Realverb and Dreamverb Tips

[minky]

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips on programming UAD reverbs(or direct me to any links).I seem to remember Harry Haller giving some guidelines on the old forum but the old forum doesn't seem to be working when I go there (keeps displaying no topics).
The Universal Audio site has tip sections for realverb and dreamverb but when I go to there it only says \"comming soon\" but I'm keen to learn a few tricks now.

Any help much appreciated.
Minky

 

[phildsp]

Hi Minky,

I'll just give some very general ideas. I haven't yet used the reverbs on any recordings (and maybe never actually will) but I've spent a lot of time evaluating and tweaking them recently.

In my opinion the biggest weakness of the UAD reverbs (and also almost all artificial reverbs for that matter) is the lack of authentic and interesting stereo response. I seemed to get the most interesting sound by:

- Having no ramp up time to the far field (vertical bar)

- Matching the end of the near field to the beginning of the far field with a slight overlap

- Turning the diffusion down to near the lowest amount in the far field

- Carefully choosing the mix of the near field shapes to avoid muddying comb filter effects yet giving a complex response

- Adding radical mid range EQ swings

- Decreasing the width of the original signal a bit to simulate a stage presence (wet signal is full width)

With those steps and selecting materials and room shapes I was able to create some rather pleasant and almost natural sounding responses. But I would really like a reverb unit that models the intimate stereo response and depth of a real hall. The UAD's are altogether too uniform and mushy. The M2000 in the rack is better in that regard of course, but still not quite satisfying.

A reverb ought to clearly locate a sound in the hall using the principal echos (not the same as the near field) from the left, right, front and rear. Believe it or not the best unit to do that that I've found was a cheap mid 80's guitar oriented ART unit. But the overall sound quality was not good enough to make it a keeper unfortunately. I still wish I had it though. The distance control alone was incredibly realistic!

So here's hoping that UAD will someday do the same great analysis and simulation of good halls that it did with the hardware emulations.

Philip

 

[chumbo]

Phil,
I have an old guitar ART multi-effect rack unit that I never even tried 'cause I beleived so much it could only be crap! So out of curiousity, do u remember what model it was?
Also, since you don't use the UADs reverbs...which reverbs do u use??
Cheers,
Chumbo

 

[Michael]

For reverbs try using two inline . Makes them sound way smoother . After all Lexicons work with two engines .

PS I love that Penguin clip :lol:

 

[phildsp]

Hi Chumbo,

I'm struggling hard to remember the ART unit. I'm pretty sure it was NTG something. The front panel was laid out in separate sections for preamp, delay and reverb controls as I recall. My biggest complaint was that it was hissy in the preamp (which could be bypassed I think).

So far I use mainly a TC M2000 for reverb. I've downloaded the Voxengo convolution engine with a whole bunch of impulses but haven't set aside the time to delve into that yet. Also I intend to snap up the forthcoming Gigastudio 3 Orchestra ASAP with a very impressive new convolution package which can be used with external sounds.

I do rather like some of the subtleties to the far field of Dreamverb. Maybe that used in series with a sophisticated multi-echo setup instead of the Dreamverb early reflections might work wonders.

Also setting aside dedicated EQ after the reverb return can bring any reverb to life with some judicious tweaks. The basic rule is cut low end and raise high end for clarity and snap. Varied resonances in the mids are important for realism.

Philip