What's the deal with the Arts Acoustics Reverb?

[GrooveE]

(post removed)

[sounddesigner]

I found AAR to be grainy as well. its too rough and sandy sounding and dominates the audio i put it on too much with its roughness,color,harmonics. People like it because it sounds like a real room and i agree with that but the realizm is at a heavy price when you look at all it adds with the realism.Wizooverb 2 has realism but transparency and nothing unnatural added.I prefer the wizooverb and CSR combination and feel they blend in with my tracks better. I can see me only using AAR once in a blue moon to turn a track out that needs something unique, i can't see it being my main reverb that goes on most of my tracks, just more of a infrequent use verb only.Its price for realism is to costly for me and it does'nt blend well with much of the music i make.

[GrooveE]

(post removed)

[sounddesigner]

I found AAR to be grainy as well. its too rough and sandy sounding and dominates the audio i put it on too much with its roughness,color,harmonics. People like it because it sounds like a real room and i agree with that but the realizm is at a heavy price when you look at all it adds with the realism.Wizooverb 2 has realism but transparency and nothing unnatural added.I prefer the wizooverb and CSR combination and feel they blend in with my tracks better. I can see me only using AAR once in a blue moon to turn a track out that needs something unique, i can't see it being my main reverb that goes on most of my tracks, just more of a infrequent use verb only.Its price for realism is to costly for me and it does'nt blend well with much of the music i make.

Yeah i know, i feel the same way. On the other hand, the most important thing is that something works in the mix, not that it's very pleasant at first glance. I'm sure plenty of people HATED the first Marshall amps, saying they were noisy and were just a brief trend. They said that about The Beatles and Elvis too =O That's why i try to keep an open mind even though i actually so far don't like the sound of the AAR. Then again, if i only had one reverb, and it was AAR, i'd probably be happy with it.

I use a LOT of reverb. Not just a subtle effect. Maybe someone who usually keeps the reverb volume somewhere between 5 and 12 percent prefers other reverbs than i do.


/G

I agree about keeping a open mind this is why i keep the demo of AAR on my computer because a track may ask for it.But so far this is not the case.When i read alot of praises on it i've often went back and listened to the demo but it never satisfies me. But what works for one is'nt always suppose to work for another, all of our arsenals of plugins are going to differ from one musician to the next, this is as it should be.So if i don't see beauty in AAR i know that this does'nt mean it aint there, only thing it means is that AAR may not work for me.

[WilliamK]

Its all a matter if taste, I would say. I used only AAR on my latest Dark-Ages series, and for me, it sounds perfect. I used several reverbers on the past 15 years. And I must say, that AAR does sound better than anything else I used. The new 64 bits option make it sound very silky. But hey, that's just me.

Best Regards, WilliamK

[sounddesigner]

Its all a matter if taste, I would say. I used only AAR on my latest Dark-Ages series, and for me, it sounds perfect. I used several reverbers on the past 15 years. And I must say, that AAR does sound better than anything else I used. The new 64 bits option make it sound very silky. But hey, that's just me.

Best Regards, WilliamK

I checked out your dark ages jr and yes arts acoustic reverb sounded good with your mix.You said you tried many reverbs over the past 15 years, i am curious to know if you tried any of the recent times top software reverbs such as Dreamverb,wizooverb 2,csr,plate 140, masterverb 5,gigapulse etc also?

[Peter Martin]

Heya! I've seen plenty of posts here about the AAR. I've tried it before but thought it sounded grainy, kinda metallic even. However i've seen posts from people who seem to know what they're talking about, praising it. What kind of stuff do you guys use it for? How does it compare to W2 from Wizoo? Is AAR really as good as a bunch of classic hardware units?


/G

Never did like it, couldn't get it to gel a single instrument. Love the R66

[TotcProductions]

I want one...that's the deal.

[WilliamK]

I checked out your dark ages jr and yes arts acoustic reverb sounded good with your mix.You said you tried many reverbs over the past 15 years, i am curious to know if you tried any of the recent times top software reverbs such as Dreamverb,wizooverb 2,csr,plate 140, masterverb 5,gigapulse etc also?

To be honest, no, I haven't tried those. I was mainly using Anwida DX Reverber, which is also very good. I tried SIR too, but I didn't like it. I was used to Hardware Reverbers. Loved the Ensoniq series, don't remember the name, and of course, the Lexicon sets.

Wk

[bduffy]

AAR does not sound "grainy" at all to my ears! Shows you how varied our ears are!

I'm in the lovin' the AAR camp also, think it's one of the best reverbs out there. The only thing I liked better was CSR, which I'll pick up some day...

[aMUSEd]

I'm in the "it's vastly overrated" camp. I really wanted to like it but to me it doesn't place a sound clearly in space, it "muddys" and smears it somehow and doesn't sound at all natural. I'm very fussy about reverbs though and have not really found one I like that much for natural sounding spaces though M2 isn't bad and I like to use the built in convolution effect in Kontakt and some of Reaktor's reverbs but more for weird soundspaces than real spaces.

[bduffy]

Oh, I'm very fussy about reverbs too, but generally, I'm not after a natural space! So maybe that's why AAR suits my tastes. I really dig its modulation too, it reminds me of a Lexicon.

[loophead]

It comes down to how yoy choose to tweak it. I have AA and love it. I also have Wizoo R2, R66, Silversplike, PSP and few others. So this idea of someone being in the dark ages is just you mouthing off. If you dont like ArtsAcoustic dont buy it. I hope what you have suits your tastes.

[bduffy]

Sorry, loophead - who's that directed at? I don't recall anyone mouthing off yet (amazingly enough)! "Dark Ages" is WilliamK's album...

[plain]

this is the only reverb that i like...nothing compares to this one...i always use it as a send though.....putting it in direct makes it sound terrible..