Advice: Reverb for classical music

Hi friends,

Can you recommend a good reverb plug-in for recording classical music?

I have triend Calf reverb, a-reverb and Drangonfly room and hall reverb. I use Linux.

Any recommendations?

Thank you!

You could try MVerb which sounds good and there are reverbs that come with the TAL Plugins.

Both available for Linux on:
https://distrho.sourceforge.io/ports.php

Disclaimer: I don’t produce classical music at all.

But I’ve been using the Dragonfly Reverbs a lot: https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb

I also use IRs for reverb. I like the paid, but cheap, ones from 3 Sigma Audio: https://www.3sigmaaudio.com/reverbs/

Some that are good and free (as in beer) that might be quite suitable for classical music: www.openairlib.net/auralizationdb (The link seems to be down now… I wonder if it’s gone…)

Hmm I like what I am hearing with those 3 sigma IRs, I might have to give them a shot, thanks for the link!

What are you using for your IR convolution engine for those? I know we have a few choices but I haven’t looked for one in a while, curious what people are using these days.

   Seablade

@Aleph Are you recording live instruments, or arranging virtual instruments in MIDI tracks? Or a combination?

I use, mostly, LSPs convolution plugins, either impulse response or impulse reverb (which has more features). They are great!

I agree with Luis, the lsp plugins are great

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Thank you friends, I will tried some of those plugins tomorrow.

@Michael_Willis Live instruments. Flute alone and flute and guitar for the moment.

You could also try Invada Early Reflection Reverb.

I dowloaded the LSP reverb, and all de LSP plugins. However the Impulse reverb is not working , I change the settings but nothing happens. Maybe I don’t understand how the works

You need to have a IR (impulse response) to load in the LSP Impulse Reverb. These IRs are WAV files that allow the plugin to emulate a room. You can buy (like the 3 Sigma ones I’ve mentioned) or download some free ones to use with the plugin.

Here is a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBcLpAx02UM

Note: In fact I use the “Impulse Response Stereo” plugin for reverbs instead of the “Impulse Reverb”, as it’s simpler and has all I need for a reverb. (I use the Impulse Reverb for guitar cabinets, as it allows me to mix different IRs.)

@Aleph Are you finding that the reverbs you have tried are unsatisfactory? It might just be a matter of dialing in the right settings; if you are able to describe what you want in a reverb, we could probably help you better.

For classical choirs and orchestras I tend to use the free Bricasti IRs from Samplicity. For an easy interface to load them up use Robin Gareus’s one: https://x42-plugins.com/x42/x42-convolver or this one: http://tomszilagyi.github.io/plugins/ir.lv2/

I haven’t found an algorithmic reverb that I completely trust on Linux yet. Nothing in the same league as my favorite Windows/Mac PhoenixVerb plugin (once Exponential Audio and now owned by iZotope). I’ll have to revisit DragonFly as it shows the most promise and it has seen some updates since I last tried it…

Ok. Thank you friends. I will try it.

I can’t find the Briscati IRs, Samplicity is maybe down…

I can find more o less a nice reverb, for the moment the best for me is Dragonfly, but I find that they are not really top reverbs they are a bit unnatural.

Try turning the modulation down in Dragonfly Hall, to somewhere around 0 to 10 percent. Some people love the warble/flutter, others hate it. If none of the free reverbs work for you, buy Valhalla and get it working with Carla’s win vst bridge.

This should work for now:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190201211631/http://www.samplicity.com/bricasti-m7-impulse-responses/

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Yes, working!!

I used the https://x42-plugins.com/x42/x42-convolver, very simple but better sound than LSP.
I can’t compile the other plugin.

These wav files sound great, much better, more realistic…

I have a doubt: I recorded the music in stereo, two mics. Briscati M7 has have 3 files, L, R and M to S. I did a stereo bus for the reverb. Which file should I use?

You should use the quad files if possible. Still stereo but more realistic processing of original audio. I think you can combine the L and R to work as a quad too (for plugins that don’t accept quad files).

And another surprisingly good algorithmic reverb that I’d forgotten about is the one included in Harrison’s Essentials Bundle. GVerb+ I think it is called. I have used it no problems on various live choir concert recordings to sweeten the space. Just thinking about the name, it is some kind of enhancement of the open source GVerb?

With regards another Convolution plugin, try Klangfalter available here: https://distrho.sourceforge.io/ports.php

I happily use both Convo.lv2 (x42) and the Klangfalter one however at this point Convo.lv2 seems to have become my go-to in Linux world.

Also on that ports page is a great LUFS meter (I upgraded to the multimeter https://www.klangfreund.com/multimeter/) but, again, x42 loudness meters are hard to beat. And for $30 more, you get all the nice BBC VU needle-meter stuff too.