Reverbs

With all the talk about the new Eventide Ultrareverb and the Acon Digital Verberate I got in the mood to play around with the reverbs in my collection. My personal favorite is ValhallaVintageverb, but I was listening to track I made a couple of years ago and just loved the reverb on my vocal. Guess what it was...(drum roll)...Sonitus Reverb! I'm also always impressed by the Variety of sounds Epic Verb, which is a great freebie. I also love Valhallaroom, but I don't think I'm getting everything out of it. I must admit I haven't worked with Breverb as much as I should. This is what I do now when I start to feel a case of gas coming along. I open up all that I currently don't use and discover some nice tools for free.

I love ValhallaVintageVerb and also ValhallaRoom. But I think Breverb can be great as well, especially on synths or for when you want an "effect" reverb rather than something natural. 

I think I purchased the full version when Cake had an upgrade on Breverb I just didn't do anything with after I got it. That is a great idea sharke, I hadn't thought of using it as an effect vs. a room. Gotta give that a try!

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/10-of-the-best-reverb-vst-plugins-588377
 
Check this out.
 
IMHO each reverb has a different sound and sound good on different instruments. I think Breverb needs a lot of tweaking to sound good. I like Breverb on Session Drummer. 
Sonitus reverb sound good on vocal. The short and sweet preset is a good starting point.
Breeze sounds good with Ivory2 and true piano. However I am still tweaking around to make it sound perfect with my new toy the pianoteq5. 
I am still demoing Ikmultimedia CSR and think quite highly of it.
 
 

I use two of my bundled reverbs 90% of the time. When I get bored or feel lazy, I can always dig out one of the 3rd party ones. Valhalla is a long time favorite of mine.
 
So is IK's CSR, which is as close as it gets to instant gratification this side of Lexicon. In fact, CSR is probably the first thing I try if I venture down the 3rd party plugs menu. I rarely have to go any further.
 
I do love my Lexicon but I haven't connected my iLok in months now.
 
The Sonitus plugs in Sonar have always been underrated.

I heard an old mix recently and noted that the reverb on a lead sounded particularly good, so I dug out the original project to see which VRoom preset (or maybe convolution IR) I'd used on it. Surprise! It wasn't VRoom at all. Bigger surprise: it turned out to be the much-maligned Pantheon.
 
Goes to show that when you find the right effect it's the right effect regardless of whether it's a "good" one or not.

I still go back to the trusty IK CSR verbs more often than not.  Easy to dial in, lush if you want it, invisible if needed.  That said, the Sonitus verb (like all the Sonitus stuff) still finds its way in to most projects somewhere or another.

When it comes to software algorithm based reverb plugins, it's hard to beat Phoenix Verb from Exponential Audio.
Michael Carnes is the man behind numerous Lexicon hardware reverbs.
 
Though it's not cheap, it's easy to justify the cost as THE one-and-only reverb plugin you'll need.
Sounds great... even on high-transient sources like drum-kit (which easily reveals inferior algorithms). 

Does anyone use any of the Native Instruments reverbs that come with Guitar Rig and/or Komplete? I must admit I haven't really explored these fully - things like Iceverb, Vintage Verb, Spring Reverb and Reflektor.

I was actually very impressed with Waves TrueVerb the other day - another which I'd had for ages without bothering to experiment with. I'd been less than happy with my Valhalla verbs on a synth sound, Breverb didn't work either but TrueVerb was ideal. Just goes to show, it's worth having a bunch at hand even if some of them only get used 5% of the time.

sharke
Does anyone use any of the Native Instruments reverbs that come with Guitar Rig and/or Komplete? I must admit I haven't really explored these fully - things like Iceverb, Vintage Verb, Spring Reverb and Reflektor.

I use the Vintage Verb tons! Best spring reverb I know and the plates are nice too. Reflektor is my goto for convolution because of the low latency performance. Sounds like convolution!

Eddie TX
There are some interesting verbs in Reaktor, too.  Check the Space Master ensembles, which are similar to the highly regarded Redline reverb. 
 
Cheers,
Eddie
 

Ah I forgot about SpaceMaster, that is a very lovely, trippy sounding reverb.

I use PSP SpringBox. It sounds really good, especially if you don't have a real spring reverb unit.

Like Jim mentioned, I also like the NI RC 48 and RC 24. I preferred them over Breverb which is what I was originally using.

Jeff Evans
Here is a little tip. There is usually only room for one or at the most two expensive sounding reverbs in any mix. Once you start going over that then you start not hearing them anymore because there are too many of them.
 
A good thing to do is to mix your reverb qualities up a little and have some not so great sounding reverbs in a mix. Sometimes a cheaper or rougher sounding reverb can work better than an expensive sounding one on the same part.

I got the same advice from Mike Senior's "Mixing Secrets," and I think I might have heard Dave Pensado say it too. Or was it Bobby Owsinski. Sometimes a cheap and nasty reverb is exactly what you want. 

sharke
Does anyone use any of the Native Instruments reverbs that come with Guitar Rig and/or Komplete? I must admit I haven't really explored these fully - things like Iceverb, Vintage Verb, Spring Reverb and Reflektor.

Vintage Verb is actually convolution (with 8 embedded impulses).  It is my favorite reverb to use within GR5.  I am sure VV would sound good on other instruments, but I haven't done so yet.
 
Iceverb and Octoverb are more niche type reverbs.  Each of them has their own specific sound that might be good in certain situations, but I can't see them for everyday use.