Voxengo Sobor reverberation plugin released

[dickiefunk]

Yes, but in "natural" category. It can't replace "special FX" reverbs (e.g. gated reverbs, "delay" reverbs, etc.).

One of the first things that hit me about this reverb was how “natural” it sounds. For natural spaces I’ve been using LiquidSonics Cinematic Rooms and Exponential Nimbus which are both great reverbs. However, I’m really loving the dense smooth tail of this reverb.

[Prototype_human]

Just tried it , it is really good , nice addition to my valhalla reverb.

[nordickvr]

Congrats, quite straight forward to use + sounds pretty good!

[Biome_Digital]

That's quite a statement! So, in your opinion, this is better than all other reverbs available?

Yes, but in "natural" category. It can't replace "special FX" reverbs (e.g. gated reverbs, "delay" reverbs, etc.).

[J1000]

Let me add a second "wouldn't use any other reverb". In fact, since I've bought CRTIV Reverb I didn't use any other reverb I own, uninstalled them all, including ValhallaRoom which is to me the second best natural sounding algorithmic reverb, but still not as good as this one IMO. Here are some reasons why I love and warmly recommend CRTIV/Sobor for serious users who might appreciate it:

- Subtle, realistic reverb, without wild modulations, "shimmering" highs, vintage hardware emulation, reduced samplerates (VR) etc.
- Dense, "non-metalic" algorithm that doesn't interfere with any harmonic material you put through it. This is not a simple multitap delay with feedback control or some old open-source topology.
- Excellent blending with dry signal, which is often mediocre on transients with many other reverbs.
- No stupid reverberation visualizations with rainbow gradients, 2D/3D animations, pseudo-scientific graphs etc. No distractions, no eye-candy, leaves display free for other plugins.
- Reduced number of controls with well-thought ranges that all have meaningful influence on sound. (although I must admit that changing those drop down options will make you squint your ears to hear difference)

This plugin and Voxengo Spatifier, which is not a classic reverb, are all I need for adding space to my music.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Thanks! Released Sobor 3.1 which features a gradual increase of ER influence, switchable via Size/ER selector. With higher variation value, it's now possible to use Sobor on mixes effortlessly. Previously, it could sound a bit crowded. And yes, the ER part blends with the sound very well, it even subtly works as a transient booster at lower Pre-Delay settings.

[Ploki]

the small "ER" sizes are reaaaallly cool.

[Andreya_Autumn]

I tried this lately, along with a bunch of other well-renowned algorithmic reverbs. I'll just put my opinion/findings here.

I find that the watershed for me with algorithmic reverb is in the early reflections, especially the way those blend with the dry transients, and the way they transition into the tail. There are a lot of good options out there if you're looking for somewhat sparser/less diffuse early reflections. Valhalla Room and Vintage do this really well. Supermassive does that exceedingly well too, if you're not attached to a specific classic sound. Many others do too. That makes such reverbs a difficult sell nowadays, since there's such good options available for cheap or free.

If you're looking for dense and smoothly diffused early reflections, which blend well with the dry sound, things get a little trickier though. I have yet to find a free or cheap option that does this well, though admittedly I've not tried everything out there. That being said: IMO Sobor is one of the best options out there right now if you're looking for those smooth ER's. Of the ones I've tried the only one that does this better is FF Pro-R, which is more than double the price. The new Baby Audio thing does a pretty good job at this too I'd say, though I found it a little splashier than Sobor.

That smooth early characteristic is what makes or breaks "natural" sound in an algorithmic reverb IMO. And while Sobor is somewhat CPU-heavy, that could be weighed against the fact that one might otherwise reach for a convolution reverb for those realistic duties, which could easily cost even more cycles.

I will pass for now, since I use little enough reverb to afford using convolution for it. But I'm very impressed, and will be back if I need an algorithmic one! If this had the on-board frequency shaping of Pro-R I might consider them equally valuable, making this a better deal by far.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

IMO tail's sound is as important as ER blending. Sobor is among a very few reverbs that propagate prior sound part's harmony into the tail. Most reverbs produce a "dull", generic tail sonics, some even propagate a rather unpleasant resonance modes.

[DJErmac]

I'm on the fence. Yes, it sounds absolutely superb, insanely realistic, with a huge sense of depth. If I had to choose a realistic, purely realistic reverb, I would consider this one first.

But it misses a kind of modulation for me, so it sounds more "alive", and most of all, truly lush. Sometimes illusion works better than recreation of reality. The fact is that I always work with modulated reverbs, to make the instruments reverb sound larger than real. And most reverbs include some.

Would you consider adding modulation some day or is it a no-go please ?

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Sobor already uses modulation internally, you can sense a tiny bit of "detune" vibe. But I do not plan to make it controllable or stronger, it's not a common request from 5 years of CRTIV Reverb sales. It's just not my market.

[Trancit]

Sorry for being a bit off-topic but I didn´t know where to post this:

Today I finally had to pull the trigger for the premium membership...

I was already fighting with myself quite some time as I do not always like your minimalistic GUI´s and sometimes for me hard to understand handling...

Nonetheless you are a developer one has to support...
- beside top notch quality,
- your never ending effort keeping your plugins up-to-date and
- releasing new stuff since I don´t know how many years,
- your presence and communication,
- fair pure serial numbers to unlock the products even if that means being pirated all the time,
- all the nice freebies you always already offered and
- last but not least the absolutely great deal of the premium membership

I couldn´t ignore anymore...

I wished to see some day a great delay plugin besides Tempo Delay (which I cannot really wrap my head round with it´s for me hard to understand timing values)...

Please keep up the great work and I wish you all the best for your future projects!

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Thank you!

[J1000]

Could you explain the unusual double-click knob reset positions? Common practice for knobs is to reset to minimum, maximum or center (12 o'clock). Particularly weird are Damp Hi and Reverb level knobs that reset to 7kHz and -8.0dBFS with offset, when you could've set them to 6.5kHz and -9.0dBFS that would've been in center.

If you're trying to guide users to good sounding values that should be achieved through default preset, not this way. Please consider fixing this behaviour .

[swindus]

You can create your own default values. Dial all values how you like it and set it as default preset.