Software Reverbs

If you love quality reverb units but are too tight to afford a Bricasti M7… Well, here’s bad news for you: you’re about to regret all of your previous purchases! This reverb is sheerly impressive. No chorus, metal and so on effect on board, it’s all about pure, transparent reverb sound! It takes 9GB of data capacity to store all the impulse response files, but it’s really worth it. I got it for around €180 ($200) as a special offer and at such a price it’s a real bargain. Plus, it’s ergonomically perfect. You can set the reverb’s highs/lows and access all of a classic reverb’s setting in a most intuitive manner. If I’m to quote something I don’t like about it, I’d go with… the PACE anti-piracy system which involves you’ll have to get the latest iLok key – for an additional cost, of course…

The Lexicon LXP Native Reverb Plug-in Bundle brings the highly respected sound of Lexicon digital reverb right into your DAW! Lexicon has been a leader in digital reverb and other effects since the start, and this is one of the first plug-in bundles to feature their classic reverb algorithms. While not as versatile as the Lexicon PCM Native Reverb Plug-in Bundle, there’s a ton that you can do with this software. I wasn’t the one to take care of installing this software on the studio’s systems that I work at, so I can’t comment on this process of getting the software running. Once you do have the plug-in up and running, which I can’t imagine would take long, then you can start diving into all of features this has to offer, which is really a nice amount. There are four different reverb algorithms to choose from – chamber, hall, plate, and room. Each has their own parameters and all that to work with, all of which get quite in depth and give you pretty much total control over the end result. A manual might be a good thing to hav around if you’re going to be sitting down and learning all the ins and outs of the software, although I have not seen it myself. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Even though this software is a Native version, the studios we’ve got on site where I work are all Pro Tools HD based. It’s a good thing that our computers are extremely powerful on there own and can handle their own native plug-ins as well when necessary as is the case here. The A room where I’ve primarily used the software has Pro Tools HD and a Mac Pro computer consisting of dual 2.66 Ghz Intel Xeon processors and 10 GB of RAM. This huge amount of RAM makes it easy enough to run this software without hiccups in my experience. OVERALL OPINION Without a doubt the Lexicon LXP Native Reverb Plug-in Bundle is one of the best sounding plug-in reverbs that I’ve used to date. It’s comparable in it’s high sound quality to the PCM version of this bundle as it’s definitely of the same caliber. All of the algorithms are extremely clean cut sounding and the vast array of parameters given here allow for total control over what you hear back. I’m not sure that I could choose any one mode here, as they’re all great in their own ways even though I usually end up using the plate one. I don’t know what the difference in price is between the LXP and PCM Native Reverb Plug-in Bundles, but both are awesome reverb plug-ins that maybe matched out there but I’d be hard for me to say I’ve seen better…

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.

I have had no issues running this on both a Mac Pro and a Macbook Pro, snow leopard and Logic 9. Although this plugin has a lot of features, if you've used reverbs enough, this should not be too difficult without a manual. I have to say that the setup would be simple enough and easy to use if it weren't so darn small. Why do software developers think its a good idea to make the windows so darn small? At least develop a way for the use to increase the size of the plugin so they can read it easily. They are all on the front of the plugin but again, the amount of parameters in the small GUI make it a pain sometimes to see what knob you are searching for. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE As with all D16 software I have used, this is solid as a rock. No crashes, no hiccups and switching presets is almost instantaneous. The performance for this plugin is sort of interesting. I have compared this to other plugins I use and it seems to me that this one has more of a sharp gritty tinge to it. I feel that is what D16 is all about with there plugins, bringing some dirtiness to the party. I like that, but I must admit that when I reach for a Reverb, I usually want something more ethereal and warm. But, this does have its place (especially in some gritty electronica tracks). I have been using this plugin off and on for about 4 months. OVERALL OPINION What I like most about this unit is it's character. Overall I use other reverb plugins more but this one is it's own beast. Use it on a stereo drum track to get that "Gorrillaz" type sound or use it on a morphing pad to get that dirty house feel. What I don't like about it is my general complaint about D16 plugins, it's too darn small. I paid something like $50 or $55 for it and I am happy with that. The last thing I wanted was another Reverb plugin that sounded like Aether or Altiverb (I love those plugins so I don't need another that sounds just like them) so I am glad I chose this one. If you want some grit and dirt in your reverb, then I would say the precision and quality of this plugin is very good. I have used Aether, Altiverb, Ratshack reverb (reminds me of this plugin but this one has more character) and many others and this one stands out as its own sound. Yes, I enjoy having this in my arsenal when I need it so I would buy it again.

For the price paid it better start quickly and easily. And it did. Install is a snap and the presets let you get started instantly. There are A LOT of presets to choose from right out of the box. No searching around the net for decent settings and dialing them in from a window. Each reverb had about 50 presets which highlight the most useful configurations. I got a lot of initial use out of this plugin without even cracking the manual. A beginner producer could use the presets in conjunction with the wet/dry knob and never have to touch or read anything, and it would all sound great. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE I run a small studio with a couple of bands and some friends. We went together and bought this bundle after trying dozens of cheap reverb plugins trying to find one we liked. Unfortunately after we heard the Lexicon PCM's we realized you get what you pay for. This is about the only reverb we use. It can do it all. Need a light vocal hall? Done. Need some reverb on drums? No problem. Crazy spacey ambient effects needed? It can do all that and more. Most of the sounds are fairly classic live/hall/chamber reverbs. Although the random hall plugin is very cool. Some experimentation will yield interesting results. Sometimes we will have an indie band come in who wants an old school sound so we tend to use the vintage plate. It's amazing for that vibe. Generally, the preset options are robust enough that we rarely mess with advanced settings. Sometimes a little EQ setting is needed, but that's true with any reverb. We get great performance from it too. No slowdowns like some heavier reverbs out there. OVERALL OPINION What you get here is a top quality reverb collection that's not hard to use. Most producers don't have time to spend an hour fine tuning a hall reverb. We need specific and fast results for all our reverb needs. This bundle in my opinion is the best way to get that. Everyone has there favorites they swear by, well this is mine. I'm rating it an 8 because of the price. But hey...if you want quality.

I received this reverb plug-in as part of a bundle when I started studying production at Berklee in 2007. I would say it's been a steady, although not usually first choice, part of my setup since then. I would say it's a bit much for someone who isn't familiar with the complexities of reverb. Being one of those people myself, I prefer a more simple approach and don't recall ever doing much tweaking to any of the many controllable parameters in this plug-in. I appreciate the straight-forwardness of the visual representation of the changes you make to your verb, but I think active listening is a better way to go when it comes to reverb. I can't personally imagine needing such a degree of control over my reverb settings but all-in-all it sounds really nice and has some great presets that I trust for a lot of my work. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE This reverb definitely performs well. I'm a fan of using the plate presets for drums and sometimes vocals. I usually work with this in Logic or ProTools and I always have to have my iLok plugged in to use the waves stuff, which is kind of a pain and also one reason I often go with other reverbs. Like I said, I'm not such a tech junky and really don't bother with the extra features like the "reverb damping". I generally look for the type of reverb I want (i.e. plate, hall, etc...) and then tweak presets from there to get the desired wetness, pre-delay, and so on. That seems to have worked well enough for me over the last 8 or 9 years and it definitely hasn't decreased in capability or functionality in comparison to newer reverbs. I'm particularly a fan of the Waves stuff just because it doesn't ever cause any problems. I usually prefer, for example, to work with PSP plug-ins but they sometimes overload my system and a few are just too intense to load up more than one or two instances of them. OVERALL OPINION This is definitely a good-quality reverb plug-in. I'm not such a huge fan of some of the other Renaissance-Series items but this one is worth a look. That being said, I don't think I would personally purchase this for the $150 asking price. If you're someone who is into having a ridiculous amount of control on your reverb settings this is probably for you but I prefer a more simple approach. I usually go with the PSP EasyVerb. It sounds great and the layout and features are easily understandable. It's also less than half the price.

Aether from 2CAudio is compatible with different working platforms like Xp , Vista , 7 or MAC. The manual that is included with the software is quite detailed , enough to obtain the necessary information of how the reverb works. The setup doesn't require a lot of time or effort , it's very fast and easy to follow. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE The software from 2CAudio works beyond great , the program is very stable , provides different aspects of Doppler's Effect , high quality reflections and time delay. I'm getting amazing performances while using this product , it really helps to achieve a whole new level of creativity. OVERALL OPINION I really like the precision of this reverb , I also enjoy using the lock function which allows to temporally freeze the amount of reverb used , the different types of curves and reflections , powerful time and space placement , and of course the great presets browser that has some very useful patches. I also like the design that is extremely friendly to the eye , everything is well placed , the program comes with 300 factory presets , 33 space type models and something really unique about this reverb , the infinite decay mode. As you would expect , a high quality reverb needs a powerful machine to rule on , Aether is not an exception , this product kills the cpu , that's probably the only downside to it , apart from that , perfect product , top reverb out there. Value for the price is great , I would pay even more for such a complex and truly powerful musical tool. Precision and quality of the sound is also very good , you get a very realistic feel to your sound using this product. Knowing what I know , I would buy this product again , no hesitation.

I didn't had any issues regarding the compatibility of the software , everything worked smoothly even from the start. The configuration doesn't require much time, the manual is very clear and provides all the necessary information regarding how the program works and how the get the most of it in a short amount of time. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE The application performs incredibly good, the gear is stable and I've been using it for a while and I still use it many of my top synths and pads. I'm getting high-quality results with the feel of this vintage reverb called ADverb which a very unique type of reverb. OVERALL OPINION What I like most about this product is the vintage style reverb provided by it , I do enjoy how all the tweaks provided create this amazing space room. There is something quite unique about this reverb, and it's how easy is to use and lay out different tweaks to get those old style plates reverbs. ADverb has also great reverb settings, with pre-delay, time, and size, plus another extensive filtering section to shape the tail of the signal. Probably one of the most useful things about this reverb is that it's optimized to work on a low CPU interface. My opinion about the value of price is decent, this reverb costs not much , around 40 $ , but it really worked great and you can use it in many and different music-genres. I've tried several different reverbs, build-in reverbs, I tried very expensive reverbs, I tried Lexicon Reverbs , Aether and many others , however this vintage reverb is different , it's easy , fast , and doesn't require such a powerful machine to run as those that I mentioned above. Knowing What I know I would buy this program because of it's simplicity and low cpu requirements.

I haven't found any issues regarding this software, the manual is very clear and provides all the necessary information and I must mention how easy and fast the general configuration and setup of this program is. The typical functions and features are easy to follow. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE The software performs incredibly well, the gear is stable and I've been using it for a while in my editing regarding the vocals and instrumentals. I'm getting high quality performances mainly because of it's high quality touch of reverb. OVERALL OPINION What I like most about is the effects provided by this product, I enjoy the space curves. I do like the two identical and independent engines , which allow a parallel or hybrid combination and create limitless configurations and that way it minimizes the CPU usage and provide also the great possibility to create parallel reverberation which in addition to a side-chain compression can make a huge difference. I love the two dynamics modules providing Gating, Ducking, Auto Gain, and the well designed and GUI which organizes deep complexity into a simple and enjoyable work flow. It has a Huge number of novel and unique Damping and EQ filters. It has an amazing number of 1,141 Total Factory Resources which are extremely helpful in finding something really high quality and creative. My opinion about value of price is good, the product's price is average , it costs around 250 $ but the curves and the possibilities are endless. Precision and quality of sounds is good, I do like all the effects and filters provided by this program , how easy is to build something so complex, how you can change completely the sound its texture and timbre. Knowing what I know I would but this product over and over again, because I really think its worth it , mainly because of the quality provided and the price that is quite decent.

I haven't found any issues regarding this software, the manual is quite clear and provides all the necessary information and I must also mention how easy and fast the general configuration and setup of this program is. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE The software works decent , stable , without any type of errors or crashes. I'm getting high-quality results with the feel of this real soft , warm reverb that uses real samples of sound. OVERALL OPINION What I like the most about is the realistic feel that offers two and four channel sampled acoustics of real halls, cathedrals, bathrooms , and many other features like creating and sampling your own space. Altiverb is the first reverb software to have advantage of the power of Apple's Altivec Velocity Engine which means that it requires a G4 to start. I also do like how great and high quality this reverb sounds and it's use that is really really wide , from using on different acoustic instruments like piano or guitar to some synths like Native Instrument's Massive. My opinion about the value of price is good, however this is a amateur plugin , it costs pretty much, and I do not advice to buy it unless you're very serious about your music , this product costs around 600$. Precision and quality of sounds is very very good , I would rate it 9.5/ 10 , the only criticism that I can give is that it uses many resources, but aren't all high quality reverbs like this?. I've tried several reverbs, some of my favorites are Aether , Reverberate and this product called Altiverb , you can do some crazy effects combining some presets provided by Aether and Altiverb. Knowing what I know I would buy this product over and over again because of the quality provided by it and how realistic the reverb sounds. However the price is quite huge, so you can search other alternative if this product doesn't fit your budget.

There were no compatibility or installation issues getting Waves' TrueVerb up and running. Although basic reverb parameters are easily accessible, the more expressive and in turn more complicated ins and outs of the plug-in take a little while to figure out. However, the graphical interface helps to bridge the gap, bringing the reverberations and reflections together as your custom visual acoustic environment. In turns the presets allow for an easier understanding of the fine tunings of the plug-in that can eventually impart on a track some very professional sounding reverb. The manual for TrueVerb, as with all of the other Waves plug-ins I have used is well indexed and helpful. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Running in Ableton Live 8 on my MacBook Pro with a 2.7Ghz Intel Core i7 processor and 4GBs of RAM, Waves' TrueVerb is as smooth as clockwork, but worry not Windows users as this plug-in is cross compatible. Being fairly light with regards to overall CPU usage, it is stable and reliable even in situations where many other effects and VSTs are operating simultaneously. As far as performance is concerned, I give TrueVerb a thumbs up. Although it is not perfect for every scenario that I use reverb in, it certainly holds a high rank on my list of top Waves plug-ins and is certainly Waves' best reverb VST yet. I've had it for almost four months now and I certainly don't regret my purchase. OVERALL OPINION Overall Waves' TrueVerb is a must-have if you are a producer who is a fan of the Waves series and needs a reliable reverb plug-in. Despite the slight learning curve, TrueVerb has a fabulous sound and is not too demanding on your system or your patience. As far as price is concerned, you can pick this up in its Native version or the Mercury bundle deal. This is one of the few Waves plug-ins I wouldn't discourage picking up in its Native version. Originally $150, it is now on sale for $64 on the Waves website. Not a bad deal for such a versatile device, but probably still more bang for your buck if you get the Mercury bundle deal.

As with all U-audio, no issues to report. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE See above... OVERALL OPINION The EMT 250 was the first digital reverberation device to create ambience through a purely electronic system. With its single reverb program and iconic lever-driven control surface, the EMT 250 is still an indis- pensable tool within the record-making elite and is widely considered one of the best-sounding reverbs ever made. Although only around 250 were built, the EMT 250 has made an immeasurable impact on record making history in the hands of studio legends like George Massenburg, Bruce Swedien, Allen Sides and many others. Captured from Allen Sides’ unit at Ocean Way Re- cording, endorsed by EMT Studiotechnik GmbH in Germany, and re-engi- neered for plug-in use by EMT 250 creator Dr. Barry Blesser from his original documentation, the UAD version of the EMT 250 goes beyond emulation and is the very same algorithm found in the original units—for a fraction of its orig- inal $25,000 price! Besides the coveted reverb program, the EMT 250 for UAD provides the five additional effects (Delay, Phasing, Chorus, Echo and Space) also included in the original unit. Lighted pushbuttons select the desired program, while four click-stop levers provide the primary reverb parameters of delay time, prede- lay, and high and low Filtering. LED ladders provide additional visual rein- forcement of program selection and parameter positioning. Like the hard- ware, the plug-in operates in “quad,” with two discrete stereo output pairs accessed through the added front/rear output switch. Additional “digital only” features include dry/wet mix, wet solo, reduced noise (if desired), and hard bypass via the EMT power icon. All input and output characteristics of the EMT 250 are fully emulated in the plug-in. This includes all of its idiosyncrasies, such as the A/D and D/A anti-aliasing filters (which are not linear-phase), system latency, input clip- ping, and limited frequency response. All these quirks embellish the unique sonic signature.