Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Oct 04, 2019 6:47 pm
I will Bill, I promise. As you know I tend to be a little less bothered by the minutiae in reverbs than many including yourself, but I don't count that as a badge of honour. Any tips for features to particularly look out for?
I'm not convinced it shouldn't be a badge of honor! I spend way too much time tweaking things, and especially effects!!
I think (know?) it depends entirely on how one works. I tend to throw any old reverb on the two-mix while working, and don't really think about it until mix time. I also turn off reverb in Kontakt or any other plugin. Until mix time I really only need a little ear candy.
While mixing I have a dozen sends with a different reverb on each (actually they are always there, part of what passes for a template for me). I then "audition" tracks or sub-mixes in each reverb till I find something that is starting to work for me.
At the moment the reverb sends include (in no particular order really):
- UAD 480 - ok, so we all wish we had a 480 in our mitts. I've been steering away from this recently, because I feel like I do the same thing every time. But it is a gorgeous reverb, and it did define a decade of music production.
- UAD Plate 140 - on EVERYTHING I do.
- UAD Chamber - and this will soon have the same status. In fact the combination of the chamber and the plate could become my starting point.
- UAD Ocean Way Studios - I love this as an insert, not so much as a aux, I should stop trying.
- PSP Springverb & Nexcellence - don't judge me! Sometimes a spring reverb is just the thing I am looking for, it can shine a bit of a spotlight on a soloist, or create a bit of contrast, or maybe it was all I could afford when I was starting out? This aux is unique because it serves up two spring reverbs, I've even tried enabling both at the same time, never liked it much! But one of them often makes the cut. There have also been times when I've added an aux for the second one so I could use both.
- Valhalla VintageVerb - surprised? This is one of the better "effect" reverbs I've heard.
- 2CAudio Breeze, and I really need to spend more time with the other two, but haven't had the time/energy.
- Eventide SP-2016 - just love the sound, and yet I really don't use it often
- Eventide Black Hole & PSP Pianoverb2- yeah, these are special effects, and I probably overuse them. AND, sometimes I do use them in series.
- Zynaptiq Adaptiverb - I thought this was strictly an effect, but in fact it can work really well to pull focus to an track. It earned an aux of its own.
- Liquidsonics Reverberate - only recently made it back to the fold, convolution makes me crazy sometimes!
- Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven - I don't quite know what to make of this one. It can sound absolutely gorgeous on orchestral material, but I haven't cracked the code for using it in other settings.
Oh yeah, you asked about your new reverb plugins! I offer the above to provide, perhaps, some sort of yardstick with which to place my opinion, an idea of other tools I use. In the last year I would guess that I have turned to the EA, now Izotope plugins more often than any, except for the plate and chamber. I'm back to working with others on the off chance that Izotope ends up ditching them. I like the folks at Izotope, a friends son worked there for years and had nothing but good things to say.
I do like their older plugins (interesting that others mentioned V5, I really felt that was the pinnacle - the reverb, the multi-band compressor, and the equalizer were all so musical. Sadly I had the restricted versions that came with Sound Forge. Had I known that SF was going to tank I'd have upgraded to the full versions, but at the time my workflow landed in SF every time, so there was no need. UGH!)
My concern is that they continue to "dumb down" the tools, allowing the computer to make more and more decisions for me. I don't think they can do that with reverb, but they are some very smart, very clever folks! But I digress...
You asked about:
- EA R4 is like having a 480, or a 224, or an SP-2016, or an Ursa Major with the cover off. It can create remarkable, not absolutely natural, reverb. I find it quite easy to dial up the reverb part, and then I spend way too much time tweaking, which is (can be?) the magic, but also a time soak. Play around with some of the hall presets, look under the covers! I'm not in front of my DAW at the moment, so I don't remember the names, but play with the controls. This plugin harkens back to the days when would hook up a new device and then spin every control to zero, and ten just to hear the extremes. That works here, and I suspect is the best, maybe only way to really explore.
- EA Nimbus - true confessions time... for the first time (maybe ever?) I use presets. I will tweak here and there, a little, but mostly I pick a room and I"m done. If I want a natural sounding reverb this is what I do. And until I picked up Breeze there was nothing that even came close, for me. But even if I bought Breeze first I'd still own both - they react to sounds differently.
I think I talk, a lot, about that aspect of plugins - how they react to things as opposed to how they process things. I think it matters, and it isn't something I can really explain, but I can give an example.
Take two reverbs, probably best from two developers, and route different tracks to both of them. Mute one at a time, and listen to how the plugin reacts to different stimuli. Use all different sounds, percussive, slow attack, flute (simple) and cello (complex) and distorted guitar (really complex!).
(Try this with compressors and equalizers too.)
This is how I learned about processors and effects (not that there were many choices, so maybe we had to know our gear a little better? I'm not convinced.) It is not just about what the processor does to the sound, but also what the sound does to the processor.
Anyway - TL;DR - with R4 turn every knob, and start with the halls, as they sound terrific. With Nimbus just pick a room and bathe in the glory.
