Best overall software reverb under $250?

[eytanmich123]

I have:

Eventide SP2016
Slate VerbSuite
Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven Pro, Lustrous Plates
Valhalla Room, VintageVerb, Plate, SuperMassive
Arturia Plate 140
PSP 2445
Exponential PhoenixVerb, R4, Nimbus
IK Sunset Sound, T Racks 5 CSR
Softube TSAR-1R
Soundtoys Little Plate
and possibly more I've forgotten

...

That seems to be every possible reverb. Make much music?

Purchasing and installing plugins is one hobby, making music another...

HAHA !

SO TRUE !

[whannel]

Mixing multiple reverbs seems to be a good way of having every option, think LiquidSonics shared this method, probably worth checking Reverberate 3 for $99 to use any reverb sampled as an IR and then keep them having some life rather than being static like most convolution reverbs. Or maybe one of their Lite versions of their expensive products.

iZotope usually do the Excalibur ones really cheap on deals now, their new Neoverb appears to use the blending method in this video.

As mentioned Waves H Reverb goes cheap often.

Relab Sonsig Rev A definitely worth a demo, sometimes on sale at $99. Would recommend you demo a bunch to see what you like the most, maybe even borrow a couple of IRs here and there and spice them up/blend them with others.

[bmanic]

Been saying this for years every time I get a chance.

If the majority of your project consists of dry samples or dry/non-localized (no sense of a space) VSTi sounds, then for the love of all that is holy, make sure almost all sources have at least a little tiny bit of different reverb to them, to give them some initial space to live in. This is the way to get Z-depth to a mix (combined with volume + EQ). One of the simplest ways of getting a flat mix is to have one main reverb and sending everything to it. Then it will literally sound like a flat mix played in a single space recorded by a microphone.

Depth in a mix is created by contrasts. Some sounds should be "far away" and some sounds very dry and "close to the listener". Varying these contrasts over the mix will create what one would perceive as an evolving deep mix. The classic variation of this would be verses with mainly short reverbs and dry elements, bridge a bit more evolving with perhaps a few elements drenched and far away whereas chorus could be huge with tons of variation to different elements.

Also, don't treat reverb as a static element that you just send stuff to and forget. I highly recommend doing volume and EQ automation on all reverb sends, constantly throughout the track. Slowly riding up the volume of a reverb before the chorus or bridge starts can be a similarly effective way of building up tension as the typical filtered white noise or other similar risers.


So in conclusion:

Don't be afraid to run tons of reverb plugins in a single project. Automate them! I have everything from 10 to 30 reverb plugins per project, depending on how large the project is. I don't remember when I've had less than 10, even in a simple project. The majority of them are of course on individual tracks and at very low volume but they add subtle glue and complexity to sounds.

[ariston]

bmanic, I hear you, and you're absolutely right. Mixing is something that isn't exactly my favorite part of making music, and I cut corners wherever I can. In this context, that basically means sending stuff to reverbs and delays and then letting it lie.
The times when I gave the depth of a mix special attention, I was really amazed how little differences (like you said, in automation, EQing etc.) can transform a track and make it shine. Again, like I said earlier, at this point I would contest that fussing about reverb quality should take a definite second place to your use of reverb. Or, to put it another way, a poor mixing job won't get any better with the most expensive reverb thrown on the sends.

Thanks for reminding me of it. Now I gotta go back and remix a few things...

[gondii]

So in conclusion:

Buy all the reverbs, gotchya!

[whannel]

Waves IR-L Convolution (RRP $149) currently free until 10th Nov via Black Ghost Audio signup: https://www.facebook.com/19405763770985 ... 639308059/

[bmanic]

So in conclusion:

Buy all the reverbs, gotchya!

Or just get one that is very flexible, then use a ton of different kinds of reverb types. Rooms, plates, halls etc.

[bmanic]

bmanic, I hear you, and you're absolutely right. Mixing is something that isn't exactly my favorite part of making music, and I cut corners wherever I can. In this context, that basically means sending stuff to reverbs and delays and then letting it lie.
The times when I gave the depth of a mix special attention, I was really amazed how little differences (like you said, in automation, EQing etc.) can transform a track and make it shine. Again, like I said earlier, at this point I would contest that fussing about reverb quality should take a definite second place to your use of reverb. Or, to put it another way, a poor mixing job won't get any better with the most expensive reverb thrown on the sends.

Thanks for reminding me of it. Now I gotta go back and remix a few things...

I try to think of mixing the same way as playing an instrument (in my case it's piano and guitar). Emotions are created by varying the tonality of your instrument throughout the song. Piano allows you to play soft tones at moderately low volume all the way to harsh tones at very loud volume. Same for guitar, depending on how strike the strings you can create a lot of variations to the tonality of the chords/notes.

In mixing the way to achieve this is automation. Unfortunately, depending on the mix, you may be "playing an instrument" with hundreds of strings/mallets/things.. each needing their own subtle over-time variations. So yeah, it can become really tedious but it is indeed worth it.

[andymcbain]

Relab Sonsig Rev-A is going for an absolute steal on JRR Shop at the moment. Got it down to $66 in the cart ... https://www.jrrshop.com/relab-development-sonsig-rev-a

[Dirtgrain]

^ $62.98 at Audiodeluxe.com

[andymcbain]

^ $62.98 at Audiodeluxe.com

Damn, I was too eager once again

[martinjuenke]

Molecular Bytes Atomic Reverb rules them all

[eBlue]

^ $62.98 at Audiodeluxe.com

 

Damn, I was too eager once again

 

It's $50 at Sweetwater...

-e.B

[Dirtgrain]

Nice

[andymcbain]

So in conclusion:

Don't be afraid to run tons of reverb plugins in a single project. Automate them! I have everything from 10 to 30 reverb plugins per project, depending on how large the project is. I don't remember when I've had less than 10, even in a simple project. The majority of them are of course on individual tracks and at very low volume but they add subtle glue and complexity to sounds.

This seems to go against all the unwritten rules about reverb, which is what makes it so compelling

Are you referring to 10-30 entirely different "spaces" or variations on a few pre-defined spaces (e.g. a long hall, a short plate, an ambient room etc) - across many instances? Or just whatever seems to sound good for the track?

Something I started doing recently was leaving a reverb's pre-delay at zero and then making multiple "pre-delay busses" with different delay and EQ settings. That seemed to help a little when creating a sense of depth. But as CPU power goes up and up the idea of using a ton of different reverbs gets all the more intriguing.