Which reverb and how to use it properly?

[ATN69]

Exponential Audio R2 has become my favorite bread and butter reverb for some time now. Especially the Plate algorithms sound really excellent. It's not cheap either though. Fortunately, i got it quite... um... cheap. Props to Focusrite for their giveaway.

I totally missed this one. When was that a give away in the plugin collective?

[chk071]

It must have been around early 2017, because i activated the plugin at that time. I guess iZotope will have some sales now that Exponential Audio is one of their brands, but... i'm not very familiar with their sales policy.

[Sk1nZ]

Relab Sonsig Rev-A released just a few days ago was really an ear opener for me. =)

will demo this, not too clued up on ilock but seems a pain in the ass

One of the best reverbs IMHO that I own is FAB-Pro R. It's not cheap but it's a nice reverb

Will demo the fabfilter as i like their stuff but hopefully i dont like this because its expensive

Currently use Toneboosters Reverb 4 for most of my needs

As far as how to use it, look into using sends. Gives tracks the same room or ambience versus bunch of different reverbs which will sound off

does R4 have everything a reverb should? i cant see a pre-delay or decay time knob from looking at it on their site.

When using a reverb for mixing should you be sending the tracks to the same reverb but just with different send amounts? Ive always used different reverbs and settings for leads, vocals etc.. but now i think about it using just one might make more sense to give the whole mix a more natural and better sound

[Butwug]

Currently use Toneboosters Reverb 4 for most of my needs

As far as how to use it, look into using sends. Gives tracks the same room or ambience versus bunch of different reverbs which will sound off

does R4 have everything a reverb should? i cant see a pre-delay or decay time knob from looking at it on their site.

When using a reverb for mixing should you be sending the tracks to the same reverb but just with different send amounts? Ive always used different reverbs and settings for leads, vocals etc.. but now i think about it using just one might make more sense to give the whole mix a more natural and better sound

TB Reverb 4 has tons of stuff. Pre-Delay is on bottom. Decay is controlled with size/depth/mass to control reverberations of both early and late stages. You can change decay times according to frequency as well with one of the tabs.

For sends, yes, you would send the track to the same reverb. In general yes, it makes the mix more cohesive to have a main reverb. Think of it as simulating a space, such as warehouse or church or ethereal world. Would sound weird to have clap with warehouse reverb, synth with church reverb, and synth with ethereal shimmer, and vocals with room reverb.But thats not to say it’s a rule written in stone. Sometimes I have a reverb on kick that has a predelay over 200ms so it hits on upbeat to give it groove, and main reverb on send that has quite a bit less delay, for synths n such. Other times Ill have two reverb sends, same settings except one with different eq, to give each reverb it’s own space. Same predelay, size, etc. just diff EQ.

The sends are usually 100% wet so youll send the amount you want. I usually cut back the amount towards end of mix or cut down the width on the reverb a bit so it keeps definition and isnt too wide. I like my music being close to mono tho, but thats just me. Just mess around with it. Youll find your technique.

[perpetual3]

Currently use Toneboosters Reverb 4 for most of my needs

As far as how to use it, look into using sends. Gives tracks the same room or ambience versus bunch of different reverbs which will sound off

does R4 have everything a reverb should? i cant see a pre-delay or decay time knob from looking at it on their site.

When using a reverb for mixing should you be sending the tracks to the same reverb but just with different send amounts? Ive always used different reverbs and settings for leads, vocals etc.. but now i think about it using just one might make more sense to give the whole mix a more natural and better sound

TB Reverb 4 has tons of stuff. Pre-Delay is on bottom. Decay is controlled with size/depth/mass to control reverberations of both early and late stages. You can change decay times according to frequency as well with one of the tabs.

For sends, yes, you would send the track to the same reverb. In general yes, it makes the mix more cohesive to have a main reverb. Think of it as simulating a space, such as warehouse or church or ethereal world. Would sound weird to have clap with warehouse reverb, synth with church reverb, and synth with ethereal shimmer, and vocals with room reverb.But thats not to say it’s a rule written in stone. Sometimes I have a reverb on kick that has a predelay over 200ms so it hits on upbeat to give it groove, and main reverb on send that has quite a bit less delay, for synths n such. Other times Ill have two reverb sends, same settings except one with different eq, to give each reverb it’s own space. Same predelay, size, etc. just diff EQ.

The sends are usually 100% wet so youll send the amount you want. I usually cut back the amount towards end of mix or cut down the width on the reverb a bit so it keeps definition and isnt too wide. I like my music being close to mono tho, but thats just me. Just mess around with it. Youll find your technique.

Interesting. I love stereo imaging. I’lI mix everything in mono, which is key for depth and a certain aspect of dimension, and then flip it back to stereo, and adjust the stereo imaging to “match” my mono mix without actually being close to mono; only low and some frequencies are in mono. I get a lot of mileage out of “cheap” reverbs like Live’s this way too ( great for adding some mono depth and space in the middle/back of a mix).

[Sk1nZ]

For sends, yes, you would send the track to the same reverb. In general yes, it makes the mix more cohesive to have a main reverb.

How would you sidechain the different tracks if only using one reverb? Have a compressor for each track you want the sidechain on? So id end up with like 4 or 5 compressors on the reverb send

Have just spent a few hours demo'ing fab-r and r4 and not really liking r4 but fab-r is nice. Whats suprised me most is how good abletons stock reverb is. Ive tested all 3 very well on everything from vocals, guitars, bass etc.. and not once did abletons sound any worse but this might be me having used it for years and not knowing fab-r very well. I watch a lot of deadmau5 and kshmr on youtube and ive seen them use abletons reverb more than any other so this also gives me more confidence with it and they seem to be doing alright

[ramseysounds]

How would you sidechain the different tracks if only using one reverb? Have a compressor for each track you want the sidechain on? So id end up with like 4 or 5 compressors on the reverb send

No. Turn on the sidechain function on the compressor on the reverb channel then send each track you want side chained, to it.

[Butwug]

For sends, yes, you would send the track to the same reverb. In general yes, it makes the mix more cohesive to have a main reverb.

How would you sidechain the different tracks if only using one reverb? Have a compressor for each track you want the sidechain on? So id end up with like 4 or 5 compressors on the reverb send

Have just spent a few hours demo'ing fab-r and r4 and not really liking r4 but fab-r is nice. Whats suprised me most is how good abletons stock reverb is. Ive tested all 3 very well on everything from vocals, guitars, bass etc.. and not once did abletons sound any worse but this might be me having used it for years and not knowing fab-r very well. I watch a lot of deadmau5 and kshmr on youtube and ive seen them use abletons reverb more than any other so this also gives me more confidence with it and they seem to be doing alright

I dont sidechain reverb send myself but it’s possible, using Dynamics plugin on Bitwig, with the kick triggering it. I believe this is pretty much like Ableton’s sidechain compression (could be wrong as Ive never used Ableton.)

One thing people use as well is ducking via LFO tool/Kickstart/Tal Filter 2. It’s pretty much volume automation with a curve of your choice. Ducks for kick, and then volume goes up after, however you draw the curve.

https://youtu.be/uIN82zitnRI

Another thing I do with reverb is set up a chain on a synth I want a lot of reverb on and set it up so that the dry signal of the synth ducks the reverb. It lets the synth pokes through and doesnt get drowned out by reverb. I just copy paste the reverb Im using on the send and throw it on the track’s chain and dont send that track to the reverb send.

So many ways to do things it can be over whelming lol If you like Abletons reverb, stick to it and save the money! Once you feel like youre missing something, fill that gap with whatever reverb you are looking for.

[Passing Bye]

Compress and gate your reverb

[hivkorn]

You should take a look to the vengeance sound FX plugins pack, they have a very good reverb V-verb and some very usefull tools like autofilter...

[Sk1nZ]

Not a big fan of lfo tool for sidechain and much prefer it from a trigger. And yes i sometimes chain and sidechain from the dry signal on the track itself, very handy for reverb and delays etc..

No. Turn on the sidechain function on the compressor on the reverb channel then send each track you want side chained, to it.

You mean have the kick trigger it? I would do that aswell but thats not what i meant, im wanting to sidechain from the dry signal of the vocal, lead, drums etc... anything im sending to it.

At the moment i have different reverb sends setup for the specific tracks such as vocals, drums etc.. and each send has a sidechain compressor which is set to the track its coming from so it ducks the reverb from the dry signal. If im using one reverb send then surely id need a compressor for each track im sending to it so id end up with like 5 compressors on my one reverb send

Think il just have to play around with it

[chk071]

This thread reminded me that i always wanted to try to get a replacement for Spire's onboard reverb. Just gave it another go, using R2, TB-Reverb-4, and Waves TrueVerb. No chance... they all sound so differently.

[Sk1nZ]

This thread reminded me that i always wanted to try to get a replacement for Spire's onboard reverb. Just gave it another go, using R2, TB-Reverb-4, and Waves TrueVerb. No chance... they all sound so differently.

spire got a decent reverb i take it? I did demo spire for a few hours then forgot about it but really liked the sounds from it. Might give it another go soon

[Sk1nZ]

You should take a look to the vengeance sound FX plugins pack, they have a very good reverb V-verb and some very usefull tools like autofilter...

i'll check them out

[4damind]

Eventide Blackhole (excellent) but also the Eventide Ultrareverb. They are often on sale and very cheap.
You don't like it, but Valhalla is still the best for the money and very versatile, so I would not completely remove it from the list.
With your budget you have not so many options, there are tons of excellent reverbs but not for $50...