Eventide Blackhole vs NI Raum?

[RikkShow]

Also try Eventide Crystals

[plexuss]

Also try Eventide Crystals

Sounds like we are talking about drugs... oh... wait... we are!

[_leras]

But, I only bought the Blackhole a few days ago so I honestly don't know to use it well and I kept hearing about BlackHole without really knowing the sound.. That is I don't have the emotional connection with the sound that I am aware of anyway.

rsp

I'd say that really it's main strength is as an fx reverb where you want to give a sound space and to really have the reverb hold and makes a sense of big space with long decay.

I'm sure it has uses for other things too.... but that's what I've used it for. It has a gritty/darkness to the reverb.

[onerob]

I think Raum is excellent as a general purpose big-space reverb. The tail is really smooth. Plus, in Cosmic mode, if you fiddle around with the delay and size controls you can get decent FX-type verbs.

Blackhole is great but the stereo width is a little lacking, I find.

[Azbest]

Agreed with the poster above. Blackhole's stereo width is wack and so is it's weird predelays.

[beely]

Blackhole is great but the stereo width is a little lacking, I find.

It's a black hole - it pulls everything in to the centre..!

[El°HYM]

Blackhole is great but the stereo width is a little lacking, I find.

It's a black hole - it pulls everything in to the centre..!

Exactly, that's how Blackhole's work.

[legendCNCD]

Black Hole is smooth with big spaces. Raum is more dirty/grainy/fx (can also do quite smooth) but has more function modes. Have both use both, also Valhalla Supermassive is in use a lot but a bit tamed more than others with gating or volume ramps .. sometimes.

Get them all if you like how they sound.

[MogwaiBoy]

Nice comparison. I love the way the Blackhole just floats into space like that but doesn't overwhlem. Raum is a bit more traditional Lexicon-ish (ie: VintageVerb) and atleast in that comparison has more pronounced modulation.

Both do the swirly, spacey thing well - but Blackhole is one-of-a-kind and cannot be replaced for that Blackhole sound.

I've used Blackhole in every song I've written since I bought it. Hell, it even INSPIRED some of those songs. It's inspiring to put anything through, if you're into ambient.

I have to say you cannot go wrong with either though, and the GAS thing to do is to get both

[DJ Warmonger]

Different beasts. I use them both all the time for different purposes:

Raum - big reverb for leads
Blackhole - ambient reverb on send

Also, in my latest EP I creatively used Blackhole for some nice ambient sweeps and drama in breaks:
https://open.spotify.com/album/4f9C5i2ev2EDS5wZTvaCdH

[flori89]

I'm of the opinion of: if it does a specific thing really well, and that's I thing I might use, then get it. I have a lot of plugins, but oftentimes, I'm using one plugin for one specific thing. Blackhole does Blackhole sounds well. Don't even need other presets - just start with Blackhole and adjust to taste. Those types of plugins will get used frequently here.

ValhallaSupermassive does a similar thing and is free, but has a lot more options. So if I'm specifically after a Blackhole sound, and sometimes I am, I just load the Eventide. If I want a massive, clean verb, that's where Supermassive comes in. And Raum, I personally never used in a project. I feel like Valhalla or Eventide can do some of those sounds better, despite Raum being excellent.

Agreed, 90% of the time when I use Blackhole I just use it at default and tweak it a little.

[XorXisT]

I have both, so get both

[rubez]

Discovered Raum and been using it on a few synths - sounds REALLY lovely.

[MogwaiBoy]

Don't buy either if you want real room emulation - these are both "space verbs" but as in outer space, not room space. Both are focused on deep modulated tails, with Raum more Lexicon-ish/hardware-ish and Blackhole more it's own thing.

There's a flutter in the tail of Blackhole that points to its plate reverb heritage I think, but it's far from a typical plate.

Blackhole is my favourite for instant chill/floating vibe - but it can cloud a mix very quick, so use carefully and don't forget to automate. There is a touch of harmonic synthesis (almost like a subtle shimmer) in Blackhole as well that is unique and distinctive. What a smooth, beautiful out-of-this-world reverb Blackhole is - it's my #1 for ambient.

For general purpose/room spaces I am loving a combo of UVI Plate and Cinematic Rooms on aux send.

PS I know I posted above - this is Take Two

[pamier242]

FWIW, I don't know too much about Raum's algorithmic structures, but it can sometimes help to know that Backhole is not a traditional reverb.

Eventide has an algorithm called DiffChorus, which is a string of modulated all-pass filters (diffusors) in series, but it starts with a mono input and then separates the signal to left/right (an old trick to save processor load).

Blackhole uses 3 instances of DiffChorus. The first takes the incoming signal, sums it to mono, and spreads it left/right. The left/right signals are then connected to additional instances of DiffChorus, diffusing the signal out more. Altering the co-efficients (feedbacks) on the diffusors changes the characteristics of the rise/fall in volume and basically, everything is modulated. Later versions of the algorithm also feature a feedback loop around the later diffusors, nut I'm not sure what the Resonance parameter is.

Apparently, Blackhole also sounds best at 48k - I cannot remember why, but it's something related to the way the math is divided inside of the DiffChorus algorithm.

Traditional reverbs usually feature a set of diffusors up front, with the diffused signal being sent into a feedback delay network.

I always thought this stuff was interesting, so I wanted to pass it on. My source data comes from disassembling the algorithm in VSIG (I have an H8000FW + Eclipse) and conversations with the algorithm's designer.