What Reverb.....

[jono not bono]

I would love to use a Reverb mainly for giving Lead Vocals an 'Up front' kinda vibe.... I was just wondering what everyone thinks is an amazing Convolution Reverb and what I should buy.

I don't wanna douse any recordings with a 'dated' reverb sound, just something that will give Vocal takes their own space, and not not mention sounding crystal clear.

Thanks for your time

Jono_not_Bono

[paul999]

What your asking for is impossible from reverb alone. It is the whole signal chain that does this. I have heard a lot of guys say that convolution reverb is the best thing since sliced bread. I have yet to hear any stock reverbs that sound better then even low moderate outboard reverb units let alone micing the actual room. The upfront thing comes a lot from the mic pre. Clarity comes from the performer, mic ,pre, converter, compressor,eq and engineer. What is your budget?

[jono not bono]

Ok, erm, I'm just looking for a great reverb that I can use on vocals, that wont make them have a dated 80's sound.

Something nice a transparent?

I'll rephrase the question: -

What are the best (BEST - so I don't care how much money it costs) Software Reverb Plug ins around. I wanna use it with Cubase SX3.

Thanks

Jono_not_Bono

[paul999]

Hmmm I don't use plugs so I'll let someone else answer that.

Cheers

[richiebee]

Convolution reverbs all sound pretty much the same, but have slightly different feature sets. What kind of reverb you use depends on you, but a convolution is probably the most flexible... you just need to find the impulses that work best. Altiverb is probably the most widely supported proprietary format with the best recorded impulses. Most others simply use WAV's as their impulses and since anyone can make their own impulses (I've done this in two halls) the quality is kind of wider ranging... good to bad.

Thing is, genre has some part to play in what kind of reverb you choose. You might also consider layering several reverbs.

Just one thing though... reverbs aren't transparent! They just aren't. If you can't at least sense that they're there, what's the point of them?

I find Voxengo's Convolution Reverb to be great to be honest. It's true stereo (which probably doesn't matter for vocals, but does for a mix reverb). It's fairly high on CPU usage (convolutions tend to be), but the quality is there and its pretty flexible. There are some great plate and room reverbs around in WAV format. You need to have some idea of what you're looking for.

[jono not bono]

yeah cheers for that... I do have an idea what I want and when I say Transparent, I guess its easy for people just to read some words and then think of the word transparent in their own terms.

I dont really use reverbs all that much because Im, well, to be honest and precise, not a big fan, but sometimes it gives a vocal take --a sort of own space thing...Dont worry, i know what I mean.
I used to use Altiverb and had to uninstall it fr one song i was working on, seemed to crash the CPR ile. Anyway thanks for your help, I think Im just gonna build a bat cave so I can always have a cave setting, and then fight crime on the weekends haha.

[venuestudio]

Waves IR1 is a pretty clean reverb in software format. SSL just came out with a nice reverb for their Duende system that sounds good. The EMT140 Plate from UA is amazing, it is very hard to tell the difference between it and a real 140. For vocals it is worth looking into UAD-2 system if plate reverb is your thing.

I would agree with others that hardware reverbs are the way to go. You really need the standalone processing power to get it right. There are only a few that truely shine and sound like a recorded room; Lexicon, TC Electronics, Eventide and Bricasti being the best of the best. None of them are remotely cheap.

[jono not bono]

Originally Posted by venuestudio

Waves IR1 is a pretty clean reverb in software format. SSL just came out with a nice reverb for their Duende system that sounds good. The EMT140 Plate from UA is amazing, it is very hard to tell the difference between it and a real 140. For vocals it is worth looking into UAD-2 system if plate reverb is your thing.

I would agree with others that hardware reverbs are the way to go. You really need the standalone processing power to get it right. There are only a few that truely shine and sound like a recorded room; Lexicon, TC Electronics, Eventide and Bricasti being the best of the best. None of them are remotely cheap.

Thank you Kent,

A great answer.

The thing is, is that Im currently saving all my money so that I can upgrade Cubase SX3 to Cubase 5 and then to buy a new set of Moniotrs so thats kinda why I'm looking for software reverbs at the minute.

That reminds me, Imay need to post something up here about PCs as I feel I am out of the loop as to what a great PC iis (no, haha, I dont have enough money for a Mac)

Cheers for your help

Jono_not_Bono

[venuestudio]

Absolutely understand when it comes to money. My wife jokes that everything in recording costs $1000. It seems nothing that starts with "a really great..." ends in "is so cheap to buy".