Where would you rate plug-in reverbs

[beggehorn]

I had a chance to sit down last night and A/B some different plugin verbs with an H3000. The plugs I compared were D-Verb, Waves Ren Reverb, True Verb and one other I can't recall. D-Verb (the only one I own personally of the above list) has never made me happy. Ever notice how it makes things sound small and thin? Awful and easily the worst by comparison. By far the winning plug was the Waves Ren Reverberator. Very smooth and very cool parameters: EQ and damping, early reflection control with ability to have a negative time value which puts the reverberation before the "not-so-early" reflections. Most of all the sound was rich and full, made the source sound bigger and fuller (as it should). I had a hard time choosing between the Eventide box and the Waves plug. Without really using them for a while it would be hard to choose a favorite between the two. Of course the H3000 has a stack of other algorithms to boot. Its cool to have plugs for session recall and multiple instances but outboard won't require upgrades to be compatible with whatever version of DAW you might be using down the line! Tough call. . .

[Hardnox]

If you buy another Mix Farm, all you plugs will benefit from the extra DSP, not just Reverb. What about Reverb One?

[Peter Duemmler]

I just love D-Verb for the nonlinear patch (for drums mainly).
I often don´t turn on my R880 because D-Verb is much easier to use.

Peter

[emilano]

I also like the D-verb for specific uses. Its hall setting sounds very nice on acoustic guitar with a little tweaking.

[gavinchan]

A little off the topic, but I just wanted to add how happy I am with the KORG Oasys Reverbs. When I bought it, I was thinking 'yeah, it will be great for all my synth sounds, quality of effects might be questionable.' Now I use it all the time. The other verbs I have are D-Verb/ Waves RVerb and TrueVerb, and I don't hardly touch them anymore. Korg Oasys sooooo rocks. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[musicsmith]

Just sending in my vote for the korg oasys too.
Best 300 bucks I ever spent

[tzujan]

Hardnox,

I have not tried Reverb One. I have heard great things about it. How does it compare to others?

I am toiling with the extra farm. I have come to a realization: the closer the gear is to being an instrument (literally and figuratively) the longer its life is in my studio. Is still have a CP-70, and 12 string guitar and a sm 57 all purchased when I was in high school. I can't tell you how many recording formats I have gone through over the years. It is insane. When I weigh the external chassis and the farm card I'm not too far from upgrading to HD.

[Kedron Porter]

Nobody has mentioned Real Verb or Real Verb 5.1. Alot of options and a nice clean sound. Have D-verb but not too impressed. It lacks great depth and very limited options compared to Real Verb.

[tzujan]

I have been considering buying an external reverb in lieu of using plug ins. Reverbs and delays take up so much dsp. Buying another farm card would also mean buying an expansion chassis and I would still be left with an ok sounding verb. My thought is for less money, which is key, I could buy a nice external verb and an external delay with a better sound plus the benefit of free dsp. I would like to step up in a verb so my question is where do the plug in verbs rate with the external verbs. Is the Lexiverb comparable in sound to the PCM91, MPX 500 or the MPX 110? I am not a fan of the Mega Verb - where would it rate among its hardware brethren? How about other plug ins compared to the Lexicon line?

[Skwaidu]

I haven't tried Rev One(Should try that!) or Realverb but in my opinion plug verbs aren't that good. Still I use them a lot, convenience and recallability being the major issues.

D-Verb:Mostly crap. Ok on some effect 'verbs, as you can put it as an RTAS insert without killing your CPU.

TC Mega: Surprisingly crap. Good programmability though. Haven't tried M-One, maybe comparable to that?

Lexiverb: Good for some uses, not much compared with PCM91.

Trueverb: Sometimes ok, I use it a lot. Many times as an early reflection generator, but lately have been bored with the same old sound, which isn't that classy either.

RenVerb: Haven't used it too much but seems interesting. Although I know that you can easily get ****** sounds with it, too.

Only my (non- well thought)opinions. Usually if I'm doing really serious mixing I tend to take my main 'verbs from boxes like TC MX000(X=3,5,6) and PCM91. Hope to get access to a 960L someday.

Skwaidu