. I got an amazing lush ambiant reverb by combining Kjaerhus Classic reverb with Magalov reverb. I used the Classic with maximum high end damping to get a smooth dark tail, and combined that with the Magalov for the high's - a bit of pre-day on the Magalov and it sounded richer than a huge Lexicon.
Something I look for in a VST reverb is good mono-compatability. Huge stereo tails are useless if they sound like crap on an AM radio. If you have PSP Easyverb for example - try mono'ing that. It doesn't have a width control, so you will have to use a mono plugin or stereo panner. I think you will find that the Hall is about the only algorithmn that doesn't sound wrong in mono. Magalov sounds smooth in stereo or mono - it has a width control that makes this easy to check.
I like the Kjaerhus Classic Reverb very much. I may be wrong but it seems to implement a variation of the Schroeder/Moorer algorithm that is used in Freeverb. My only problem with it is that it's hard to get a long decay/tail with it at the higher damping settings which I normally prefer. It seems that he has designed it more for pop styles of music. Other than that it is a very nice reverb as are all the Kjaerhus Classic Effects.
The other reverb that I like very much is the PSP EasyVerb. The Hall setting is very nice and reminds me very much of the Freeverb soud but with more flexibilty. I also tend not to use early reflection very much so these types of simpler reverbs suit me just fine. I agree with the observation that Jezar made, in his essay Thoughts on reverb, were he states that he also has a preference for the more artificial sounding reverbs, ie Lexicons and Quantecs, as opposed to those that try to model real environments in more scientific detail.
Anyway, thanks for the advice.
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