Sonible / Smart Reverb

[Piet De Ridder]

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Sonible have added to their (widely respected) 'Smart'-series with the Smart Reverb, an AI-powered "source-adaptive" reverb plugin.

"With just one click, smart:reverb analyzes the source material quickly to create every reverb from scratch. By custom-fitting the reverb to the spectral and temporal characteristics of the input signal, typical problems such as disturbing resonances or muddy reverb tails are avoided from the very beginning.
Smart:reverb creates reverb based on the source signal rather than working with presets or pre-recorded impulse responses. To find the reverb style you envision, browse through its reverb matrix, in which all possibilities fit to your input signal. Guided by descriptive properties, you'll find what you are looking for – intuitively and efficiently.
For maximum control, smart:reverb provides you with an interactive view of the reverb's anatomy. Its detailed interface makes it easy for you to manipulate the deep-structure of the reverb by modifying its frequency and time-dependent decay rate as well as the reverb’s spread or density evolvement over time."

Introductory price: €89

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[Guy Rowland]

I got excited here for a moment, thinking it could emulate any space you let it learn from just analysing the audio (which is in part what iZotope's Dialogue Match is supposed to, and doesn't). That holy grail awaits discovery.

Have you tried this Piet? It seems geared towards new users who want something that just works most of the time. In terms of a reverb itself, not sure it adds much to the over-crowded party?

[Piet De Ridder]

No, haven't tried it yet. I certainly will though. As soon as can chase the sticky, dense and oxygen-poor warmth (the result of something akin to a heat wave we're experiencing here at the moment) out of my studio.

Did test a few earlier plug-ins in the Smart-series though and while none struck me as absolute must-haves, these are unquestionably very clever and high-quality tools and I definitely would already have bought some of them if I were still buying stuff with as much abandon as I used to a few years ago.

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[lofi]

White Sea studio has done a “first reaction” video on it.


/Anders
(Haven’t seen it, he’s usually quite entertaining)

[Geoff Grace]

Producer/Artist Jon Sine's take starts at about the 3:00 minute mark in this video:



Best,

Geoff

[Muziksculp]

Interesting Reverb. But do I need it ?

hehe.. I just purchased Exponential Audio's R4 upgrade from R2, via Plugin Boutique. I already have tons of Reverbs, so not sure where this one fits, some of my reverbs never get used. Not sure why, but I tend to use a few that deliver good results, pretty fast.

R2 was one of them, and users commented that the R4 offers more control options, so it was an easy decision to get it.

[playz123]

Of course, no one who has been around for awhile probably "needs" this reverb but I can admit, that so far, I'm really enjoying it and the results I'm getting. Still learning the controls, but am quite pleased with how it is analyzing then assigning reverb to individual instruments and it certainly is simple to begin to use, yet still lots of tweaking that can be done after if needed. As an Insert, the default 75% wet is far too much....I'm liking around 25-30%. Also liking how it doesn't seem to make an instrument muddy or add colour to the sound (unless you choose to do the latter, of course).
I purchased it for about 54 Euros, since I have made previous purchases from Sonible. When I was checking out though, the payment service forced me to also acknowledge I had chosen Euros to pay and that I had agreed to a 3.5% currency exchange fee, when in fact there was no option in the process to choose any other currencyor avoid the fee. Something not right there! Anyway, it ended up costing about $88 CAN. Will continue to test this product in the days ahead, but so far so good.

[Muziksculp]

So, let's say you have a guitar, and a trumpet in a song, would you need to insert Smart Reverb on each instrument separately ?

Since it will be analyzing each instrument, and setting the reverb to suit the source material (guitar/trumpet). What if you use it as a send effect ? What would it analyze ?

Does the analysis it does ensure a transparent reverb on the source material ? So, you can then tweak the reverb decay time to taste ? I'm guessing that's what it's good at . but still not sure about the general concept/workflow recommended to use it.

[playz123]

So, let's say you have a guitar, and a trumpet in a song, would you need to insert Smart Reverb on each instrument separately ?

Since it will be analyzing each instrument, and setting the reverb to suit the source material (guitar/trumpet). What if you use it as a send effect ? What would it analyze ?

Does the analysis it does ensure a transparent reverb on the source material ? So, you can then tweak the reverb decay time to taste ? I'm guessing that's what it's good at . but still not sure about the general concept/workflow recommended to use it.

So far, yes, my approach in most instances would be to treat individual instruments. But that is not to say one can't use it on "Drums" for example. Using it on a Send bus would only be effective if you analyzed the source first I guess, but Sonible does mention using it as a Send effect, so it can be done.. The plugin does have all kinds of parameters you can tweak, including decay time, and I suggest the walkthrough at Sonible would be a good video to watch first, if you are interested in learning more.

[Piet De Ridder]

Tried it, liked it, but I'm not going to buy it.

No doubt this is an excellent tool for many types of productions and production methods, but with everything I've got already -- artificial-reverb-wise -- I'm long past the stage where I find myself wondering if, perhaps, another reverb might help solve a particular mixing problem I'm faced with (the answer is invariably: no), and the smart:reverb never really managed to generate anything that was exciting and surprising enough to make me consider rethinking that.

But again: indubitably good stuff.

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[playz123]

Piet, I concur that your reasons for not purchasing are totally valid. Like you, I do have a great number of reverbs, but what helped me decide this time was how well an instrument stood out in the mix after smart: reverb was applied...something that didn't seem to happen without a lot of tweaking in some other reverbs. I have no intention of using this product as a final 'wash' reverb for the project, but it seems to be very effective on individual instruments. Extensive tweaking it not always necessary either...important when time is a factor. Anyway, these are just my own observations of course and may not match those from others, but I am happy with my purchase. That's not something I can always report.