AIR Studios Reverb Discussion Thread

[ansthenia]

Any reverb EQ for this ? Sounds pretty good

CSS has some EQ, but the reverb is untouched.

 

[Jdiggity1]

It could be. Or maybe it could be "this is an absolute resource hog, let's not let people try it and hope to sell as many as possible." Who knows heh?

I'm no programmer, but I figured the lack of demo is more to do with how all of their products are downloaded and installed via the spitfire app, bypassing any 3rd-party solutions like iLok which many other developers rely on for offering trials.
Doesn't make it impossible, but it wouldn't make it super simple either if that infrastructure doesn't exist yet for them.
Other examples of no-demo verbs or plugins would be iZotope/Exponential, NI, and EW Spaces.

For what it's worth, it's actually rather light on CPU for me, considering what it's doing. Averaged 2-3% CPU per instance, with 3 signals enabled. Each signal adds about 1% extra usage, on an i7 12700k. Though apparently this is per core, and not total CPU usage.
I imagine it'll quite quickly get a bad reputation if it does in fact have performance issues.

 

[ansthenia]

Very nice. Which mics did you use in CSS?

It's just the mix mic for each section.

 

[Evans]

Seems to be more speculation on performance issues than reports of performance issues.

Granted, it just came out, but there's lots of fear-driven discussion instead of waiting it out a week or two.

 

[sweeperxx]

Rather than speculation, it would be better if people who bought and tried it talked about the effects on a few channels and their CPU usage. Because everyone is talking on assumptions. But people who buy and try it do not provide any information about this issue.

 

[doctoremmet]

Live in a few seconds

 

[SamTheAudiocrat]

Sounds great! The brass sounded particularly lovely. What mic positions did you use?

And since you ask, any VSL VI instrument or something by Sample Modeling (or any other modeled instruments) would be interesting to hear!

Thank you. For the Brass I just use the mix mics. Actually I tend to use the mix mics for most of my libraries and I don't find it that hard blending then at all.

I unfortunately don't have any VSL libraries but I can try it on Sample Modeling Brass and Infinite Brass too

 

[robgb]

Something I'm not sure I get because there's no demo to try... Can this be used as a bus reverb? Can you set up sends to each microphone position? And what about positioning? If the verb is on a bus, the positioning feature is kind of pointless, isn't it?

I actually have no issue with putting it on every track, if that's necessary. These arm processors can handle quite a bit, but, like most people, I would prefer a bus/send situation.

So could anyone who has bought the plugin explain it for me?

 

[MartinH.]

But you're aware of the fact that with a demo it would be easy to recapture the Impulse responses?
Set up the settings you need, load an IR utility tool and make "your own" set of IRs.
These would of course lack the flexibility of the whole experience but still...

I guess that's the reasoning behind the no demo policy (which I can perfectly understand...)

If anyone struggles with performance issues, maybe that would be a way to work around those by merging a combination of mic signals into a single IR? If that's the case, maybe that's functionality the plugin could offer in a future update?

 

[mbishop]

PSA: If you have instruments that you want to hear through someone else's reverb, I suspect you'll get a much better response if with your request, you also include an audio file of your instrument playing dry.

 

[syrinx]

Thank you. For the Brass I just use the mix mics. Actually I tend to use the mix mics for most of my libraries and I don't find it that hard blending then at all.

Thanks! It's interesting (but I guess not really surprising) to me that using it on mic positions other than close mics sound so good!

 

[syrinx]

PSA: If you have instruments that you want to hear through someone else's reverb, I suspect you'll get a much better response if you also post an audio file of your instrument playing dry.

Very good point!

 

[mbishop]

Something I'm not sure I get because there's no demo to try... Can this be used as a bus reverb? Can you set up sends to each microphone position? And what about positioning? If the verb is on a bus, the positioning feature is kind of pointless, isn't it?

If it's anything like MIR, (and having read the manual for Air, this aspect does seem very similar), you can put a stereo signal through it no problem, but you will want to widen the reverb width so your stereo-recorded instrument will not sound so constricted in the stereo field. Positioning still works, but is probably more effective on the front-to-back positioning of the instrument.

 

[HotCoffee]

It could be. Or maybe it could be "this is an absolute resource hog, let's not let people try it and hope to sell as many as possible." Who knows heh?

That it is, and so far kind of unstable. I've had it crash Cubase several times already.

Older CPUs (just a few years old) will probably struggle to run more than 6-7 instances of this thing in a full and busy arrangement. In one of my projects, I have 12 Berlin Studio instances for the various sections and instruments, and that is running just fine. I tried replacing them with AIR, but unfortunately that was simply not possible.

Yes, I realize that new software sometimes require newer and faster hardware, but I think Spitfire would do well to optimize where possible. Especially since one of the goals of this plugin is placement in space, i.e. many instances are required.

My CPU, for reference: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X

Edit: I'm still happy with the purchase, it's new software, so some problems are to be expected.

 

[Clearstone]

PSA: If you have instruments that you want to hear through someone else's reverb, I suspect you'll get a much better response if you also post an audio file of your instrument playing dry.

This. There's also so much tweaking available, that whatever they send back your way could sound vastly different depending on how you dial this thing in. I love it. Just going library to library and throwing them in the hall.

 

[MartinH.]

I'm kinda curious if with this reverb NI SSC SE could be used as divisi option for the SSO strings.

 

[Jdiggity1]

Something I'm not sure I get because there's no demo to try... Can this be used as a bus reverb? Can you set up sends to each microphone position? And what about positioning? If the verb is on a bus, the positioning feature is kind of pointless, isn't it?

I actually have no issue with putting it on every track, if that's necessary. These arm processors can handle quite a bit, but, like most people, I would prefer a bus/send situation.

So could anyone who has bought the plugin explain it for me?

It CAN be used as a bus verb, but that's not really where the magic of the plugin lies, and there are better options for that use-case.
As you point out, the positioning feature is a pretty big part of the verb, and the only way to get the most out of that is by using it at the group or instrument level.
You could also achieve this by setting up multiple sends, but I'm finding the plugin needs to be tweaked differently for each different source material for the most cohesive results.
So if your source material consists of multiple different libraries, or simply uses instruments that should occupy their own space in the stereo field, you'll be better off using as an insert on a group/instrument to fine-tune the placement and width, then use a different instance of a reverb at the end of the signal flow of necessary as the final tail or gap filler.

 

[Jdiggity1]

That it is, and so far kind of unstable. I've had it crash Cubase several times already.

Older CPUs (just a few years old) will probably struggle to run more than 6-7 instances of this thing in a full and busy arrangement. In one of my projects, I have 12 Berlin Studio instances for the various sections and instruments, and that is running just fine. I tried replacing them with AIR, but unfortunately that was simply not possible.

Yes, I realize that new software sometimes require newer and faster hardware, but I think Spitfire would do well to optimize where possible. Especially since one of the goals of this plugin is placement in space, i.e. many instances are required.

My CPU, for reference: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X

Edit: I'm still happy with the purchase, it's new software, so some problems are to be expected.

Make sure to switch off the unused signals (they are turned down by default, but are not technically off). And try switching the input to Stereo. That gets best performance for me.

 

[Nico Schuele]

Older CPUs (just a few years old) will probably struggle to run more than 6-7 instances of this thing in a full and busy arrangement. In one of my projects, I have 12 Berlin Studio instances for the various sections and instruments, and that is running just fine. I tried replacing them with AIR, but unfortunately that was simply not possible.

Thanks for that. For placement and early reflections, I currently use 17 instances of Berlin Studio. It barely makes a difference on my machine but I know that if I try the same with Pro-R for example, it brings my machine to its knees. Not on a Silicon Mac just yet, still on i9.

 

[ALittleNightMusic]

Are you telling me that ALL other reverb makers got cracked this way? Because there is not a single one I can think of who's not offering a trial version.

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