I Compared My Old Reverbs To My Plugins...
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- Опубликовано: 20 ноя 2024
- I compared my old reverbs to my plugins and was rather surprised.
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I had a few people ask me to do a video comparing modulation hardware against modulation plugins. I don't have much by way of hardware but I do have plenty of chorus pedals. So I just put out a video comparing chorus pedals to chorus plugins. I hope everyone enjoys it. ruclips.net/video/qBoP1H3ocLY/видео.html
I'm a huge Alesis fan. My main recorder is a HD24 , 24 in 24 out. ZERO cut and paiste , pitch correction...or anything to make it not true....if the take sucks.....we do it again. Love the Microverb series too. Love the channel Billy. I'm binge watching them all.
Very cool video, thanks for posting. I love me some Lexicon plate, even the plugin.
They all sound good, but the Rev7 sounds "ready". And in a recording situation, this is gold.
The only bit of old gear I've ever bought twice was the Alesis Quadraverb, it still sounds wonderful! 😎
Wow..... Rev7 sits in the mix perfectly w/ vocals. I wasn't expecting that!
Exactly! I remembered liking it back in the day, but listening to it now.... what a vibe!
Glad you changed your mind about the Rev7 on the snare, cause it sounded good to me immediately in the mix!
My theory is that with modern reverbs we spend and lot of time reducing their bandwidth with post eq to get them to sit, then add saturation maybe in post etc yet a reduced bit rate piece of hardware with its physical preamp is doing all that softening and shaping for you.
Exactly!
My exact same thought!
The Rev 7 is special. Incredibly musical.
I think that spring reverb is just magic! I must have grown up listening to a lot of spring reverb. Hearing that yamaha rev 7 brought me back to 90's country! super nostalgic sound.
All these years later, and your ears are far more discerning than they once were, so you can hear what "could be" musically - maybe even from that Radio Shack thing!! Tweaked nicely in a mix, and even a tiled bathroom has a tone of mojo. Really nice work man!! Thanks for the share!!
I love how the spring kind of 'follows' the vocal, intensity-wise, and just sits around it
Well... don't throw them away! I think they all have so much character, not easily done with any of the plugins. It makes me happy for some reason. So much 'real' space.
That spring reverb hardware unit is the real secret weapon! Even in mono, absolutely perfect
Thanks, this was rally entertaining and just shows what you can achieve with limited gear if you learn it well. Look forward to checking out some more of your videos.
I learned most of what I know because I had a limited amount of gear. Too many choices can slow you down and actually deter creativity.
Great video, to my ears the Wedge and Rev7 sounded really pro
The wedge does something I always look for in reverbs: it fits. It just sits in like a puzzle piece, its hard to explain. It's not building up weird low mids, its not washing out everything, it just works. I thought the midiverb was really cool on the drums in the full mix. The Rev7 is something I'd normally like, with the big 80s high end, but there is something seriously weird about the phase with that one. Vintage verb is what I currently use and I'm pretty happy. Also that spring reverb is so vibey and cool. I think in this musical context especially, it sounds like a big old western canyon.
Yes! I used that Wedge on a lot of records before I went totally In The Box. The Yamaha did have some weird stuff going on but I wasn't sure if it always sounded like that or because it's older than the hills., but it still has a cool sound for certain things.
Old school Bro, Its the way too go Love to hear the difference of the plugin to a Lexicon Lark
I don't know I really love the MidiVerb. It sounds like it would be amazing on Hiphop and RnB vocals. Thank you for this demo!
Ha ha! Crazy right? I remember the first time I hooked that thing up after years of not using and I was really surprised.
Roland srv 2000 is the best of the lot on snares
my Midiverb II, Rev 1 and SRV2000 sit side by side to my EMT252, Sony DRES777, Bricasti M7 and Quantec QRS. I love the „smaller ones“, they have so much character. Plugins just don’t give me that depth. Big part of the hardwares sound are their analog circuitry around their ADDA converters. Just measure THD on something like an ART 01A or Sony DRE2000 and you’ll start to understand. Its those imperfections that HELP to set the reverb tail apart from the source sound, so more depth, more realism, less perfection…
The Rev7 is a great sounding verb but the sound of the spring unit blew my mind. As an engineer that cut his teeth in the early 80's I've had a hard time finding verb plugins that really excite me like the dedicated hardware did back in the day. Especially when it comes to plates. I was lucky enough to mix on a lot of good plates...boy do I ever miss them in my home studio.
Man, I've thought about building a plate reverb. Burt the spring reverb surprised me too, I hadn't listened to it in a long time.
You had everything perfectly balanced in level. This is key, to make sure everything is easily comparable and there is no 'louder is better' business, going on. I am a big hardware fan myself. Also have a Midiverb II which I love, as well as a Yamaha SPX990 and a Boss SE-70.
the Boss is insane
What a great blast from the past! I just subbed! Looking forward to watching more great content from you, Billy.👍
Thank you!
New viewer here, great content… as someone else said, it was clear after about 60 seconds that you’re “in the biz” for real. Reminds me of many fun days spent shooting out gear with my teachers and mentors. In the mid 2000s I started buying hardware verbs for my studio because the reverb plugins available at the time sounded mediocre and were incredibly taxing on CPU. Times have changed but my Wedge, PCM70 and M300 still have this special magic, especially when mixing on a console and summing the returns analog. Thanks for the vid!
Thank you! I sure wish I had a PCM70!
Seems as soon a real gear is turned on, some kind of 3D is activated… love the music you produce
Thanks so much!
placebo
@@asor8037I don’t think it’s placebo. The spaces do feel more open. I’m sure you can EQ the plugins to be the same
@@Hugoknots A HW digital reverb is a digital algorhithm in it's own little computer. in other words, a plugin in a box. The myth that "since it is hardware it MUST sound better" does not apply here. Maybe you have bad plugins though. I mostly use the Lexicon PCM Native suite, which is 99,9% the same code, except one bug the developer fixed in the software version. In other words, the same. And even in this case, people still rant on around the internet that the hardware sounds better, but they are deluded.
@@asor8037 I'm with you. I never said anything about what your saying - "HW must sound better" etc etc. I'm only saying that in this instance the HW did sound more open than the plugins. If the HW was a plugin, I'd say 'that' plugin sounded better than the others. Another thing to be mindful of is the inputs, JFET or not, and how you drive them into the HW algorithm. This can add non-linear effects that would vary from what a plugin may emulate although you can model some of the non-linearity in the plugin too.
Fantastic comparison. Thank you for taking the time to do this! For fun I would've loved to have heard Dverb compared as the stock ProTools plug-in.
Before you interrupted in that section I was pre commenting that I thought shorter verbs would be a better suit for this track haha.
I have the 4 tank Fairchild Reverbertron 2 Model 659 and a lot of times on vocals, in the mix, it blows away most that Lexicon, Yamaha etc can throw at you, not for everything, but a lot of times. This is the vintage hardware which I bought 35 years ago from another studio for, at that time, 200 Dollars.
Wow!
Just looked that up. I'll bet is sounds cool.
Personally i love convolution reverb. I have a library with IRs taken from the classics, Bricasti & Lexicon classics, EMT plates, Grampian spring etc. It sounds lovely, and with current plugins you can sculpt the length of the tail and such very precisely. Sometimes i put a very short ambience reverb from an algorithmic reverb beforehand just so that the tail isn’t exactly the same every time, which is the problem with convolution reverbs. (You can really hear it on sampled drums.) You can use that trick, i’m not a person who keeps my tricks a secret. I want everyone to make good sounding music.
Yes! I have Altiverb and use it a lot. I've even created some of my own IRs.
would you be awesome and share your IR's?
I would need to export them from Altiverb I suppose. Never thought about that.
Great Video! Thanks for taking the time to make it.
I saw an Alesis Quadraverb 2 at my local Music Go Round. It was only $129 so I gave it a try. IT'S SO GOOD!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I didn't know it also had Chorus, Delay, Pitch Shifting and Gated FX! I'm definitely going to snag more rack gear soon.
The Quadraverb rocked!!!
I have several of the old Quadraverb with 2.0 software. My main reverb for 20 years. Only the Bricasti beat it eventually
I bought the Alesis Q20 and it sounds goood! Very similar to Quad 2
Bro... those days...are memories! We have entered the future! (Think of algorithm changes...real time!)😮😅
But... but....
The EeeMmmTtt patch on the Alesis wedge is my favorite on vocals. It just sounds so good.
I really liked how warm both Alesis units sounded in your video.
I need to try that patch.
The old spring reverb sounds much more lively to me. I still love the verbs in my old Roland SE 50
I loved that wedge on the Drums
They all sounded great i really like that spring reverb
Rev7 is/was a beast.Nice work mate
Thanks!
please dont do this. rack gear is really cheap right now
Sorry!
Lol
Like the comments but dunno, not here in the uk. People still asking crazy money.
My lexicon PCM70 cost me £145 four years ago, now it’s £1000 plus….
@@youcantno3963only 175? Wow. Alesis racks were super cheap at one point
10:15 to my old analogue sound guy/digital engineer/bass player/Gen X ears, that Rev 7 is spot on.. gives a little sparkle and action to those drums.
And that old spring reverb JUST DELIVERS genuine sound..
I own several multieffect racks, 2 REV500 Yamahas and a MPX500 Lexicon. I also have 2 Eventide H9 Max pedals. It's a very interesting exercise to compare high end plugins to older gear. There is a definite edge of feel from old stuff. But, as always, horses for courses.
I have one of those Master Room spring reverbs...exact same unit! Never thought of mono/stereo reverb differences too much but when you copied it and offset the duplicate to make a stereo track, that was cool. I'm going to try this myself. It did sound good on the vocal.
I liked the Rev 7 on the snare...not sure if that's what you were referring to as the surprise.
love my tc.electronics M2000. Once I made an as natural as possible room with it for a radio broadcast. It was stunning. When it's on, it sounds like the person was in your room. It wasn't an effect at all, it was the secret ingredient which “holds the room together”.
Very cool!
TC electronic stuff is great I have the unity card in my Yamaha O2R amazing sound.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I remember using a Midiverb III back in the day (the successor to the Midiverb II). Later, I bought an Alesis Microverb and then an Alesis Wedge for my own equipment inventory. Hearing the Wedge again on this video brought back a lot of memories of using it as the primary reverb on lead vocals back then.
Yes, I used the Wedge on a bunch of Lil Jon mixes in the late 90's - early 2000's before I went totally in the box. This was at my home studio called The Zone and I was so embarrassed by the fact that I was using an Alesis reverb that I made a big label that said "X42 Y45 Device" that I put over the Alesis logo so that anyone seeing it would think I had something special.
Very interesting. And fantastic music too. I've been buying hardware reverbs myself after trying a Bricasti, comparing it to the Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven - its very different. The hardware reverb gives a sense of space, without really being noticable, the plugin seems glue itself on top of the audio, is very noticable - yet the space is less satisfying. This convinced me to first try an MPX1 - since it was so cheap...it was so much better than any reverb I had as a plugin, that I then went and bought a PCM90, which I'm looking forward to arriving any day.
I do happen to have the Alesis Midiverb you have, it was left in my studio - it works fine but its quite a noisy box and you cannot do anytihng with the presets, even so - still sounds kind of interesting in a way that plugins do not.
Your tests, have convinced me, I'm making some good investments. I preferred all of your hardware reverbs over the plugins.
The Altiverb, sounded kind of lifeless, the REV7 was great, the wedge and the Alesis midiverb - all had something going for it that I preferred. The spring reverb was beautiful on the vocal - amazing singer and song of course, but it evoked something. I am beginning a search now for the unit you have here.
Enjoyable vid, will subscribe for the music alone!
Thanks! You're so right. And you're going to love that PCM90.
I feel the same. I have a Rev-5 and a PCM-81, and it's 'in there' in a way I can't describe.
I liked the comparison and your ability to walk through the different verbs. They each had a different character which definitely stood out.
But the best part was the beautiful song. Truly a beautifully recorded and written track done by musicians with genuine talent and great voices. The reverb just added that layer of sparkle on those great performances.
Loved it. Song was an instant classic!
I miss hearing real songs like this. ❤😢
Thanks so much!!! I always try to find the best music for my videos and I'm lucky enough to have worked with some great artists.
@@FreakingOutWithBillyHume I was 100% sincere. Praise is just as important as criticism as they say.
Thanks for the terrific comparisons. That's a lot of work. Appreciated.
Thanks!
Yeah that spring reverb was the feels right there on that vocal
Love the video. Noticed you have a QuadraVerb in the rack. Used to love that thing. Extremely versatile. Fairly high signal to noise ratio for studio, but man that thing was great for live shows.
Thanks! I used it as a guitar fx rig back when I played live a lot. Cool unit.
That XL-121 with delay and "fake stereo" has some serious mojo.
Spring reverb on fiddle can be great. I ran it live back in the day and it was pretty great as long as it didn't feedback!
Fascinating video, Billy. Thank you! Whilst none of the hardware verbs might be super high end (lexicon, bricasti...) I def preferred all of them over the plugins. To my mind I think there's something to be said about reverb being processed by a dedicated unit because of how these units will be able to keep the time coherence in the effect - especially reverb tails. A thought that keeps popping into mind is that DSP processing is essentially linear, so how is it possible to have multiple (parallel) effects going at the same time without introducing some sort of phase issues with the mix - and this is especially so regarding reverb? I dunno, I can't wrap my head around this idea. Anyway thanks again for a great video
Thanks! I too have wondered why the hardware units sound better. But I think you've got a good theory as to why.
Audio on computers generally is well buffered, so everything should be predictably coherent - ie no phase issues. It is not 'live' in the same way as analogue equipment. You can tell - at different soundcard buffer sizes you can have significant differences in CPU usage.
One of the great features of external effects is the subtleties of the analogue electronics and the ADC and DAC. This even includes how component noise can affect an audio signal as well as differences between opamps, transistor types and capacitors and good pcb layout.
Much of the great gear has 'character's - some gear is used for its transformers, buffers etc and not for the supposed effect itself. In purist terms you might think that is bad, but it's all about colour.
@@l3eatalphal3eatalpha Thanks for the reply. I do understand the benefits of hardware character and colour, and how that would affect the tone of the hardware reverbs. I also understand what you mean by buffering but I still wonder how that buffering is processed. I am not a technical DSP wiz and so I struggle to wrap my mind around how, even including the buffering, the audio samples are processed to be "released" with exactly the right timing. There is so much going on under the hood with multitudes of effects that, as good as the DSP engineering is, I still can't fathom how some sort of subtle phasing wouldn't happen especially with specifically time dependent effects such as reverb. My brain struggles to comprehend :)
@@owlmuso
Because on computers the effects aren't done 100% live, they are buffered so in fact the audio is prepared, phase correct, in advance. The buffer is the look ahead time that the processors have to assemble the audio. Small buffer=very little time=harder on the processor.
If you have a dsp outboard unit eg digital reverb there is nothing that you can do in these that cannot be done in a DAW - just need to reproduce the algorithms and have enough processing power.
The timing is so short it appears live, but if you have a buffer of 512 samples @ 48kHz that is a delay (ie latency) of 512/48000 = 10.7ms, so you barely notice. Except maybe whilst tracking.
Another element with latency is within plugins. Different plugins have their own latency. But this is registered with the plugin, so the DAW can time align them all perfectly. A simple effect may only need eg 32 samples latency (or 0, even, so it actually is live) whilst a complex task may need eg 2048 samples. A DAW will account for all of these in its signal paths (really data paths).
I hope that is any help at all. Just keep plugging away - it will all make sense some day and then you will be unable to remember why you didn't get it in the first place.
In the early days of Protools there was no latency compensation. You had to put short delays on each track and delay them to match the track with the most latency. pain in the ass. But they soon made it automatic.
Rev7 sound amazing!
Fantastic video. Even the cheap units compared to all of the plugins are night and day...
Yes! And it's been decades since some of the hardware unitas was built. I just don't understand why they can't make plugins as good.
@@FreakingOutWithBillyHume One is 1s and 0s and the other is 1s and 0s but with chips that sound amazing for some reason.
But even the cheap spring reverb unit sounds incredible and if you know how to build one you can do it for less than a price of a plugin.
@@NikosPage I've been thinking of making a spring or plate reverb. I just need the time.... But it might make a good video.
@@FreakingOutWithBillyHume Please do and I'll make one with you :D
@@NikosPage Any suggestions on good instructions or videos about making one?
Had the pleasure of using a real stereo EMT140 recently, and holy smokes was so blown away. Nothing can beat that. Couldnt take it home sadly haha
They are kinda big...
yep lol, magical machine though@@FreakingOutWithBillyHume
awesome vid! thank you for being so active to the community, we all truly appreciate everything that you share with us! all this is helpful
I appreciate you watching and sharing!
Yessss! Something about stepping out of the box for those verbs.. there’s some magic there.. 🪄 ✨ 🫢
Yes! I recently redid my whole control room and added a mixer which will make it easier for me to integrate my older outboard gear into my work flow. Working on a video about all that right now. Stay tuned....
Didn't like the altiverb, the Valhalla was neutral and unobtrusive so useful, the rev7 was a bit off kilter, liked the wedge sounded real, would have maybe reduced the room size a bit on the drums but an interesting comparison. Have the Lexicon LXP-1 it is my go to verb/delay, just don't like ITB verbs that much, EQ and comp good in the box for me, I mix down through 1/4" 2-track for texture and mix cohesion, if needed, but going full outboard is a lot of maintenance and space used up, so just stick to some FX and keep it simple.
thanks for the comparison, confirmed my thoughts on outboard verbs!
I am particular to the Yamaha, perhaps it is the clarity, but I agree with you more suited to background vocals. We used an SPX90 for years and it was a treasure.
So This was the first video of the day. Makes me wonder why youtube took so long to recommend your video. Instant sub. I can't tell you the last time i watched a video from start to finish. I miss the road and hanging around like minded folks. I learned in the day from just talking shop. Now all youtube feeds me is some goober with the secret sauce to killer kicks or some shit. Im gonna have to watch this again. Interesting the old verbs seam wider and sit in the mix better. Thanks again for posting this.
Thanks! I miss the road and talking shop too. You might like my videos about not using reverb on vocals and using 2 reverbs on vocals: ruclips.net/video/YfpLnvfw3GQ/видео.html and ruclips.net/video/SUohmVkYhOg/видео.html
@@FreakingOutWithBillyHume Will go check it out now.. I need to watch things the get me thinking in the morn before i start my day. Looks like you got about 160 videos. This should keep me going for a bit.. I also had the CD and Dat player just like yours. The dat player died and never fixed it. I need to, and my son is now 23 and was 4ish when the cd burner ejected the CD. he some how slipped on a stool and pulled the tray out it and broke it. and his sippie cup lid was not on and went on my console.. It just dont seam like that cd burner would have been that old and out of service that long. I guess so.. shit we are getting old.. Dam it..
Oh man... I haven't thought about sippie cups in years. Now 2 of my boys want to be in a band with me. Time flies...
Hello/ my ears hear the greatest panorama and depth of reverb from the plugin L480. Thanks
Oh my GOSH - we used to have TWO identical Effectron ll's in our live PA rig...
Plugin wise I tend to go for things that emulate plates or vintage digital lexicon units. On a whim, I just scored a Quadraverb, the idea was to use it with my guitar rig, but as a possible studio piece. I'm amazed at how great it sounds, and really didn't expect it to. At first listen the reverbs and delays sound clean, but not when comparing to many plugins and modern guitar pedals. There is just something about the filtering and grain to the reverb tails that sets it apart from the other options I have, despite it being a budget piece even for the time. "better" ain't always better. The reverb seems to combine with the signal just perfectly, like it's an organic part of the sound. I can get close enough to cop the mood of the quadraverb, but it just sounds so inspiring, and I can't wait to use it in a bunch of mixes. I get a lot of clients that want 80s flavors on their mixes, and this is just the ticket.
You're right about the Quadraverb, it's just got a sound. I have 2 of them and am going to get them hooked into my system so they're easier to use at a moments notice.
Maybe it's due to me coming from the era of sampling drums from vinyl, but I liked the Yamaha the most. It had a crispy crunch, that kind of reminds me of 12 bit samplers. All of the others just kind of had a typical reverb sound. The Yamaha seems like it gives a signature color, which is cool in my opinion.
Crispy Crunch is a good way to describe it.
Twas interesting. Thanks for the mix and great vibes.
I have the wedge as well and I love all the "wooden" presets. The manual is incredible for anyone wanting to learn aBout reverb
Your face expression while following the lyrics lol. The passion.
The passion is strong. Sometimes too strong ha ha! Hope you are well.
These are great examples of how fantastic some of those old racks can revive the "mojo" you may be looking for in your mix.
cheers!
Thank you!
It's a combination of the modern technology and better PC power. Sounds great.
Great video! I enjoyed watching it.
Imo, that's just the thing about vintage reverbs, and all other vintage gear, they don't sound so "lovely". That's why I use them. They each have their own sound and character.
I have a lot of vintage synths, they all have different flavours. I've tried several new hardware synths, they all sound like the same synth, only with different features.
The same goes for plugins, imo. I recently bought an old 24 ch mixing desk for 200 bucks. Wow, what a difference! Best buy in a long time, for me. Awesome preamps, EQs (and distortion) , and 24 of them! 😃
Plugins are great for finetuning and editing, for adding the icing on the cake, but not as soundsource or for tracking, imo.
Sorry, this turned into a long rant. :)
Thanks for sharing
Thanks! And your comments can be as long as you want... rant away.
The thing about all then old gear is that each unit sounded different from each other. But each plugin sounds the same no matter what computer it's on. There is on 'special' plugin because they are all clones. But that one peice of analog gears sounds like none other.
Whatever helps get the ideas flowing into a finished piece with minimal regret is it!
I'm also unable to shake my few classic synths: a (tonus) 2600, CS-60 and JP-8... because nothing else really plays, sounds and behaves quite like they do... and I just know them well.
The main problem with software is also one of it's key virtues: Endless Possibilities. Perfection is an ideal worth striving for, but ultimately fails just as all attempts at total objectivity do ...this is _the enemy of getting anything done._
Some of the 'most perfect' recordings of all time were done using comparatively shit gear held together by duct tape and boogers :D
Truth!
Excellent video... well done. And a timely reminder that the world's best reverb won't make a generic new country song more interesting.
Thanks! And yes, at the wend of the day THE most important things are the song and performance.
"Generic new country". How many Ivor Novello awards do you have sitting on your mantelpiece?
First time here. I like your vibe dude. Nice song too.
I'm a hardware man :-).
BTW I like very much your mixes
I wish you the best, thanks for your videos
Thanks for watching and being here! Just put out a new video.
I love my Midiverb II and Quadraverb! They earned spots in my rack as more of an interesting character reverbs. I’ll tend to use realistic room verbs or delay for the rest.
I miss having a live chamber. I keep thinking of building one out here.
What a great voice!...it all works..
I have a hard time comparing the reverbs. On one hand you have a 24bit digital signal that's oversampling and working with 32bit float... that's sharing computation cycles on a CPU that's doing loads of other work as well. Then you have dedicated devices that are working at 16 bits, no float, with whatever converters, processors and memory that fit in their price point (for the 80's and 90's).
As with samplers of the time, those limitations impart a sound and quality all their own.
For me, being able to keep everything in-the-box with absolute total recall is the winner. Though sometimes I miss my old Quadraverbs. The flanged echoes presets on drums was pretty awesome.
I'm with you. As I've said before, it's hard to do a fair and scientific comparison between gear and plugins. And also, because of my work flow and the amount of different projects I need to switch between I need to be In The Box most of the time.
Your gear is really nice, and that first song is very beautiful, great vocals! I had a nice Ibanez DD 1000 unit years ago, loved it (It almost did reverb lol). Since I got REmatrix and most of the convolution packages from Overloud I never use any of my other verbs. REmatrix has both convolution and algorithm as well. I simply do not even seek better verbs, REmatrix is it for me.
Thanks! I loved those Ibanez units.
I felt the the Rev 7 had the most distinctive character. Pleasing but definitely conspicuous. Vintage Verb sounded like it would be good on LoFi or 70's reggae. Dense. As for the others, they did the job without really standing out, which is not a bad thing. The XL-121 was perhaps my favourite. It had a lovely vintage sound. Made the track sound authentic.
The thing about the cheap, if not even quirky stuff is, people with few means buy them and then make them work. Daft Punk pushed the 3630 to world fame but despite that, it's not regarded very well even by the owners of the device. Yet we all love what those guys were able to achieve with it. So, price or even sound of the device doesn't really reflect to results their character is able to achieve in the right hands.
Yes. Some of my favorite records aren't always pristine sounding, they just have great songs and great performances.
You are giving me verb flashbacks 😀I can almost smell those units running hot in my room
Ha ha! Not the kind of flashbacks I have. But I do miss the smell of an old school control room.
Midiverb II is a sleeper for dark metallic reverb vibes.
Yes!
I have a lexicon mpx1 in my rack right now, haven't used in years I was just thinking about using it the other day when I was frustrated with all my plugin reverbs, they all sounded so dense, I think tommorrow I will make a spot in my patch bay, when I heard you testing these old units it all came flooding back that's the sound! I thought I was remembering wrong but no! That is the sound I am looking for, so transparent
Yes, use it. Let me know how it sounded.
That alesis reverb was nice imho. I remember the quadriverb was the go to for many years.
Damn that spring reverb was awesome on that Stringdusters song. X times better than the Valhalla! Also, thanks for the great song tip, never heard it before.
Doing this video has made me think about buying another spring reverb.
the answer is all of the reverbs. All at once. On everything.
Oh damn.... I should've done that!
Interesting comparison. It would have also been interesting to hear a couple of more modern hardware reverbs alongside the others. Maybe an Eventide Space or similar. Rev 7 sounded surprisingly good on the snare in context.
Agree, it opens up. Funny, his first reaction was "no".... ;)
Honestly the plug ins are equally good imo. I had the impression the wet level on the plug-ins was higher though, not making it a fair comparison.
It is amazing how good that old hardware was. Digital plug ins are imo very very good now and you should be able to make a very good sounding track with them. But it took am like 20 or more years to approacht the quality of that old hardware. That's impressive.
It's so hard to compare these, getting the apparent volumes to match up was difficult and the sound each unit makes can appear louder or quieter just based on then stereo width. At a certain point I just pick what I like quickly.
Wow, that Rev 7 is something else
I just looked through and old bin of music knock knacks and found a wedge, totally new and unopened. I bought 2 when they came out and never opened the second. So I pulled it out and took it to my buddy's place and put it on my mic. Totally fine for live.
Wow! So cool!
Billy: any advice on keeping outboard gear (outside of gentle use/keeping it clean)- controls well maintained. I've got every rack ever bought but a few need cleaning of pots etc. Saw your console rebuild & that sokition I wondered if youd thoughts about what to not use it on or what else to perhaps use. Ty.
The cleaning solution I used in the Ghost Console video has been my favorite so far. But I couldn't say what over cleaners to not use. There is a difference between them as far as what they are designed for (fader cleaner VS contact cleaner) or which is safe for different types components on the circuit board. You'll just have to do some studying.
Good comparison. Pros and cons in each camp.
Imagine having so much audio hardware gear that you forget you have them in a box or something somewhere. I have 4 hardware units and even that is more than I could ever use as I'm finding out.
All outboard reverbs do sound better/fit better with the song than any of the PlugIns. The REV7 sounds great on drums. No to forget that it has an EQ
Never thought I'd feel nostalgia for Alesis reverbs, but here we are...
Ha ha! So true.
I have the REV4 and MidiverbII. I think they're dandy, and if you like those I would recommend you try a TCElectronics M3000, which is an even better device imo.
For plugins I'm pretty happy with Arturia's Intensity. Thanks for the video.
TC Electronics is the sh__t!
Great video, and like with all the plugin vs hw comparison, the hw sounds SO much better. It's amazing, lots of plugins with pretty interface but it sounds so cold and lifeless compared to real hardware.
The Valhalla isn't bad, but still "flat" sounding compared to the REV7 for example.
And the huge thing is within the mix. The 480 plugin sounds like a reverb yes, but it also muddies a lot of things around it if you listen carefully. While the HW make the vocal stands out in a beautifull way ♥
We all use plugins because they are practical, but for the best sound even a midiverb wich was considered cheap back in the days, still sounds much better in my opinion. Let them plugged in !
I'd use the hardware reverbs more if I had a better work flow or only worked on my own music. I just need to be able to switch between projects quickly. But doing this video has really made me think about how I might use these more regularly.
I didn’t like the spring but with the delay in stereo it came alive and sounded great!
The Rev7 is a great bit of kit. Hard to find one in good condition because most people hammered them.
I still use my old Digitech Studio Quads for pretty much everything that doesn't need to sound super spacey. That's Valhalla Supermassive's job.
Supermassive is amazing!
you should try the Abbey Road Saturator after the reverbs on the returns.
This is great Billy. I actually liked the Rev7 in that snare example (as it didn't murk the waters in the fundamental). It had less of the fundamental of the snare note, which if tuned to the song, would be waaaay different.
Thanks!
I noticed that you have an Effectron II - I have 2 of these in my studio, and I use the CV input to control the delay time from my DAW (for recalls and to allow modulation, etc). It would be nice to see you do a comparo between the Effectron and your plugin delays
The Effectron doesn't work. The signal indicator shows input but nothing at output. Haven't gone beyond that in figuring out what's wrong.
I like the Valhala best, but all the others are great as well. Although a very interesting video, I would not call it a comparison, plus you could probably make a good mix with any reveb. I Love the song👍🙂
Thanks. kinda like comparing Apples to Oranges, but I've had so many people ask about this.
Funny thing is, when I'm tracking vocals I'll just used the stock Protools reverb on vocals to keep processing down. On a recent project when I got to mixing I forgot to change out the vocal verb plugin on half the songs and realized later. But it sounded good so IO just kept it on those songs.
I’m still rocking a PCM 91 and 2 MPX 500s. I just never could get on with reverb plugins (and I’ve bought a ton of them)
I also prefer printing the effects to separate tracks for automation. It’s really opens up what I can do at mix down.
Thanks for the video. Link to these beautiful songs please!
The first one was never released. But I am going to call him and tell him to just put it out. The 2nd was "Somewhere In Between" by the Infamous Stringdusters from their album Rise Sun. RUclips: ruclips.net/video/b2Odpi42ddA/видео.html Spotify: open.spotify.com/track/4LhfWz9FOQmik6xbJHZdfU?si=KeQXho4dTj6d2pW--45nIQ