KVR Audio

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:04 pm

Hey!

My quest for the perfect reverb continues...

In other important effects I found plug-ins that I love long ago (Kjaerhus Compressor, EQ7, etc) but reverb seems tricky to say the least. The best sounding reverb I found so far is the "Full Reverb" effect that comes with Adobe Audition (which I already own). But I want a VST reverb that I can use in my main host (Ableton) in real time, rather than needing to add it destructively in Audition. I like fairly dark, but realistic reverbs with plenty of space. CPU efficiency is also a major issue here!

I have already demoed and eliminated:

Ambience: too CPU hungry by far!
SIR/convolution: latency
Princetown 2016 stereo room: very disappointed with this one!
SpinAudio Roomverb M2: slightly dull and too complex for my needs
R66: Sounds to my ears rather like the Kjaerhus Classic reverb which I already use a lot (and like... but I want something more "open" and natural sounding)
PSP Easy Verb: Quite nice, but not enough control to tweek out the sound I want
Glaceverb: too coloured
Wizooverb W2: too big. Not very natural to my ears. Also overpriced, and I'm concerned about future VST support now they are owned by DodgyDesign
Waves R-Verb and Trueverb: possibly the most suitable for my needs (low CPU, good full sound with a clean tail, some but not too much ability to customise) but overpriced and PACE "protection" system

...which brings me to the Silverspike reverbs. Somehow until today I managed to completely overlook these (Reverb.it and R2) but having read through the London Elektricity feature in the latest CM magazine I noticed reverb.it get rave reviews from LE.

So, who here uses it, and what have your experiences been? Are these two both well supported by the developer? Do they have an ongoing future? Are they working well for you?

Obviously I have downloaded the demos and am already very impressed... VERY impressed. They both seem very capable of producing the kind of reverb sound I'm after, and also seem efficient in their CPU consumption.

So please give me the second opinion I'm after!

Also still in the fray:
Arts Acoustic: I'm impressed with this demo, but not yet convinced it is worth twice the price of R2...
Masterverb 5, which I will demo as soon as it becomes available.

Cheers!

diverdee · Post by **diverdee** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:38 pm

haven't tried the silverspike, but I know what your saying with reverbs.
I like the rv7000 in reason, prolly cos it's a one stop shop with plenty of algorythms.
I wanted to like easyverb, but it seemed fairly heavy on cpu.
at the moment i've got my freebies down to six, i'd like to slim it even further, and tbh i've actually started to quite like the abe's included verb.
For bouncing shit down the high quality mode is ok & the interface makes sense.
I tried the R66 demo also, it's probably good but the interface was uninspiring.
I'll probably buy a verb plug in one day, but i'm a tight twat & I can never seem to make my mind up.
The arts acoustic looks nice, nice interface & sound - just wiah it also had more algies, like the rv7k & easyverb - I like to keep things as simple & minimal as poss.

loophead · Post by **loophead** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:52 pm

Silverspike is a very nice set of reverbs. RoomMachine is free and a great early reflection plug. ReverbIt is very under appreciated. R2 is an enhanced combination of the first two and an extremely usful verb. It excels at placement issues and is extemely smooth, in some cases too smooth. ArtsAcoustic is IMHO the premere verb out right now and worth every cent. Can be colorful or not as desired. You would not go wrong with either. Compare the demos on lots of stuff and you will find whats best for you right now.

greendoor · Post by **greendoor** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:53 pm

The first Silverspike ReverbIt was the plugin that convinced me to stay with software reverb. It still holds it's own. I bought the upgraded R2 because it was cheap enough. I don't regret having this, but it's not my favorite reverb. What it excels at is the early reflections for creating an effect that is very much like two mic's in a room. You literally moved the mics and speakers around, and the effect is very realistic. This is my best 'Room' reverb - although the proper use of Haas delays can achieve the same sort of effect.

As far as the tails of these Silverspike reverbs go, I find them a little harsh. I prefer smoother reverbs like Kjaerhus (I didn't buy R66 because I also find Kjaerhus Classic reverb to sound very similar).

I think the ArtsAcoustic is the best all-rounder.

Why don't you look at other ways of saving CPU, so you can choose reverbs that sound good, instead of looking for a low CPU use? OR - probably the best approach - get a hardware reverb and use s/pdif.

jens · Post by **jens** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:59 pm

headquest wrote: I want something more "open" and natural sounding

have you tried the (free!) Buzzroom Room Reverb?

jens · Post by **jens** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:03 am

oh. and about R2: imo it's better sounding than Ambience, more versatile, easier to tweak and it uses less than half as much cpu!

cyanogen · Post by **cyanogen** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:04 am

Sonitus has a nice reverb:

http://store.cakewalk.com/product.asp?ID=68

I love the "Cathedral" preset. I'm still trying to get the hang of the controls, though.

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:05 am

jens wrote:
headquest wrote: I want something more "open" and natural sounding
have you tried the (free!) Buzzroom Room Reverb?

When I searched I spotted your previous thread on this... but the link from KVR to buzzroom reverb seems to be broken

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:10 am

Thanks for all the advice so far (more welcome of course!)

diverdee - yes, I like RV7000 too... but of course I'm limited to using it in Reason (which I always do

). The Ableton reverb still hasn't really grown on me yet! (but I do like almost ALL their other effects

)

Arts Acoustic reverb - yes I'm liking this one a lot and I totally understand the positive comments. It's definitely in the running, but a bit pricey right now.

@ greendoor - I've been promising myself to upgrade my laptop (I'm still on 512MB, which is part of my problem). I have been using Ambience (I like it better than most of the freebies) but it registeres at around 20% of my whole CPU. Anything will be better! And all the ones I'm left demoing at present are more efficient and sound nicer - so buying a reverb is looking most likely!

Cheers...

diverdee · Post by **diverdee** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:11 am

the buzzroom verb is part of an 'oldies' package now: http://www.x-buz.com/Products.html near the bottom of the page - (OLD buzzroom VST Plugins).

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:14 am

Thanks diverdee... I'm downloading that one now. I'll try it alongside the others!

Frippertronix · Post by **Frippertronix** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:38 am

Try the Sonic Timeworks reverb if you can run DX. I think it sounds pretty natural. The older one is $150.

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:59 pm

Okay, I'm having an interesting time demoing these... and will report back soon!

In the meantime, are there any other Silverspike users here with comments to add?

Thanks again!

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 7:23 pm

ArtsAcoustic is by far my favourite (I know, it's too expensive for me to buy right now too!), but the R2 is a really good deal at $99! I didn't realise it was that affordable.

I'd say go with R2, but you should definitely check out WaveArts v5; I found they both sounded similarily good, but had relative trouble getting them to "stick" in the mix. Not a problem with ArtsAcoustic.

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:13 pm

Thanks bduffy... I am leaning that way actually. R2 is really good to my ears and has the right amount of tweakability (is that a word?)

And yeah, I will wait for MV 5 before making any final decision (must be days away) I liked MV4 but v5 looks like it could be a real winner. And as I'm entitled to the eduaction discount it brings it down to around the same price as R2.

Still trying them out though... I'll feedback more soon! Cheers!

Silverspike reverbs... opinions please!