What are your favorite non-Valhalla reverbs, and why?

[kuzami]

I found this reverb shootout on gearslutz a while ago, where one of the plugins were 2C Audio B2. Someone said the B2 test example sounded a bit harsh, and recommended turning up the attitude knob up to 40. The OP made a new example, calling this one "E". And that, right there, is the best software reverb i have ever heard.

[kuzami]

I found this reverb shootout on gearslutz a while ago, where one of the plugins were 2C Audio B2. Someone said the B2 test example sounded a bit harsh, and recommended turning up the attitude knob up to 40. The OP made a new example, calling this one "E". And that, right there, is the best software reverb i have ever heard.

[valhallasound]

Hamlet Gonashvili's voice would probably sound incredible through the crappiest plugin.

He's really, really good. Full of emotion and true musicianship...

And the reverb (back to the topic) - isn't it too big to be only from the room?

I don't know how big the room is. I can't see the ceiling!

The reverb doesn't sound like any digital reverb of the time period, to my ears. So, it might be a physical chamber, or a real acoustic space. I don't know much about Georgian recording facilities of the 1970s and 1980s.

[Beatworld]

I found this reverb shootout on gearslutz a while ago, where one of the plugins were 2C Audio B2. Someone said the B2 test example sounded a bit harsh, and recommended turning up the attitude knob up to 40. The OP made a new example, calling this one "E". And that, right there, is the best software reverb i have ever heard.

Pretty sure that was a shootout I did.
That "someone" was Den (Xtrax) who has made hundreds of great presets for B2, Aether and Breeze which can be purchased from 2CAudio as Expansion packs.

[valhallasound]

The vocal reverb on this track. Incredible.

[RockinMillie]

My absolute go to reverb is Toneboosters TB Reverb. It has a very sweet, subtle and natural sound to my ears.
I find a lot of reverbs can be very harsh and artificial sounding.

My second fave is the Presonus Studio One Room Reverb which is very flexible and gives me a different reverb sound.

I also have Acon Digital Verberate (CM version), which again has a very natural sound but only gets used occasionally due to its CPU overhead.

I have started to use delays with a very short delay time (< = 200 ms) instead of reverb more and more these days.
My two favourite delays are HoRNet Deelay and the excellent new tkDelay from Titrik. They both have a nice clean delay sound.

Having tried the Valhalla demos, I found that they didn't really do it for me. I really, really tried with Ubermod but just couldn't get on with it.

Sorry.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Sean, House of Cards is a great one. I'm a big, and longtime fan, and In Rainbows may be my favorite Radiohead record (heresy I know). Definitely their best "sounding" album by a mile for me.

I'd be curious about what you hear in that verb. Algorithmic or plate? I hear a longish predelay, and some distinct echoes which seem to bloom into existence then fade back out. It's a little siblant, but it sounds like the high end was rolled off so as not to be harsh. Would love some insight as to how to pull off something similar if ever needed.

Another favorite reverb of mine is from that same album: the Reckoner intro drums. I think I read it's a ride mic channel, but there's definitely been some compression and reverb added.

[zerocrossing]

I was just thinking of something that might pertain to this thread. We talk about our favorite reverbs, and why, but it struck me that reverb is used in two very distinct ways.

The first way is to artificially add something that normally naturally occurs, but for various reasons was not present in the recording. So, you put your singer in an isolation room that's acoustically as dead as possible, and then add back some "ambience." Usually very natural sounding reverbs work best in this case, for me at least. It's almost like if you notice the reverb is there you've failed.

Then, there's reverb that's clearly an "effect." My first introduction to this was the spring reverbs that come standard on my guitar amps. Plates tend to sound a bit more "natural" and I've always liked them. Then, digital reverbs hit the scene and the rules went out the window.

So, I think it's important when you remark on a reverb if you're talking about using it to replicate natural ambience, or are you using it like an effect?

Anyway, I was just thinking about the latest reverb from Tone2... I forget the name. Very, very lush sounding. I always find the reverbs on Tone2 synths to sound great in that "effect" kind of way, though they are by no means a natural sounding reverb. The reverb on my Virus is like that too. When I'm going for a more natural sound I'll always turn to Virsyn's Reflect though.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Interesting that you think plates sound natural. I always think they sound like an effect, but an "acoustic effect" if that makes sense. It's like there's something physically there generating a fake sound. I think you're talking about the same thing. It doesn't sound like a room or a chamber, but it sounds like it's "there." That House of Cards example sounds similar to me, though I'm not sure, maybe it's not a plate at all.

Algorithmic plates almost never have that quality. For instance, I think the UAD 140 lacks it, the EMT and Lexi style digital plates don't, but I think SKNote's Verbtone does (though latency is a big problem with that one).

[valhallasound]

I was just thinking of something that might pertain to this thread. We talk about our favorite reverbs, and why, but it struck me that reverb is used in two very distinct ways.

The first way is to artificially add something that normally naturally occurs, but for various reasons was not present in the recording. So, you put your singer in an isolation room that's acoustically as dead as possible, and then add back some "ambience." Usually very natural sounding reverbs work best in this case, for me at least. It's almost like if you notice the reverb is there you've failed.

Then, there's reverb that's clearly an "effect." My first introduction to this was the spring reverbs that come standard on my guitar amps. Plates tend to sound a bit more "natural" and I've always liked them. Then, digital reverbs hit the scene and the rules went out the window.

So, I think it's important when you remark on a reverb if you're talking about using it to replicate natural ambience, or are you using it like an effect?

Interesting points!

I agree that plates sound natural, even though there is some pretty weird physics going on there. Part of the reason for the natural sound (IMO) is that the high frequencies in a plate tend to have a shorter, fixed decay time. So sibilants tend to ring out in a "natural" way, while the midrange and lower frequencies can have a variable decay time. This is different from most digital reverbs, where the high frequencies can have a long decay that is almost never heard in nature (due to high frequencies being absorbed by large volumes of air).

I'd also argue that there are reverbs that are betwixt and between, in that they are generated from "natural" methods, but are processed in such a way as to sound larger than life.

For example, Steve Albini tends to use room mikes for his reverbs. These are delayed by 15 to 30 milliseconds, and are then recorded to tape at high level, to create tape compression. At a certain point, this stops sounding "natural" and becomes an effect in its own right:



I wouldn't call that snare "natural" anymore.

Another interesting example of an all natural reverb, treated as an effect, is the gated reverb used on Bowie's "Heroes":



3 microphones were used for Bowie's vocals. The first was very close, and had a lot of compression. The other 2 mikes were further and MUCH further away from Bowie, and were gated on when his singing reached a certain volume level. This resulted in the vocals being very dry for soft passages, and having a lot of harsher, gated reverb for the louder passages. The room used at Hansa was pretty big, so there was a lot of natural reverb in the room, but it was being treated very unnaturally. More details here:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct04/a ... tracks.htm

[xx JPRacer xx]

Anyway, I was just thinking about the latest reverb from Tone2... I forget the name.

UltraSpace? You really like the sound? I think it sound very metallic. Maybe I've miss something. I'll try it again.

[Novalis]

Another interesting example of an all natural reverb, treated as an effect, is the gated reverb used on Bowie's "Heroes":

So gated reverb wasn't invented by Phil Collins after all
But of course, the classic gated reverb sound of the 80s was something different than the Bowie example.

The Radiohead example above, House of Cards, is not only remarkable because of the reverbs.
There is a really mean sub-bass in the song, makes my subwoofer freak out
If you don't have a sub or good headphones (or monitors that go down really low), you might not notice it at all.

[Winstontaneous]

Yeah, the recording of Bowie's "Heroes" is a great story.

Sean, curious, have you heard Beck's "Morning Phase" album...any idea about the reverb(s) used? There are some truly amazing atmospheres on there, it's almost like the 'verb is another band member.
I asked Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck's bassist) about the reverb over at TalkBass.com and he half-jokingly said it was a "trade secret."

Back OT I'm amazed by how much mileage I've gotten from Martin Eastwood's MVerb. It's on the subtle side but it's practically impossible to make it sound harsh or bad. Also enjoy the NI/Softube RC24 & RC48 for their thick, rich tones. Still figuring out Eos but I like its boldness. I can see picking up the Valhalla stable in the near future.

[Novalis]

I asked Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck's bassist) about the reverb over at TalkBass.com and he half-jokingly said it was a "trade secret."

That's the guy who produced the double-album "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" by M83, right?
Great record.
A lot of reverbs to be heard there

But sometimes they really overdid it.
I don't know why they drenched the vocals on EVERY song of the album in oceans of reverb.
I can see it must habe been somehow a concept of the album, but it really is too much after a while.

One of my favourite songs of the album:

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Justin Medal Johnson had been Beck's bass player since at least the Odelay tour. I was actually surprised when I saw his name on the m83 album. I think the reverb on that album was just an esthetic choice. It's a throwback to reverb drenched 80s synth pop. The prior m83 album is the same, it's just their thing. I think their production is generally too tinny and brought with bad reverb choices as well, but the songs are good.