plug-in verbs vs. hardware verbs

[bruceup]

I've been using plug-in reverbs exclusively on my HD-3 system for the past couple of years, and nothing I've found sounds as good as the hardware units I've grown so fond of over the years(480L, 224XL, etc). Am I missing something in Ren Reverb and Reverb One, or am I just not going to find that wonderful '224XL Rich Plate preset 5' in a software reverb plug?

My mixes miss that wonderfully dense Lexicon wash, does that only come in a hardware box?

[lampmusic]

have you tried altiverb by audio ease. definitely the best reverb plug ever made. It's rtas and a cpu hog. We've heard that the g-5 gets quite a few instances of it though.

[Allan Speers]

Digi's Revibe is looming on the horizon. It could well be the one to beat the hardware (we shall see) It will require an Accel card, but may be worth the investment.

I'd recommend that you hold off bying expensive hardware until we see what Revibe is like.

One note about Altiverb (and Waves' new IR1) -Convolution reverbs require that you keep your hardware buffer set high. If you do a lot of midi composing, that can be a problem. There are work-arounds, but it's best to be aware of this before planning on using Altiverb as your main 'verb.

[picksail]

Our studio has several reverb units including an Echoplex Plate and a Fairchild 659 Spring Reverb, as well a a few others including Lexicons.

That said, we use Altiverb extensively. There are so many impulse responses taken from various rooms, studios, cathedrals, churches etc. As well as, actual reverb units.

Why buy a PCM 70 when all you are going to use is the Tiled Room anyway.

In terms of quality and price point, you really can't beat Altiverb.

We actually, have plans to use an existing G4 for running Altiverb exclusively.

[bruceup]

Thanks for your responses. Altiverb sounds nice, I just played the demo. I didn't see TDM support mentioned anywhere on their page, is it only HTDM/RTAS? I have a spare Mac G4 933mhz machine that I sometimes use as a soft sampler, would this be fast enough to use as a standalone Altiverb processor?

[Steve Nelson]

Digi's revibe is looming on the horizon. It could well be the one to beat the hardware (we shall see) It will require an Accel card, but may be worth the investment.

Hey Digi!

Any news on timings for Revibe, I heard at the latest roadshow that it would be weeks rather than months....

Come on give us some dates !

Steve

[Belushiman]

I own Altiverb and love it -- but it sounds "freeze-dried" and cannot replace the versatility of the boxes (or spaces) that it emulates. The waves looks promising too but both these plugs as previously mentioned put a real drain on your system.

Eventide just released a tdm plug with algos from their high end boxes. Sounds superb, IMO. Definitely worth checking out.

Revibe looks promising as well.

[picksail]

A G4 933MHz should be sufficient.

It is my understanding that a convolution plug in, such as Altiverb, operates 'better' runnig off a host system. I am not certain as to the reasons for this profound declaration, but if anyone can offer any detailed information regarding the mathematical process I would be very interested.

[Chris Townsend]

Any news on timings for Revibe, I heard at the latest roadshow that it would be weeks rather than months....
Come on give us some dates !

ReVibe has been delayed a little bit, because of the Bomb Factory aquisition, which was an unexpected suck on testing and engineering resources. Anyhow, it will be ready when it's ready, although if you want to use ReVibe right now, you should try to enroll in the beta program.

[Allan Speers]

quote:

" I have a spare Mac G4 933mhz machine that I sometimes use as a soft sampler, would this be fast enough to use as a standalone Altiverb processor? "

Yes, Bruce. I believe that will give you about two stereo in - stereo out Altiverbs. Audio Ease has several benchmark systems listed on their website. I suggest you take a look there (probably in their FAQs list) but the short answer is "yes."

A benefit of running your c-reverb native, on a seperate Mac, is that overall latency can be signigicantly lower. The HTDM plug-in has 21 msec of latency, whereas you can realistically get down to about 12 ms on a stand-alone via VST and a MOTU interface. (I think)
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quote: "Altiverb sounds nice... I didn't see TDM support mentioned anywhere on their page, is it only HTDM/RTAS?"

Yes. It requires WAY too much dsp power for even an Accel chip.