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Completely unscientific blind reverb throwdown: hardware vs software (including the bricasti debate)

Best sounding? Can vote for more than one.

  • 1

    Votes: 27 25.7%
  • 2

    Votes: 15 14.3%
  • 3

    Votes: 29 27.6%
  • 4

    Votes: 46 43.8%
  • 5

    Votes: 31 29.5%
  • 6

    Votes: 11 10.5%
  • 7

    Votes: 14 13.3%
  • 8

    Votes: 32 30.5%
  • 9

    Votes: 21 20.0%

  • Total voters
    105

chillbot

Sock Muppet
I tried to balance all the settings and specs and levels best I could. But let’s be honest, I really just slapped some verb on some samples. If you want to nitpick the settings this is probably not the thread for you. That said, I'm happy to tweak any levels if they don't sound right. These are all hall verbs with 2.7s decay. The hardest part was trying to balance levels between software and hardware verbs, since there isn't an exact setting, I just tried to make them sound good.

Technically these are all hardware... in a way... as I mix everything outside the box. But there is no additional FX or EQ or mastering of any sort. I tried to choose the most basic hall settings for each verb that would give you the best feel. I did write down the settings I used for every example.

I used a dry vocal sample from Sonuscore’s “Lyrical Vocal” and then a flute riff that @windshore recorded for me (hope he doesn’t mind). I think it’s likely a bansuri but not positive on that. @NoamL sent me some dry orch mockups he did from Jumanji by good composer Henry Jackman, I could try using those if there’s any interest but thought I’d start with this.

[EDIT: Orch samples are near top of page 3, post #42.]

[EDIT: Answers posted bottom of page 6, post #
116.]

[EDIT: More orch samples (6 more verbs) from Anders near bottom of page 10, post #
195]


HARDWARE


Bricasti M7
Lexicon PCM92
Yamaha SPX2000

SOFTWARE

Seventh Heaven Pro
Lexicon MPX Native
Native Instruments RC48
Eventide Blackhole
Valhalla Room
Relab LX480 (10-day demo copy)

I used an online randomizer to randomly set the order of the nine reverbs so I couldn’t subconsciously influence you with the order, though you’re also free to listen in any order you want:









 
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A lot of hard work went into this for sure. I think the differences in the end are really subtle... which doesn't necessarily mean that they won't make a difference in a theater setup.

Listening to the flute, #8 was my favorite, it just seemed to give the dry flute a nice space without feeling like a tacked on reverb effect.

EDIT: I also like #1, and very very slightly dislike #4 and #6.
 
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This is pretty awesome stuff. Partly because it tells me I should just use whatever reverb I have and never fuss over it again, because literally every example sounded "good."

I realized after about 3 examples that what I was really hearing after a certain point was density and diffusion - so the 2nd and 8th examples felt a bit airier, and that's mostly what I responded to, although I don't necessarily think that those things necessarily make them better or more useful, or even more appropriate to a mix or the instrument. Or maybe it does. After listening to the same ethnic flute riff a few times I've probably just lost all mooring with reality.

You know what would be an awesome side version of this? Well - I should say that I'd dig hearing the Jumanji, of course. Then - percussion! I always feel like snares and rikhs and triangles, all with those noisy metallic top halfs - just destroy a reverb that isn't set right, so it would be amusing to hear those. Maybe edifying? Or just amusing. I don't know nothing.
 
Well - I should say that I'd dig hearing the Jumanji, of course. Then - percussion! I always feel like snares and rikhs and triangles, all with those noisy metallic top halfs - just destroy a reverb that isn't set right, so it would be amusing to hear those.
I can do this, I was a bit torn on the Jumanji stuff mostly because I didn't want to throw a big hall on it with a big tail, so I opted for the lazy way out. Less tweaking. I agree there's not a huge difference in the above samples. If you have something you'd want me to throw through nine verbs I'd be happy to do it.
 
A lot of hard work went into this for sure. I think the differences in the end are really subtle... which doesn't necessarily mean that they won't make a difference in a theater setup.

Listening to the flute, #8 was my favorite, it just seemed to give the dry flute a nice space without feeling like a tacked on reverb effect.

EDIT: I also like #1, and very very slightly dislike #4 and #6.

Agreed on most things Gnome, but on my first listens I think 4 and 6 seemed to blanket the flute nicely. 9 seemed the most tacked-on.
 
Thanks a lot @chillbot for all your work on this! This is a very cool comparison. Can you maybe add in a poll to the first post, so that people can vote on their favorite?

Afte listening to all examples I can confirm I prefer any reverb over the dry version, and don't really care which reverb is used. I barely notice any differences, and those that I do note I'm not sure I'm just imaging them. I think there is a little difference in frequency buildup and stereo width, but both could be made more similar with mixing tools that I usually use together with reverbs. So I'm quite happy to have my expectation confirmed, that I can just keep using those NI reverbs that I got for free or with komplete. No point in starting to collect reverbs if I can't tell the difference, better to learn about using the ones I have properly!

I do genuinely hope for all bricasti owners, that they are able to tell which one is the bricasti, so that they can feel validated in their purchase decision. I'd be quite bummed out if I owned one and then confused it in a blind test with a 50$ plugin.
So if you do own a bricasti, please tell us which one you think it is, and use (spoiler)tags(/spoiler) to hide your answer, so that you don't influence other bricasti users.
 
This is kind of scary, because it tells me that my ears must be shit, as I can't tell enough of a difference for it to matter a huge amount. That said, when I'm trying to create my magic template, and finding a space to blend all my libraries together, the different reverbs I'm trying are giving vastly different results. But I guess that's to do with the IR more than anything. Interesting though.
 
Listened to the all and the most natural was DRY.

Couldn't tell any notable difference between the others.
 
On my phone, they pretty much all sound alike. Except #2 which sounded like it might be Blackhole at first. It sounded like there was reverb on, whereas the rest sounded more natural.

I'll have to listen on better speakers to see if I hear much more. And? I doubt I would be able to tell the difference as I don't own many of these and they are all very subtle examples.
 
Thanks for the effort!

Well. Some of them sounded a little bit grainier than some of the others. Overall I totally didn't care. People always get mad at me when I say it doesn't matter which reverb you use, but what can I say.
 
Hey @chillbot, Certainly happy to have you use my flute - yes bansuri on that track!
Like some of the others, I think there are so many great options for verb, it's really hard to say one is dramatically better than the other. In a specific situation I guess it's almost easer to tell when a verb is Not working!
 
Cool test. I find them very distinctly different. 3,4,and 5 are the ones that sound best to my ears. Probably in the order of 5, 3, 4. But my opinion changed a bit depending on which phrase I was hearing. I'd say that #5 was the most clean to my ears, closely followed by 3. Depending on the source, I thought they were easily interchanged depending on how clean or distinct you wanted the reverb to sound. #4 was not as flattering to me as 3 & 5, but it still was better than the others to my ears due to the tail. The others had some mud in them... at least to me.
 
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