Opinions wanted: Best Reverb plugin?

Software
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I own a very good (Strymon) Reverb pedal, and when it’s hooked up, it really is an impressive effect, to the degree that I’ve actually had people comment on how good vocals sound through it more than once.

But, I thinks to myself, there must be a competitor ‘verb among the software herd, be it a mersh VST or some funky Free project that nobody’s heard of. I am interested in finding it, if it exists, cause it would be handy if I could not dedicate four more cables and a wallwart and the associated spaghetti to my rig when the Zynthian is already attached.

So as the Subject says, what’s your favorite, or what in your opinion/general consensus is the best-quality Reverb sound…in the Zynthian at the moment? …in the VST world? Free, paid, I don’t care really, but ideally I can run it on a Linux machine.

I’m also curious about these new IR Convolution thingies, for this and for other stuff too (mostly, I would like to create a pedal version of the “Stinger” tube circuit as found in a Garnet BTO amp), but have not found the time to search out the best documentation of how to use them most effectively. Perhaps I could Convolute my preferred Big Sky patches and get the best of both worlds?

Is there any canonical reading one could do about IR? I’m clear on the concept of what they do, and I’m aware there’s a very expensive line of guitar gear that people are using to digitize their other gear now, I figure we can hook that up Freewise right?

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I like the Valhalla’s. Especially the Super Massive.

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Hi @jtode,

Hands down, by direct experience and according to my taste:

  • Valhalla Shimmer (paid, roughly equivalent to Big Sky).
  • Valhalla Supermassive (free, partly equivalent to the spacier Strymon models).
  • Native Instruments Raum (paid, bit of everything, ideal for large spaces, comparable to Strymon but not as otherwordly).

Cheers :slight_smile:

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I like the Dragonverb.

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My goto reverbs on my studio pc are Valhalla Vintageverb (always) and Exponential Audio/Izotope Symphony (sometimes). People rave about AltiVerb when it comes to convolution, but that is to many dollars per decay second for me.

On Zynthian I switch between Tal-Reverb III and the Convolution reverb but didn’t find the time to evaluate great IRs. Dragonfly reverb is great, but causes xruns here.

Don’t know these, but might be close to their digital hardware siblings.

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I had no idea they made a plugin version, but can we use any of those (vst3, au, aax) on Zynthian? I am endlessly confused about the state of emulation these days. I’m planning to try to run their Nixie software on Wine, and I’m expecting headaches…

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Very interesting to gather that now they sell Cloudburst and NightSky as software plugins. Honestly, I did not expect this move, from a brand known for its boutique pedals, equipped with top notch DSPs. Pity they didn’t include yet the Timeline delay. Also, alas no Linux/Arm options.

Before acquiring the expensive (and honestly fabulous) Big Sky - more or less the benchmark for ambient reverbs of the last decade (along, of course, with the established pro-reference stuff from Eventide) - I long questioned myself, if I could really justify the investment: never regretted a single spent €. BS, simply put, turns every synth sound into an alive 3D object, even with the more conventional and less “pictorial” algos (but we love it for the Cloud, Chorale and Shimmer models, don’t we? :wink:).

This said, I don’t think that Shiroverb and Aether on Zynthian come that far from the Strymons, as far as overall results are concerned, although maybe with a bit less of variety, control and sophistication.

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It’s a market.

User comprehension is not entirely beneficial to the pursuit of market share.

Perhaps, this thread disperses at the word ‘best’?

But hopefully, in an satisfying and believable audio-metrically fashion . . ?

I’m wondering if as an effort to represent different reverberation models, we should perhaps publish sound clips?

Which prompts the issue of what sound source or sources to use as test material…

Here’s a rather peculiar bell. . .

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I became a devotee of my Big Sky when I was jamming with a guy who has won a Juno (you would not have heard of him, but he’s a very good guitarist) and I was using it on my Vox, and he was quite impressed at the sound.

edit: Vox meaning vocals, not a Vox amp. I decided I must never sing without it. Much like Frank refused to record without his Telefunken U47.

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@jofemodo I see in the Wiki that VST support used to exist, but has been removed - what are the operational difficulties in adding back in support for VST3 specifically? Alternately AAX or AU?

Asking because now that I have learned about the Big Sky plugin, I desperately want to put that into my Zynthians.

There is a Linux Audio website/Fediverse account which has a list of vendors that they periodically contact and ask about supporting Linux, I have asked them to add Strymon to their list, with the suggestion that when Strymon demurs, they can point out that Behringer has Linux controller apps for their stuff, including RPi, and surely the top pedal brand can match greasy operators like Behringer…

But meanwhile, perhaps I can accomplish it with a wrapper?