10/24/2018 Orchestral Positioning: Choosing a Reverb |

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DISCOGRAPHY

Orchestral Positioning: Choosing a Reverb

In this nal part of the Orchestral Positioning series of articles, we’ll be looking
at different reverb types and stereo processing techniques, plus some reverb plugin
recommendations.

To convo or to algo

There are two main types of reverb: algorithmic and convolution. In a nutshell,
algorithmic reverbs use a mathematical formula — an algorithm — to calculate and
simulate how sound behaves in a virtual space de ned by a set of parameters.
Convolution reverbs on the other hand rely on impulse responses which are recorded
snapshots of real spaces or hardware reverbs. The IR’s are added to the input signal
through a process called convolution, effectively creating the illusion that the signal was
recorded in — or, in the case of hardware, through — the source of the IR.

There’s a lot of discussions on the web on the matter of which type is superior, but if
you look beyond all the marketing hype and the comments from people who have
bought into it, one thing becomes clear: both have their pros and cons and they’re
not mutually exclusive. It all comes down to taste and application.

Personally I prefer algorithmic reverbs, mainly because of their exibility. They will let
you set and ne-tune every part of the reverb sound. They’re also often spacier and
more “live”-sounding than convo verbs. Set up right, they will give you a nice airiness
that is hard to capture with a convo verb. It’s comparable to the bloom/HDR lighting
effect in 3D graphics; it’s nothing you would actually see in reality, but it softens the
digital harshness and adds a nice aesthetic touch.

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As for convolution reverbs, they certainly have their uses. My main gripe is that their
sound and quality wholly depends on what impulse responses you have at your
disposal. Another problem is that if you have lots of IR’s, nding one that suits the
project at hand can be a very time-consuming, boring and potentially even futile
task. Thirdly, convo verbs tend to have a slightly dead-sounding response, as they
are after all based on a moment frozen in time rather than something that
dynamically responds to the input signal. On the upside, convo verbs give you access
to hardware that most of us can only dream of ever affording. Plus that they can’t be
beat for realism, if that is what you’re after and you have some nice IR’s of real spaces.

So in short, if you’re new to all this I would recommend starting with a good
algorithmic reverb. Working with it will teach you a lot about how reverb works, which
is valuable knowledge when it comes to working in this reverb-laden genre of music.
If you on the other hand think convolution reverb sounds like your type of thing, be
prepared to part with money right off the bat as 1) there are no really good free convo
verbs, and 2) there’s not a whole lot of free IR’s with the right quali cations. Which
brings us to:

Reverbs and stereo processing

Sound quality is not the only factor to take into account when choosing a reverb for
orchestral music. Different reverbs use different stereo processing techniques which
will make a signi cant difference in believability. Not even the smoothest, lushest
reverb in the world will do you much good if it messes up your instrument
positioning and generally sounds like a thick mush.

The three most common processing techniques are mono-to-stereo, parallell stereo,
and true stereo. While it’s not always as clear-cut as that (e.g. some reverbs will use
true or parallel stereo early re ections but mono-to-stereo late re ections), generally
speaking most reverbs will fall into one of the three categories. Let’s take a look at
how these three techniques work.

Mono-to-stereo (M2S)

A mono-to-stereo reverb takes the left and right input and sums them to mono
before feeding the signal through the reverb algorithm. Out the other end comes a
wet signal in stereo, but because of the mono summing everything will be centered
in the stereo image. No matter how you pan your instruments, the reverberations will

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stay rmly centered, even if there’s stereo separation between the left and right
channels. This is of course a bad thing in a virtual orchestration where it’s vital that an
instrument’s position in the virtual space remains unambigous.

Parallell Stereo (PS)

A parallell stereo reverb processes the left and right channels independently, each
one in mono. This is a slightly more natural-sounding technique than M2S, though
not quite as good as true stereo. The farther you pan something to the side, the more
attenuated the reverberations in the opposite channel will become. Beyond a certain
point they will go completely silent. Meaning, if you have an instrument panned way
off to the left, you will only hear the reverb in the left channel. Obviously this is not
how a real space behaves. Even if a player is positioned far off to your left, you will
always hear sound waves being re ected off of the wall to your right.

True Stereo (TS)

A true stereo reverb works kind of like a PS reverb, the difference being that it
processes each input channel in stereo. You could think of it as two PS reverbs
running in parallell. With a TS reverb you can pan a signal all the way from left to right
and hear the reverberations realistically follow the movement. As you probably have
guessed, a true stereo reverb is highly preferable when working on orchestral music.
It just sounds so much more spacious and natural than the other techniques that
once you try a good TS reverb and hear the difference, you will never want to go back
to using a M2S or PS reverb.

Reverb recommendations

If you’re doing mainly orchestral music, your arsenal should at the very least
contain one good true stereo hall reverb. Whether algorithmic or convolution, realistic
or nonrealistic — it’s up to you. But good halls is an absolute must. No, a plate reverb
will not do. Neither will a spring reverb or a room ambience generator. If your reverb
has multiple algos/IR’s and can do all the other stuff as well, that’s great. But
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remember, your main criteria for choosing an orchestral verb should be the quality of
its halls and nothing else.

Of course, hardly anyone these days uses only one single reverb. Like all audio plugins
they all have different strenghts and weaknesses and having a couple of different
reverbs to choose from is never a bad thing. But don’t overdo it. Unless you’re
working in many and radically different genres, having more than two or — at the
most — three different reverbs is probably a bad idea.

Limiting yourself this way might sound dumb considering there are like a hundred
completely free reverbs available, but trust me, there is really a limit to how many you
can have a use for. If you have 20 different reverbs (or compressors, or amp sims, or… )
you will spend more time switching between plugins than making music. Don’t get
me wrong, I absolutely encourage you to try everything you can get your hands on.
By all means, download every freebie you can nd and demos of a bunch of
commercial ones too. If nothing else, this is an excellent way of learning what a good
reverb sounds like.

But in the end, your goal should be to nd a couple of verbs you really like and then
throw all the other ones out. No, just not using them is not good enough. As long as
they’re in your VST folder they will continue to distract you and lure you into
reconsidering them, even if you have determined several times already that they’re
crap. Just delete them and don’t look back. Life’s too short to spend hours and days
sorting through the same junk over and over again for no other reason than that you
think you might have been mistaken the rst three times.

Below is a small list of reverbs that I consider worth a look. I have chosen to list only
freeware and inexpensive plugins because this guide is aimed at those who, like
myself, don’t have a large budget for music. But even if you happen have big bucks to
spend, don’t be too quick to shrug the more inexpensive offerings off. In the world of
VST plugins, “you get what you pay for” is surprisingly seldom a valid rule of thumb.

Freeware

Freeverb3 Hibiki

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Hibiki is a fairly new addition to the Freeverb3 family of plugins. It’s a modulating
reverb with a lush, smooth Lexicon-style sound and plenty of tweaking options. The
only real downsides are the 1995-looking UI, some enigmatic parameters, and the
confusing Freeverb3 distribution model with multiple packages for different uses and
processor architectures. For orchestral stuff this would be my rst candidate in the
freeware realm.

Sanford Reverb

Sanford Reverb is a discontinued commercial plugin that was updated to x64 and re-
released as freeware in 2015. I actually bought this reverb years ago and used it on a
lot of older projects, but it kind of fell by the wayside when I moved to a 64-bit setup.
It’s a transparent-sounding reverb and not my rst choice for cinematic epicness, but
for more subtle duites it’s wonderful. Easy to work with, very versatile, and very
forgiving — it’s almost impossible to make it sound bad.

KResearch KR-Reverb FS

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Before Hibiki came out, KR-Reverb FS was my favorite TS freebie. It’s a bit bare-bones
and not entirely intuitive to work with (tread carefully or it will turn into a barrage of
delay lines) but it does sound quite nice with the right settings. It has a lot of
character, in a good way. Its coolest feature is the listener position parameter — great
for quickly creating different front-to-back reverb busses. It lacks a predelay
parameter though, so you need to use a basic delay plugin before it in the signal chain.

signaldust Tila 2 & Abstract Chamber

Tila2 and Abstract Chamber are two gems from Finnish developer signaldust. Tila2 is
not technically a reverb per se, it’s a room modeller. But as it allows you to create fairly
large spaces, you could use it to create an overall stage ambience for your orchestra,
and then add a touch of its cousin Abstract Chamber for those nice bloomy tails (AC
isn’t true stereo so I wouldn’t recommend using it all on its own, but YMMV).

Commercial

There is no shortage of totally awesome free synths, compressors, EQ’s and even amp
sims that will give their commercial counterparts a run for their money, but sadly free
reverbs are lagging behind. As of this writing there is not a single free reverb I would
choose over the ones listed below.

Valhalla DSP ValhallaRoom & ValhallaVintageVerb ($50)

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The best reverbs you can get for a modest amount of money is without a doubt
ValhallaDSP’s wonderful ValhallaRoom and ValhallaVintageVerb. At a measly $50 a
piece they rival many expensive software reverbs out there. They sport a whole bunch
of different reverb algorithms and plenty of tweakability, so make sure to RTFM to get
the most out of them. They can do anything from realistic rooms and halls to plates
and murky vintage digital reverbs. Heck, just buy ’em. Either, or both. At that price
point you just can’t go wrong.

Audio Damage Eos ($49)

The algos used in Eos were created by ValhallaDSP developer Sean Costello, and just
like Sean’s own plugins it does not fail to deliver. The Superhall algorithm is lovely
and even though it may be more aimed at ambient soundscapes and massive synth
pads rather than orchestral halls, who’s to say that is not exactly what your orchestral mix needs?

LiquidSonics Reverberate ($80)

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Reverberate is a very advanced and con gurable convolution reverb. It tries (and
succeeds, to an impressive extent) moving beyond the staticness of convolution by
adding modulation, dynamic ltering and delays to the impulse responses. You can
even use two IR’s in sequence or parallell, generate your own IR’s based on different
parameters, and much more. Overall a great convo reverb that lets you be really
creative with your IR’s. Paradoxically, the extreme tweakability is also Reverberate’s
only real weakness — it’s easy getting lost in all its settings and interacting
parameters.

2CAudio Breeze ($124.95)

Breeze is the little brother of 2C’s agship Aether reverb. I have demoed both on a
couple of occasions, and to me Breeze seems more appealing both in terms of
pricing and usability. Both reverbs sound equally incredible, but Breeze is easier to
work with. OTOH, if you have the prerequisite money, time and patience, Aether
offers some serious reverb nerd porn.

112dB Redline Reverb ($149)

I’ve demoed Redline Reverb a couple of times and liked it a lot, even though I didn’t
end up buying it. Just like Hibiki and ValhallaVintageVerb it’s a classic Lexi-style
reverb with a big, lush sound.

Native Instruments RC 48 (€149)

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I wasn’t aware of NI’s Lexicon 480 clone RC 48 until just recently (again, as of this
writing), and tried the demo out of curiosity. The price tag and the fact that it has only
two algos makes it feel like kind of a pricey one trick pony. But it also sounds really
great so if you’re in the market for a no-frills hall reverb, you should de nitely give this
one a try.

Did you enjoy this article? If so, please consider donating (monthly, if possible). Your donations
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5 Responses to Orchestral Positioning: Choosing a Reverb

Pingback: Choosing a Reverb article updated |

cjb says:
May 14, 2016 at 5:12 am

Thanks Mattias for a rst class reality check on all things reverb / sample libs etc
Great practical cut to the chase advice.

Reply

Lonel says:
May 17, 2016 at 6:14 pm

I know it may sound dumb, but I am not really sure what stereo method my plug-ins uses. (and obviously, it
doesn’t look like they are mentioned anywhere…) Which reminds me, by the way, you have you removed magnus
ambiance from the list? It can be quite useful when combined with other reverbs depending on how you work
with it. I also think you could include Epic Verb, from variety of sound. It is very exible, allow a control over the
early and late re ection (it can even be used as ambiance, in other words, without the late re ection), and have

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enough presets so that you only have a few modi cations to make. And it’s free, which is kind of a good news for
those who don’t have much money to spend…

Reply

Mattias says:
May 17, 2016 at 6:59 pm

Both Ambience and EpicVerb are 32 bit only, and I dislike recommending a plugin standard that is quickly
becoming obsolete. Plus, I’m not really a fan of either. Ambience is dated and tinny, EpicVerb is more of mush
generator than a reverb per se

Both Hibiki and Sanford Reverb are far superior reverbs IMO, but of course, tastes differ.

Reply

Lonel says:
May 17, 2016 at 7:41 pm

well, as I am using a 32 bit computer, I am wondering what difference does it make when it comes to the
sounding?
As for the plug-ins, I guess I am simply too fond of very deep, abstract and surrealist ambiance. I’m even
taking the habit of using some very subtle pads and synths in the background to create an atmosphere,
but that’s just how I work, of course. I even took on a certain point as habit to using simultaneously (and
mixed separately of course) abstract chamber for a shorter and more “realistic” reverberation (more
chamber-like) and epic verb as a more lush ambient-padding-kinda-thing, and ambiance for a kind of
early re ection. Worked well most of the time, but I had not only to create a preset le because the
structure, including the front, back, middle, chromatic and percussions stages and all the mixing stuff
was way too long, but also, in any case, it was cpu consuming as you can guess, especially because all
sections would have a bit of proximity added afterwards. I’m trying different things now, but I guess I’m
still not really sure about what I should use.
(for your curiosity, one reason is for my taste toward deep ambiance is that my principal source of
inspiration is the ost of the game Ōkami, which is of course a little dated in term of instruments, but was
so good and tting that it managed to stay timeless at the same time. (if you don’t know about it, go
check it out, it’s worth it)
(sorry if I just add too much informations in too long sentences, by the way…)

Reply

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