Reverbs

[Funkstar De Luxe2]

This has been done to death, I know. However, I recently did a trial of the Lexicon Reverb package and it blew me away. They are the best, most dense, useful reverbs I have tried yet.

I'm thinking very seriously about buying the PCM Total Bundle. This is serious money for me, but they appear to be the best.

Anyone else have a differing opinion or other recommendations? I keep having the Valhalla stuff suggested to me, but I hated the sound.

[Obsolete462444]

The Exponential Audio, now owned by Izotope, reverbs are probably as good as it gets. The programmer is an ex-Lexicon guy afaik.

R2 / R4 for Lexicon style dense artificial reverb with lots of modulation, Phoenix Reverb / Nimbus for clean natural rooms, plates and halls. There is also Neoverb which which bundles the algorithms within a very nice and functional new UI.

Personally I'm very happy with PhoenixVerb which I bought for 10 bucks last month.

For free options you could shootout Orilriver Reverb, Voxengo Oldskoolverb and Dragonfly Reverbs, they are quite good.

[excuse me please]

Free: Ambient and DD-Reverb. Low CPU usage.

[Bulbizarre]

Try to copy presets from other plugins in the Valhalla and see how that translates. Dragonfly is very good for this, just around 15% wet on every preset. Use the noisy and modulated modes and short size.

[himalaya]

I bought Exponential Audio R4 and Pheonix reverb recently in a sale (maybe during Black Friday sales). They are really amazing reverbs and a step-up from my other ones like Valhalla VVV, Acon Verberate, 2CAudio Breeze2. A lot of it is to do with the fine detail. The Exponential Audio reverbs have that something special - I won't go into details what it is, since it's all about your perception of sound.

My go-to for a long time was Valhalla VVV (and Shimmer). I bought Acon Verberate as it's a different sound to VVV, much more natural, organic, very pleasant, perfect for acoustic sources. Amazing reverb. But they would be different as VVV aims to provide some specific reverbs focusing on the hardware sound from the 80s ( if I remember correctly).

I'm not really that obsessed with reverbs, but as always, GAS is an irresistible force, so during a sale I bought Breeze2. It really is gorgeous for lush reverbs (well, they all are, really). Lovely, inspiring GUI and easy to use UX. However, I demoed Exponential Audio stuff (stayed away from these for years due to iLok, which I'm not keen on for various reasons), but I demoed R4 and Pheonix and had to buy them. There is something that happens in the tail, the late reflections, the overall 'gelling' factor, whatever, something I couldn't get from other reverbs I have.

Having said that, during the actual production process, I find Valhalla VVV the fastest to use, and even though it doesn't sound as good as the Exponential Audio reverbs, I find that when I load VVV, I get the sound I want much more quickly. The fine detail that I prefer in R4 and Pheonix is usually lost in my busy mixes so I find myself in a strange situation where an inferior sounding reverb is preferred due to how easy and fast I can tailor it to my needs in the heat-of-the-moment. This of course could just mean that I need to learn R4 better. Spend more time with it so that it's second nature (The R4 UX is horrendous). VVV is easy to use from the onset. It's so well designed, although, of course it's not as deep (parameter-wise) as R4. The minimalistic, self-explanatory nature of Valhalla plugins really help during a session, where I jump from plugin to plugin, and the less I need to think about what's what, the better.

Another criticism of Exponential Audio reverbs concerns the presets. One reason why I bought R4 was to have access to loads of ready made presets for all occasions. When I demoed it, I actually didn't pay attention to the presets, and then when it came to inspecting what's available after the purchase, I was very disappointed to find out a rather unhelpful set of endlessly similar presets without proper categorisation. I love using reverb presets as a starting point, simply because I assume that the better reverb effects would have presets designed by people who understand what a hall sounds like, what a drum plate needs to sound like, etc. So I was looking to that (despite making presets for plugins myself ). So, for example, I needed to quickly grab a plate reverb for a snare, and could not find a starting point in the R4 preset list. Simply doesn't exist. The presets are so unhelpful in their categorisation, which I found very surprising for a plugin with the Lexicon heritage ( I own hardware Lexicon MPX 500 which has all the bread & butter reverbs right there). That's another reason that in the heat-of-the-moment, I still tend to go for VVV and Acon Verberate and tweak what I find. But, as I get familiar with R4, I think it will become my workhorse.

I also use Acustic Audio 'Ebony' IR reverb and Audio Thing 'Fog Convolver' (which has some bonkers IRs)

Pheew! A long post. I'm done for the week.

[chk071]

The Exponential Audio, now owned by Izotope, reverbs are probably as good as it gets. The programmer is an ex-Lexicon guy afaik.

+1

If you like Lexicon, those will be to your liking as well, I guess.

Apart from that, I love the Eventide reverbs, and Native Instruments' Raum is nice as well.

[Funkstar De Luxe2]

I bought Exponential Audio R4 and Pheonix reverb recently in a sale (maybe during Black Friday sales). They are really amazing reverbs and a step-up from my other ones like Valhalla VVV, Acon Verberate, 2CAudio Breeze2. A lot of it is to do with the fine detail. The Exponential Audio reverbs have that something special - I won't go into details what it is, since it's all about your perception of sound.

My go-to for a long time was Valhalla VVV (and Shimmer). I bought Acon Verberate as it's a different sound to VVV, much more natural, organic, very pleasant, perfect for acoustic sources. Amazing reverb. But they would be different as VVV aims to provide some specific reverbs focusing on the hardware sound from the 80s ( if I remember correctly).

I'm not really that obsessed with reverbs, but as always, GAS is an irresistible force, so during a sale I bought Breeze2. It really is gorgeous for lush reverbs (well, they all are, really). Lovely, inspiring GUI and easy to use UX. However, I demoed Exponential Audio stuff (stayed away from these for years due to iLok, which I'm not keen on for various reasons), but I demoed R4 and Pheonix and had to buy them. There is something that happens in the tail, the late reflections, the overall 'gelling' factor, whatever, something I couldn't get from other reverbs I have.

Having said that, during the actual production process, I find Valhalla VVV the fastest to use, and even though it doesn't sound as good as the Exponential Audio reverbs, I find that when I load VVV, I get the sound I want much more quickly. The fine detail that I prefer in R4 and Pheonix is usually lost in my busy mixes so I find myself in a strange situation where an inferior sounding reverb is preferred due to how easy and fast I can tailor it to my needs in the heat-of-the-moment. This of course could just mean that I need to learn R4 better. Spend more time with it so that it's second nature (The R4 UX is horrendous). VVV is easy to use from the onset. It's so well designed, although, of course it's not as deep (parameter-wise) as R4. The minimalistic, self-explanatory nature of Valhalla plugins really help during a session, where I jump from plugin to plugin, and the less I need to think about what's what, the better.

Another criticism of Exponential Audio reverbs concerns the presets. One reason why I bought R4 was to have access to loads of ready made presets for all occasions. When I demoed it, I actually didn't pay attention to the presets, and then when it came to inspecting what's available after the purchase, I was very disappointed to find out a rather unhelpful set of endlessly similar presets without proper categorisation. I love using reverb presets as a starting point, simply because I assume that the better reverb effects would have presets designed by people who understand what a hall sounds like, what a drum plate needs to sound like, etc. So I was looking to that (despite making presets for plugins myself ). So, for example, I needed to quickly grab a plate reverb for a snare, and could not find a starting point in the R4 preset list. Simply doesn't exist. The presets are so unhelpful in their categorisation, which I found very surprising for a plugin with the Lexicon heritage ( I own hardware Lexicon MPX 500 which has all the bread & butter reverbs right there). That's another reason that in the heat-of-the-moment, I still tend to go for VVV and Acon Verberate and tweak what I find. But, as I get familiar with R4, I think it will become my workhorse.

I also use Acustic Audio 'Ebony' IR reverb and Audio Thing 'Fog Convolver' (which has some bonkers IRs)

Pheew! A long post. I'm done for the week.

This is extremely helpful, thank you very much. I absolutely need to demo the Exponential Audio, by the sounds of things. I run Izotope RX which I love, I've just never considered looking that their reverbs. I'm not too worried about presets, I'll create and organise my own in time.

I'll give the Fog Convolver a demo as well, I can always use some weirdness.

[chk071]

Try Exponential R2 and R4 first and foremost, as those are probably closest to the Lexicons

[andymcbain]

Relab Sonsig Rev-A is definitely worth trying if you want lush and huge. You can't tweak it to the same level as the Lexicon or many others for that matter, but when it works it works very well, IMO.

[himalaya]

What sold Fog Convolver to me, was this one specific Impulse Response it comes with (Preset name: Cereals) which creates a gorgeous, inspiring tapestry of sound. Simply beautiful.

[zvenx]

As others have said if you like the Lexicon sound I would recommend highly R4 (nimbus/phoenix are a lot 'cleaner'/transparent) or Relab's Sonsiq Rev-A.
Once I got on board the EA wagon I stopped using all other Reverbs until Sonsiq Rev-A came along which I use if I really need a Reverb to be heard and stand out. EA stuff tend to be a lot more subtle.
rsp

[AKJ]

Well, I own a number of high quality reverbs (most of the Valhalla Reverbs, Phoenix, Breverb, CSR etc.). Until very recently I was very reluctant to go the Lexicon route. Online audio demos never really convinced me that there was anything so special about Lexicon. That was until I actually tried them. Unfortunately, I must admit that there is really something special about the Lexicon sound. Especially the PCM96 sound is great (however, I not not like the vintage sound style so much, and probably that is why online demos nerver convinced me because they mostly center on the vintage Lexicon sound which to me is grainy and too much modulated). And although Michael Carnes coded the PCM96 algos as well the the Phoenix algos I do still prefer the PCM sound. Highlight here is to me the hall algorithm. The good news is: you do not have to buy the PCM Native Bundle to get it, you may also opt for the much cheaper LXP Bundle (on sale often available for around 70 Euros). It features hall, chamber, plate and room algos. According to Michael Carnes, only the room algo in the LXP bundle is not identical to that of the PCM.

[Ploki]

I really wish someone did a codeport of the M7 already.

One of my favs are:
2C Audio (but they've been maintained poorly recently so i simply stopped using them)
Voxengo CRTIV Reverb (it's a no-fuss lush thingie)
D16 Toraverb (unapologetically artifical)
Softube TSAR-1
FabFilter Pro-R

But sometimes they don't fit. So i might have to get Valhalla. Need to demo it.
I find that long-lush shit is easy to pull off... But ambiences and small-short verbs are where most reverbs piss out

[Halma]

I really wish someone did a codeport of the M7 already.
...

Liquid Sonics Seventh Heaven ? https://www.liquidsonics.com/software/seventh-heaven/

[mike_the_ranger]

The Lexicon PCM bundle is worth it. I really dig FabFilter Pro-R too. And I still have the old WizooVerb in use best ever. Worth mentioning is the Zynaptiq Adaptiverb for a whole other experience.