# HReverb by Waves



## apessino (May 11, 2015)

This sounds (and looks!) amazing. Great tech, beautiful and intuitive UI, $200 intro price. I am in... 8) 

Long video of Yoad Nevo using it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp1AuSMIZOg

Full hour long tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfSYseNmVU0

On Waves site:

http://www.waves.com/plugins/h-reverb-hybrid-reverb


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## gsilbers (May 11, 2015)

seems fine. but i have so many other reverbs. 
dunno. done see this like amazingly special. 
although im curious of the usage on cpu. B2 has been killer on my cpu.


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## Jack Weaver (May 11, 2015)

Just got it installed. Great demo video online. It does some nice things. Great features, great concept. 

But gsilbers nailed it: Resource hog. 
2009 12-core, 3.46GHz, 64GB RAM - Logic X 10.1 - single core overload with 2 instances here. Play instrument track with sends to 2 HReverb's and it's dropout city. 

Of course it's not too bad if you click in an audio track above the instrument track in the Arrange Page. But that's not really the point, is it Logic bros.?

Too bad....

.


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## ceemusic (May 12, 2015)

Works fine here using 3 instances on my i920 3.2ghz.
I'm using the Regular Stereo instances, not the 'Long'.


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## jamwerks (May 12, 2015)

How does it compare soundwise to IRCAM verb, B2, Phoenix, etc?


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## Jack Weaver (May 12, 2015)

Hey Jamwerks,

It's very, very flexible. Has some good features that B2, Phoenix, etc. don't have. So far I think it's not the big, liquid fx machine like B2. Likewise it doesn't have all the mystery knobs like B2. To date I like its sound variability compared to Phoenix. Honestly I haven't found much use for Phoenix yet, with all the other reverbs I have. HReverb seems like it will get much more regular use here. 

It has great (albeit a tad tricky to use) modulation fx that I haven't seen implemented to this extent in reverbs. It has these echo outputs that make it sound like the most realistic emulation of a 480L to date. Part of the 480L-niceness of it is its widely variable damping capabilities - in addition to it being able to EQ separately the ER and tails. It's made so you can overdrive the inputs and get the great crunchy 224X and 480L sounds. It's so easy to keep the high end in the ER and Tails that it sounds more realistic than the UAD 224X.

It has a mix knob for ER/Tails. I find this to quietly be a great feature. It's so intuitional to just change the balance of the overall reverb between early and late. There are about 10 ER's to choose from as a starting point. The display of ER and Tails is straight forward and helpful. The GUI is uncluttered but does a lot of stuff.

There are a couple Youtube from Waves on it. They are pretty long, but if you have the time take a look.

$199 is cheap for what you're getting in this piece. And historically, I haven't been a big Waves fanboy. 

.

PS - I didn't address your question about IRCAM Verb. I mostly only use it along with SPAT and honestly haven't ever used it standalone. Overall I find Verb (as I've used it) to be very smooth. So far I don't get the same smoothness from HReverb - but that just might be my inexperience with it. However, HReverb is so great at vintage hardware replication that it might become synonymous with that.

_*CORRECTION*: When I commented on how HReverb sounded next to Exponential Phoenix - actually I was thinking of Exponential *R2*. I do use Phoenix quite a bit in surround work but I really haven't found a home in my reverb usage for R2 so much yet. That may not be anything against R2 per se, it's just that I have a bunch of Lexicon hardware and software already taking up that category area - that area being Lexicon-heritage algorithmic with modulation._


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## Joram (May 12, 2015)

Just did a little test: very very interesting!


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## jamwerks (May 12, 2015)

Thanks Jack !

I always enjoy reading you regarding reverbs. I watched most of the almost hour long video, and was impressed. Though I loving IRCAM verb, I was wanting a Lexiconish alternative (with modulation). Was thinking about the Relab 480, but I'll now have to give this a try. The wealth of interesting features looks interesting. I'm hoping the sound will be also...


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## woodsdenis (May 12, 2015)

No doubt a nice featured reverb but

1. A CPU hog
2. If its a Lex sound you are after, I preferred the Valhalla Vintage Verb when A/B the two.

Always worth a demo to hear it for yourself.


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## studioj (May 12, 2015)

installed this today. Really amazing verb. Will def compete with my current fave B2. Appropriately resource heavy for the sound you get. 1 instance takes up about 10% DSP on my digigrid DLS. B2 is similarly heavy on CPU in terms of native usage.


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## Joram (May 13, 2015)

woodsdenis @ Tue May 12 said:


> 2. If its a Lex sound you are after, I preferred the Valhalla Vintage Verb when A/B the two.


Indeed!


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## Soundmagic (May 13, 2015)

Seems uses the same technology as this reverb
http://www.supremepiano.com/product/reverb.html


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## ceemusic (May 13, 2015)

After using this some more I find it's a very versatile & good sounding verb.

A/B is useless & I don't need to compare verbs. I already have most of what's on the market & know what each are capable of.

The best way to judge a verb is actually using them in your projects.
What works in some aren't always the best choice for others. Using this I've already replaced some of the so called 'better' or 'cheaper' verbs.

Also CPU is not an issue here. I'm sure that will be tweaked in a future update anyway.


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## apessino (May 13, 2015)

Yup - I spent a couple of nights playing around with it (full version). It sounds wonderful and it just so intuitive to use. Lots of power/versatility + UI that makes sense and encourages exploration = you get exactly what you want in a very short time.

I disagree on the Lexicon comments above - I find it you can get much closer to that sound (and then go way beyond) than with any of the other units I have tried. I still use the Lex PCM native verbs all the time and was running them side by side - it was really easy to get a sound virtually identical, and that is something. Add to it that HReverb is capable of a whole range of other things and right now it costs 1/3 the price of the Lex PCM native bundle, and well... 8) 

Finally, I don't get at all the "CPU hog" comments. Comparing to the Lexicon plugins (since I was running them side by side) an instance of HR seems to use maybe 2x CPU compared to a LexHall of similar density (on my i7 PC, Cubase 8 ). That is: perfectly reasonable and nowhere near the average cost of B2 for something of comparable length/complexity. I setup 8 instances just to test things out and had no trouble at all even with around >30 VSTi tracks playing and sending to them.


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## Den (May 13, 2015)

woodsdenis @ Tue May 12 said:


> No doubt a nice featured reverb but
> 
> 1. A CPU hog
> 2. If its a Lex sound you are after, I preferred the Valhalla Vintage Verb when A/B the two.
> ...




I agree with you completely.


I made one preset with VVV, here it is:

<ValhallaVintageVerb pluginVersion="1.5.0" presetName="Den Large Hall VVV" Mix="1" PreDelay="0.2553087770938873291" Decay="0.40500000119209289551" Size="0.89600002765655517578" Attack="0.92000001668930053711" BassMult="0.62199997901916503906" BassXover="0.40900000929832458496" HighShelf="0" HighFreq="0.47200000286102294922" EarlyDiffusion="0.98799997568130493164" LateDiffusion="0.99599999189376831055" ModRate="0.15199999511241912842" ModDepth="0.62099999189376831055" HighCut="0.4339999854564666748" LowCut="0.024000000208616256714" ColorMode="0.3333333432674407959" ReverbMode="0.2916666567325592041"/>

It is really impossible to make this kind of reverb in any other reverb.
If you are agree?


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## Jack Weaver (May 13, 2015)

apessino said:


> Finally, I don't get at all the "CPU hog" comments.


Can't speak for everyone here, but within Logic (which fortunately isn't an issue for you Cubase users) there is something referred to as 'single-core overload'. There are a couple ways to deal with it that go beyond our discussion in this thread. But 'CPU hog' plugins often cause major problems within Logic. HReverb and another reverb mentioned within this thread are Logic 'CPU-hogs'. 

I notice on the hour-long video of HReverb that Pro Tools was used and there were 11 instances of it. That seems somewhat reasonable. 

.


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## apessino (May 13, 2015)

Thanks for the explanation Jack! You learn something new every day... :D


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## woodsdenis (May 13, 2015)

Any plugin that goes way over 20 % on my 3.33 Mac Pro I consider a CPU hog. This is comparative to other "similar" types of plugin like VVV or indeed the Lex bundle which use about 2 %. Thats a huge difference. 

Its a very nice reverb but way to similar to what I already have. In the the vid Yoad Nevo goes at great lengths to allude to its "vintage heritage" I prefer VVV for that. I am sure there are very good technical reasons for its CPU usage , I just go for the sound.

If CPU usage isn't an issue for you then fair enough but there is no denying that this could be an issue for many users even in higher specced machines.


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## ceemusic (May 13, 2015)

The CPU is less than 2-C Audio, VSL & a few others I use.


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## Andrew Souter (May 25, 2015)

Well, based on looking at it for 30min or so, it seems it is more or less a convolution verb with a few extra features, namely:

1) The IR is "synthesized parametrically" and there is therefore not a fixed library of IRs. The IR is basically rendered to memory according to the parameters and then it is convolved with input. A few others have done similar things already.

2) It really has nothing at all to do with Lex type nested all-pass loops, or modern FDN approaches that both rely on feedback. Comparisons to "Lex Sound' etc are silly.

3) It does NOT have any kind of similar modulation to what is accomplished in all-pass loops and FDNs. Modulation here is simple AM of the input, and/or and flanger on the output. This will NOT create the big, lush deep sound-field type of things that these two aforementioned technologies excel at. This is the same thing as placing a tremolo effect before IR-1 and a flanger after it more or less.

4) It can create some nice very small room spaces which are a weakness of Lex style and some FDN methods... It would say this is its strength.

5) Other features such as delays and Filter LFO add some mildly interesting preset design options for weird FX presets, but nothing revolutionary IMHO...

I think Exponential Audio, Valhalla, Relab, us (2CAudio), and others still lead the field in software-based reverb...


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