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Convolution reverb plugin - what to buy?

SimonViklund

Active Member
I'm thinking about getting a convolution reverb in order to:

A) Sweeten my mixes (and add realistic room reverb to dry sample libraries such as those from Musical Sampling)
B) Every once in a while, add room reverb to diegetic sound effects (so it wouldn't hurt if the plugin comes with some non-concert hall room/cooridor impulses)

The options, as I see it, are EW/QL Spaces, Waves IR-1 and of course Altiverb. Altiverb is the most expensive but it also comes with a very impressive range of impulses from famous halls AND a lot of "domestic spaces" (bathrooms, offices, stairways, etc.) which will be useful to me.

Questions:

1) Is Altiverb ever on sale?
2) Which convolution reverb do you own and like, or which one would you buy and why? (it doesn't have to be one of the three mentioned above, of course)
 
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For pure tweaking power Reverberate 2 is hard to beat. It comes with some pretty good impulses, but nothing with multiple positions like in Altiverb or Spaces. But it'll load up almost any free IR you can find on the internet - and allow you to tweak reverb length, modulation and a bunch of other stuff. Numerical Sound also sells packs of IRs specifically designed to position instruments in orchestral halls. They a great match for Reverberate - but AFAIK they are synthesized as opposed to "real" recordings.

If you need specific positioning IRs sampled from real spaces, Altiverb or Spaces might be the best bet.
 
I have and use a lot the IR-1 by waves. On waves site you can download a great library of irs from different spaces... this is my favorite convo reverb and it’s on sale at audiodeluxe for 29 bucks which is a steal
 
Altiverb is never on sale. Nothing beats it for convolution. I'd suggest starting with Spaces if you can't afford Altiverb and then also get some of the cheaper reverbs like the basic Seventh Heaven and Valhalla. None of these, however, will give you domestic spaces. Perhaps you could find a free convolution plugin and then some free IRs for that.
 
I've got a few but Reverberate and Seventh Heaven are my go to's. Seventh has an easy to use preset system while Reverberate is infinitely tweakable but I kind of hate their file system.
It's hard to pass up IR-1 from Waves since it does have multi positions for some of the halls and I also picked it up for $29 a while back.
Sometimes I'll set up those different seating positions on different sends.
 
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