My Favorite Free Reverbs

This is a post I wrote months ago on my blog, and I thought it might be helpful here to our listeners!

Reverbs

A good reverb is awesome. Just a little bit really warms up your sound and gets things working well. Too much of a bad reverb?... Ugg. Anyway I'm making a list of my favorite free ones, mostly so when I need to find them again, I'll have a nice list...

Ambience is my go to Reverb. I probably use this maybe 70% of the time. The presets are setup to be used in a bus situation in conjunction with your original track. But if you bring up the dry signal you can use the presets right in your track.

epicVerb is awesome. I love the simplicity of the Dry/Wet Knob, and the different room settings (Hall, Plate, Room, etc.) make it simple to dial in a great reverb sound.To my ears, epicVerb doesn't seem quite as wide as Ambience, which I really like. I use this when I need a nice tight reverb. I love it on my drum bus.

Glaceverb is a great runner up for me. It's different, but has a good sound. Have a go at it and have fun.

ReaVerb!!! - The three above are: algorithmic reverbs. Reverbs that are computated based up on parameters (aka knobs...) Convolution reverbs such as ReaVerb (available only in Reaper, but there are other convolution reverbs such as SIR that you can download, I just love ReaVerb). ReaVerb uses Impulse files (recorded in real rooms) to create the reverb effect. Download some Impulse files from Pipeline Audio and Noisevault (Noisevault is down right now, but it should come back at some point)

One of my favorite things to do with ReaVerb is use an impulse file from a guitar cabinet as a speaker emulation on my guitar tracks. Most Convolution plugins are *not* low latency so be careful using them to track in realtime.

ReaDelay - sometimes what you need is not a reverb, but a delay. Using a delay on vocals, may get you more of the sound you need, without all the roominess a reverb can bring. If you find that the reverb is just not doing it, try your delay. I happen to love ReaDelay, and it's a part of the ReaPlugs package which you can use on any host. (ReaVerb is not).

Nasty DLA is a great Delay for Reverb type effects, but it will color your sound a bit (not necessarily a bad thing). Best to use it in a bus arrangement so you can control the coloration.

From the "It's not free but totally worth it, so other people have said" category I present:

Valhalla Room

The guys over at HRS talk about this plugin nonstop, and even had the creator on the show. I'm completely happy with Ambience, Epicverb, and ReaVerb, but if you got to have the greatest and the best, I pretty sure this is it. $50 bucks brings you the reverb happiness. I've used the demo, and it sounds so good! I've since bought this reverb and the hype is true. It sounds great!