Best overall software reverb under $250?

[Ploki]

is this "lexicon phase canceling thing" actually uh, a real thing, or just someone's interpretation of what they think they are hearing? I've read a whole lot about algorithmic reverb and I've yet to hear about one that can magically phase-cancel out frequencies of the dry signal.... I'm happy to be educated in the matter if it is, in fact real, but some of this stuff sounds more like imaginary woo-woo than actual legit Reverb science...

Phase cancelling is not rocket science.
You do predictable group delay to get cancellation, there’s really nothing to it.

Cant be arsed to check for lexicons, but its really stupid simple to do that

[bmanic]

is this "lexicon phase canceling thing" actually uh, a real thing, or just someone's interpretation of what they think they are hearing? I've read a whole lot about algorithmic reverb and I've yet to hear about one that can magically phase-cancel out frequencies of the dry signal.... I'm happy to be educated in the matter if it is, in fact real, but some of this stuff sounds more like imaginary woo-woo than actual legit Reverb science...

Nah it's just a description. I'll try again:

Basically what I mean is that some reverbs add to the overall signal, resulting in a higher overall volume output when you have the original dry signal + the wet reverb, whereas the lexicon high-end algorithms tend to not add any more overall signal level. Thus my interpretation of this is that the overall frequency response gets sort of evened out and you get no additional mud or congestion anywhere.. especially in the lows and lower mids. It's usually quite the contrary, you can even get a more clear mix and some mud taken away by the reverb. Thus my description of it as some sort of phase cancellation.

I've managed to create a few such reverb presets for Ariesverb but they don't sound the same way the lexicon reverbs do.. but the overall idea of a balanced amplitude output still works.

[Ploki]

I sometimes use soothe with sidechained dry signal after reverb to notch it out.
I duck 90% or my reverbs anyway, i wish all had that built in

[recursive one]

You really should check out adaptiverb by zynaptiq. It has become my favorite plugin to use, ever. I don't like pitting a reverb against EQs, saturators, compressors, etc, for obvious reasons BUT adaptiverb beats any other plugin I've ever used in terms of 'bang-for-buck' value, and it ain't cheap either. Money well worth spent.

For context, I have every Valhalla plugin. I have most of the UAD reverbs. I have R4 from exponential audio, 2C Breeze, Pro-R, the IRCAM verbs, Acon's Verberate... none of them beat Adaptiverb for me. This isn't even mentioning how well it will suit your needs for psytrance...

You really should check out adaptiverb by zynaptiq.
...
It's not emulating any real, physical spaces. It's "reflectionless". I wouldn't even consider it a reverb in a lot of circumstances.

Hear, hear! It's a great way to describe Adaptiverb: reflectionless.

More than a reverb, it's the world's finest lush-y-izer.

Thanks, interesting. Quite pricey but I'll check it out.

Overall, it's not that I'm unhappy with Valhalla VV and I know how to tweak it, I typically use it in "NOW" mode with not a lot of modulation (unless I want some special flavour) do some additional pre/post equing as needed... It's just "what if there's a better reverb somewhere".

[chk071]

Overall, it's not that I'm unhappy with Valhalla VV and I know how to tweak it, I typically use it in "NOW" mode with not a lot of modulation (unless I want some special flavour) do some additional pre/post equing as needed...

Maybe that's even the more healthy approach. I bought way too many reverbs, because they all have their different, special flavour.

On the other hand, I probably couldn't live with a single reverb, practically for the same reason: Sometimes, you just need another flavour, like with synths.

Maybe, in your case, it would be good to have a reverb which complements Vintage Verb. Like VRoom, or Exponential Audio R2 or R4 (which often can be had for a complete bargain price). I think a cleaner reverb would complement VIntag Verb very well, because I always thought that it's a very coloured reverb, and, sometimes you want something more clean (great for percussions, for example).

[mholloway]

I'm all for folks getting the most out of the plugins they already have, but if you find yourself using Valhalla VINTAGE Verb and constantly switching to Now mode and no modulation.....perhaps consider using Valhalla Room instead

(THAT said, I'll again recommend the 'Smooth Plate' algo in VVV, as it's very transparent sounding and less immediately 'vintage-y' than many of the other algos -- and thus very 'all purpose').

[FapFilter]

Funny thing is when i demoed Vroom against VVV back then i found Vroom to actually sound more “grainy“ and “obvious“ and actually got better “transparency“ out of VVV, despite being set on getting an “invisible“ reverb which i generally prefer and according to their names, Vroom should have been the better pick.
Might have done something wrong though, but still some years later when i tried Vroom again i still vastly preferred VVV for “clean“.

Nowadays i'm still using VVV pretty much exclusively, other than some built in reverb in a select few VSTi which actually sound quite good on synths sounds and sometimes IRs of some good algos which i also liked.
I sadly don't have an UAD anymore and didn't take impulses from it, as nothing compared to plate b (i think it was) of their EMT 140, despite having way too long decay for my taste to be useful on all things.
For contrast i'm sometimes using NI Raum, which sounds awesome in it's own right but while it is extremely smooth (in HD mode), it actually gives almost too much “overproduced / overpolished“ modern top of the charts EDM smoothness.

This all is for synthetic music though, so for acoustic, Vroom, or some of the usual suspects of GS favorites might actually fare much better

regarding the aforementioned Adaptiverb: this is actually one of the few plugins that i'm as an ilok nay-sayer quite interested in.
There doesn't happen to be one ilok free alternative that i might demo to see if i actually like that concept?

[recursive one]

regarding the aforementioned Adaptiverb: this is actually one of the few plugins that i'm as an ilok nay-sayer quite interested in.
There doesn't happen to be one ilok free alternative that i might demo to see if i actually like that concept?

Oh, it's Ilok? Good to know. Not that I'm a hater but I'd prefer to stay away from it where possible.

Will try VRoom and Pro-R first.

Btw, what do people think about the NI reverbs, RC 24/48? (these appear to be coloured big halls from the descritption, so probably my Valhalla VV covers that).

[FapFilter]

I “only“ have these inside Guitar Rig 6.
It really depends, they're good sounding if you are after “old sounds“, but they aren't as versatile imo. They also don't sport all the algorithms of the originals and the included ones are seemingly more for the obviously reverbed tones. So if you are not looking for subtle, they might actually do the trick very well for you
Haven't spent too much time with them though

[bmanic]

Have you tried the free U-He Protoverb? You can get lucky with that one and spawn an awesome preset for yourself.. and if you look at how the seed system works, you can sort of "tweak" it after a while of testing what it does.

Also, you don't forget that you can post- and pre-process your reverb send channel and drastically change how it sounds and behaves. Sometimes it can be super useful to put a bunch of allpass filters on your reverb to force the phase of it so that it interacts with your original source signal in a different way and thus might sit better in the mix.

[bmanic]

I sometimes use soothe with sidechained dry signal after reverb to notch it out.
I duck 90% or my reverbs anyway, i wish all had that built in

Soothe can be a real saver on various send channels (works GREAT on phasers/choruses too when you want to suppress a specific frequency from being reinforced). So yeah, 100% agree with you and I highly recommend soothe for this task (or something similar).

[FapFilter]

Yes, protoverb can really give awesome results. It's literally hit and miss though, since most parameters are just accessible by the randomizer.

[h66]

Unfortunately, (like all the good stuff) it's a CPU eater.

No, good stuff is well designed and had no CPU impact. (NI and CPU is a running gag...)

[chk071]

No, good stuff is well designed and had no CPU impact.

Oh, OK then... I gotta get rid of all that analog modelled high end sounding stuff then, because it should have no CPU impact.

[Erik_Lucas]

regarding the aforementioned Adaptiverb: this is actually one of the few plugins that i'm as an ilok nay-sayer quite interested in.
There doesn't happen to be one ilok free alternative that i might demo to see if i actually like that concept?

Trust me, I've scoured every corner of the internet to find anything comparable to it. Nothing.

I don't know how to convince you to deal with the ilok situation in order to use adaptiverb, but I can tell you it is worth it. It is SO ridiculous. I can't tell you how many times I've put it on something where it takes the entire song to the next level.

This all might sound a bit over exaggerated, but I swear I'm not one to do that. If I had to pick only one 3rd party plugin... adaptiverb, and its not close.