So what free reverb plugins exist out there worth trying?
I have no particular interest in VST plugins, since they won’t work on Linux, but some may be mentioned for others reading this thread.
The ones that get most often talked about here on the forum are GVerb and Freeverb. I’ve briefly played around with GVerb and I absolutely disliked it, no matter which settings I tried it always sounded awful on classical guitar.
I tried Freeverb3 and I liked it along with Calf reverb was the one that most impressed me.
I also tried Invada ER Reverb and TAP Reverberation, but didn’t like much either of them.
I think this are all LADSPA plugins (that I installed from debian’s packages, so not sure what are the official download websites, but I’ll search for that later and post the links).
I still need to play more with the settings but Calf Reverb is slightly taking my preference over Freeverb3. My only issue with Calf Reverb is that apparently the settings on audacity interface seem to be ignored. I think steve has already mentioned something about this some time ago… am I right about this steve?
Yes that’s correct. If I’m planning to use the Calf effects (which are good), I use Audacity with Jack. The audio can then be routed from Audacity, through Calf (in JackRack) and recorded back into Audacity (Real time effects processing )
Linux:
G-Verb - works, but default settings suck. Even with better settings it is not the best.
Freeverb - not bad if it works properly
Calf Reverb - pretty good, especially when used with Jack for real time processing
Invada Reverb - Nice room simulations. One of the best for small room reverbs.
CAPS: JVRev - Stanford-style reverb from STK - Very easy to use smooth reverb. Does not have any frequency filtering, so very bright. Apply to a duplicate track and filter as required.
Tap reverberator - good for “tunnel” or “down in the crypt” type effects.
Stereo reverb by Fons Adriaensen - if want to play in a monastery, this is the reverb for you.
Plate Reverb by Steve Harris - similar to a “Spring Reverb” but more refined.
The only one that I’ve used with Jack is the Calf reverb - I can’t test the others at the moment as I can’t get Audacity to build with Jack support.
I don’t quite like the idea of going through jackrack and “real time” processing since that is really quite time consuming, but on the other hand gives the opportunity to try some effects “on the fly”.
I kind of like the default calf settings, though I wouldn’t mind making it a bit “less wet”.
I also have plate reverb here. I tried it with the default settings, but I couldn’t hear much reverb effect so I wasn’t sure if this was really a reverb effect in the same way as the others…
From your list I think I’m only missing CAPS: JRev and Fons Adriaensen’s plugins. I might have a look at those too, both sound interesting.
I prefer large hall reverb type to small room reverb… small room reverb is something I’m trying to avoid in the recording process and it’s not something I want to add afterwards
Though it’s no longer a very recent computer (nearly 4 years old I believe) it’s still a quadcore so, as long as jackrack is capable of make use of the multiple cores I should have enough horsepower
I regret though that I’ve only put 3GB of ram on it… Specially when I’m running virtual machines on virtualbox (which is also when I wish I had 4GB and not 2GB of ram on my macbookpro…)
If Jack-Rack does not make use of multiple cores, you could probably get the same benefit by running multiple jack-racks.
Forgot to mention, for Calf plug-ins there is a dedicated Calf host (Calf plug-in pack for jack) which provides much nicer interfaces for the calf plug-ins than when used in jack-rack.
BTW, the problem I was having with jack is now fixed in svn r11191.
)
