More Reverb Trainspotting

[MacQ]

Hi guys,

Everyone loves these blind shoot-outs, so here's another one:

Sizzling Plate Reverb Shootout!!

I have used 4 reverbs on this simple TR-808 percussion pattern. These include:

- ArtsAcoustic Reverb (no additional processing)
- SIR with a 960L Plate sample (no additional processing)
- UAD Plate 140 (with additional EQ)
- TC Electronic VSS3 Plate (with additional EQ)

I was trying to get that "sizzle" Lexicon sound out of this clip, and since I hate convolution reverbs, I thought I'd try to mock it up with some reverbs that I had on hand. So, the SIR sample provided the reference, and the rest I tweaked to sound as close as possible. The file is a stereo 24-bit .wav file, since MP3 is useless for this kind of high-resolution testing.

See if you can pick out which is which ... some are harder to tell than others!

Good luck, and happy guessing!

~MacQ

[jtxx000]

Hmm... I don't know which is which but I'll put them in the order that I like them.

1st Sample - Best
3rd Sample - 2nd Best
4th Sample - A bit noisy
2nd Sample - I don't like the tail of this one

[Debutante]

I like the first as well...which one was it?

[soma]

Hmm... I don't know which is which but I'll put them in the order that I like them.

1st Sample - Best
3rd Sample - 2nd Best
4th Sample - A bit noisy
2nd Sample - I don't like the tail of this one

I completely agree!
PS 1981 posts Caleb. that was a good year.

[MacQ]

Well well ...

You guys agreed based on the price of the reverbs:

Sample 1: Lexicon 960L Plate (impulse)
Sample 2: UAD Plate 140
Sample 3: TC Electronic VSS3 Plate
Sample 4: ArtsAcoustic Reverb

So, you all prefered the Lexicon ($11,500), then the VSS3 ($625), then the ArtsAcoustic ($189), then the UAD Plate 140 ($149). Totally random, but delineated by price nonetheless.

Congratulations!!

This does make me wonder, however, if these fine distinctions (particularly between 1, 3, and 4) are really so glaringly obvious, or if the people who responded in this thread have any bias towards a particular kind of reverb sound. In the end I guess it "doesn't matter", but here we see 3 out of 3 prefer the Lexicon. Coincidence? I'm not so sure ...

~MacQ

[multree]

come on three people don't make this representative do they

[MacQ]

come on three people don't make this representative do they

No, but the thread was falling off the front page, so I made my conclusions early.

Which one do you prefer?

~MacQ

[jtxx000]

Well well ...

You guys agreed based on the price of the reverbs:

Sample 1: Lexicon 960L Plate (impulse)
Sample 2: UAD Plate 140
Sample 3: TC Electronic VSS3 Plate
Sample 4: ArtsAcoustic Reverb

So, you all prefered the Lexicon ($11,500), then the VSS3 ($625), then the ArtsAcoustic ($189), then the UAD Plate 140 ($149). Totally random, but delineated by price nonetheless.

Congratulations!!

This does make me wonder, however, if these fine distinctions (particularly between 1, 3, and 4) are really so glaringly obvious, or if the people who responded in this thread have any bias towards a particular kind of reverb sound. In the end I guess it "doesn't matter", but here we see 3 out of 3 prefer the Lexicon. Coincidence? I'm not so sure ...

~MacQ

Samples 3 and 4 were the hardest for me to tell apart. Sample 1 sounded a bit sweeter IMO than the others. I was hoping it would be the arts acoustic reverb because I'd like to think that there's an affordable native reverb that sounds better than outrageously priced hardware but I guess not. The difference is so small however that I doubt it would be significant in a mix. I'd bet that your average listener would not be able to tell the samples apart.

I'd be interested in how some freeware verbs sound in comparison.

[Kingston]

Sample 1: Lexicon 960L Plate (impulse)

So, you all prefered the Lexicon ($11,500)

Oh christ.

an impulse thru SIR (or even pristine space) is NOT the same as the real 960L. It might be in the ballpark to many ears, but seriously, it's not even close to the real thing.

What a totally useless shootout with wacky conclusions!

I mean, happy (soon to be) new year and all, and I know the thread starter meant well, but there's some serious homework to do with this kind of reasoning.

[original flipper]

HI

What this might mean (I can't be arsed to listen to the 4 examples) is that the FREE plug with the FREE impulse could save you $100-200 on having to go buy the software.

For goodness sake don't do a synth version of this test ... you will put the rest of the dev's outa business!

Flipper.

[funkadil]

I dont think that that was the point kingston. The fact that even an impulse sounded better than all of the other native reverbs shows something. I suppose he shouldn't have said it in the way he said it though.

[soma]

Hmmm... wondering how the Real Lexicon with tail modulations would sound.... Anyone have Wizoo W5 verb? I heard that thing does some cool tricks with impulses that can mimic the dynamic modulations of some of the better known gear.

[Kingston]

Oh I just get itchy when impulses are equalled to something like system 6000 or 960L. They are far from it.

But when it comes to native reverbs vs. best possible impulses (ie. something like noisevault L960 set or echochamber vss3 set) on a good impulse plug (ie voxengo stuff) convolution wins about 98.64% of the time.

[multree]

Hmmm... wondering how the Real Lexicon with tail modulations would sound.... Anyone have Wizoo W5 verb? I heard that thing does some cool tricks with impulses that can mimic the dynamic modulations of some of the better known gear.

well if you want tail modulation just put a chorus on the aux bus, right in front of the reverb....

[jtxx000]

here's the same file played through glace verb and ozone's mastering reverb: www.annoware.com/downloads/verbtest.wav