112db Redline Reverb

I was skeptical about this reverb. I've been around the block a few times and used a lot of nice reverb plugs. Both high priced and not. Surprisingly in this field, more money does not always equal a better product. For some vst's this is actually pretty true, but I've good and bad reverbs at all ends of the spectrum. Someone recommended redline and I was skeptical, but it was semi-cheap so I tried it. The first thing I noticed was that large amount of presets. There's like 100 or so. Very useful ones too. Redline has all the bases covered here.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The controls for me, are the perfect balance of function and simplicity. They allow you to tweak a decent bit of stuff, but leave out the excessive stuff like room and placement specific EQ and junk that is best left to the audiophiles. Like I said, the presets are nice and usable. I generally find one that's close to what I want and tweak it a bit to taste. Here's the thing, my favorite reverb by far for a while has been Lexicon's PCM bundle, and this was the first reverb I tried that kind of sort of came close to matching it. Ironic considering the difference in price. But my ears don't lie. I'm amazed at the compactness and system performance of this plugin considering how good it sounds. It defies all logic really. I find it does the spacey sounds best. For simple reverbs I generally go to the lexicons. But that's not to say the redline isn't great. I'm actually convinced this is the best you can do under $500 or so.

OVERALL OPINION

A lot of reverbs to me just try too hard. Too many controls or just too much of a good thing. 90% of producers don't need much reverb. And the companies making plugins seem to think we want droves of it. News flash. We don't. Redline is a company that recognizes everyone is different and needs different kinds of reverb, so they stuck a lot of good stuff in an affordable package. It may not quite have the sound quality of some $2000 plugins, but it's sort of close. That, in my book is great.