Room / Hall / Chamber: The first reverb effects used for recorded music were created with echo chambers – a loudspeaker would play the sound back in the chamber, and a microphone would pick it up again, including the echo of the room itself. So don’t sweat about ‘realism’ too much.īefore we get to the Best 10 selections, check out this quick primer on the key aspects and features that apply to all reverb plugins:Įver wondered what all the preset names on reverb plugins actually refer to? Often, you don’t want the most ‘natural’ sounding reverb – you want to add a particular colouration to the sound, and that’s why there are so many variations on this vital effect.Īdding to this idea, most of us have grown up listening to music processed with rather artificial-sounding spring, plate and digital reverbs, and those sounds are ingrained in our subconscious as musically appropriate – it’s what we’re used to hearing. You might want to use a plate reverb for drums, and a high-grade convolution reverb for strings or background ambience. Different types of reverbs are good for different applications, so it’s unlikely that you’ll want to use the same plugin for everything. Using just enough reverb to do these jobs, without overdoing it and turning your track to sonic mush, is one of the major components of a professional-sounding mix.īut, as we’ve said before, not all reverb plugins are created equal. This way, you should have everything you need to build your ideal reverb plugin arsenal with the minimum of fuss, and give you some ideas for experimenting – all so that you can get on with making great, expressive music, which is after all the real point! Why Is Selecting Reverb Important For A Good Mix?Ī lot of mixes stand or fall on their use of reverb – the process is used to give the impression of sounds being in a real acoustic space, providing your mix with front-to-back depth, and is often referred to as the ‘glue’ binding all the different parts of a mix into a coherent whole. To make this list the most useful and comprehensive for you, we’ve broken our selections down into ten broad categories, and provided plenty of alternative choices for each category.
The very best reverb plugins for every style and price range are here, including the best free plugins, classic emulations, and algorithmic and convolution models.
I won't recommend anymore synths or samplers except for Korg's WaveStation from the Legacy Collection, It's not got the most inviting interface nor is editing nearly as straight up as it could be, However it to me at least is one of those synths that is worth the ball ache, Couldn't agree more with what's already been suggested, A lifetime's worth of options to go through/checkout already, The freeware thread is full of gems also when funds are tight or wanting moar stuffĪll the best, I confess to not being an ambient guru by a long stretch but I do, do post-rock/post-metal style stuff where the choice of modulation, delay and reverb are crucial to getting the sounds dialled in.UPDATED FOR 2019: With a range of great new reverb plugins from various manufacturers released since our last update, we thought it was definitely time to bring you a fully updated and definitive list of the very best reverb plugins available in 2019. which is where all the fun is and things begin to take shape and structure.
The most key part though has been already mentioned by others already, Knowing how to achieve the sound in your head both from the synthesis part and dialling in the modulation, reverb and delay sounds that take what is otherwise (usually) a pretty bland starting point such as a pad with a bit of movement until you deploy the inserts, sends, mixdown/render in order to resample, re-pitch, stretch.etc. Actually one that is not mentioned enough for it's multi-effects prowess is NI GUITAR RIG, I find myself using it as a multi-effects processor more than a guitar or bass amp sim FWIW/YMMV of course. SoundToys for modulation, delay along with Eventide are both excellent. As mentioned ValhallaDSP/Sean Costello is the algoverb boss and the most wallet friendly too, REAKTOR 6 with Molekular, This are hours of fun just playing guitar through, I'm sure that they'll work excellent for synth sounds as I do use a Boss SG-1 Slow Gear, an Electro-Harmonix Super Ego Synth engine and put all manner of havoc within it's internal feedback loop.