Live's Reverb?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.

What do you think of the Reverb effect that comes with Live

Very Good Indeed
24
13%
OK, but other reverbs are better
70
39%
Good for some things, bad for others
62
35%
Plain horrible
23
13%
 
Total votes: 179

polyslax
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Post by polyslax » Fri Mar 09, 2007 5:41 pm

b0unce wrote:
leedsquietman wrote:so you've used the altiverb 6 demo then ? which has only been out a week or two? because, it is the least cpu hungry of my meagre vst collection
Yes, Altiverb is amazingly light on the cpu. Major points to Audio Ease for optimization.

I'm also hoping Altiverb owners will get some kind of a break on SpeakerPhone!
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3dot...
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Post by 3dot... » Fri Mar 09, 2007 5:56 pm

NorthernMonkey wrote:
I bought my Liquid Mix a few months ago, I think the EQ is spot on, very good quality, but I'm still unsure about the compression, the emulations sounds very similar to each other to me and I'm not sure they are any better than the waves. I guess only time will tell but I'm sticking with it until I decide one way or the other.
Waves rule the world of vsts...sad but true...
the compressors are SWEEEET, every last one of them....I love'em...
I don't think I will ever look for other vsts cuz I like these so much!!!
did not try altiverb... cuz I realy dont see any need to...
got all the eq/comps/revs (and some far out fx) right in this here waves bundle...all other stuff is lives built in devices (+ the occasional kick ass free vst....) and outboard gear ...
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stutter
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Post by stutter » Fri Mar 09, 2007 5:56 pm

I always thought with convolution reverbs you could just use SIR, which is free, render the reverb, and find some good impulses for it. Otherwise they seem pretty expensive.

Ariesverb is pretty good for free

I just got Audio Damage's Reverence. I like it. Not perfect, but good value I reckon.

I always assumed native reverbs sucked, and ones you bought were expensive for a reason. Live's reverb certainly beats Cubase's hands down.
If it's basically mono, which for some reason I thought was not that uncommon, could you not put two, same intial setting, then slightly tweaked, on two different sends, then sum the output?

stallos
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Post by stallos » Fri Mar 09, 2007 5:57 pm

+1 for banaan electrique altho i generally find reaktor a bit of a hog on my machine

ethios4
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Post by ethios4 » Fri Mar 09, 2007 6:16 pm

Angstrom wrote:1: play a mono wave on a track, put a utility on that track.
2: now on a return channel - put a live reverb with a long decay and set to wet 100%
3: now send the wave to the reverb - hear a big reverb yes?
4: press the phase invert button on one side of the utility.
5: reverb disapeared?
Just reading through this....wouldn't the reverb disappear because you cancelled the original mono wave by inverting one side of a mono track?


I only use Live's reverb as a sound design effect, never as normal reverb. Waaaay to metallic and unnatural, even in High quality mode. Freeze is cool, and for some reason I like bad reverb for doing reverse reverb stuff, most of the time.

ploy
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Post by ploy » Fri Mar 09, 2007 6:52 pm

muscleandhate wrote:Waves 5, the reverb in that suite is totally awesome.
totally disagree, both "rverb" and "true verb" are a horror to my spoiled ears.


further from all software i tested (can´t recall what was wrong with the altiverb, will check it again) only "arts acoustic" (only solid trashy sound, but really nice to configure) and especially the "spin audio roomverb m2" (great sound, but high cpu-load :() did make it.


but they they sound bad compared to what comes off the incredibly cheap tc m300. 24 bit a/d, digital and analog in/out, two engines (reverb/multi) to mix. it really costs a shit (got mine used for about 50$), and especially the reverb and delay melt you like butter in the mellow evening sun. no kidding. though it seems not very spectacular with its only three/three/four knobs, just guess it doesn´t need more.
Last edited by ploy on Fri Mar 09, 2007 8:46 pm, edited 6 times in total.

Angstrom
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Post by Angstrom » Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:23 pm

ethios4 wrote:
Angstrom wrote:1: play a mono wave on a track, put a utility on that track.
2: now on a return channel - put a live reverb with a long decay and set to wet 100%
3: now send the wave to the reverb - hear a big reverb yes?
4: press the phase invert button on one side of the utility.
5: reverb disapeared?
Just reading through this....wouldn't the reverb disappear because you cancelled the original mono wave by inverting one side of a mono track?
.
hi,
no, it' not that.
the track doesn't intelligently send 'as mono', In Live's internal bussing it's sent as a stereo signal (to preserve pot panning), the reverb then receives L = -Mono R=+mono and should (in a stereo effect) process both of those individually before passing them to the chorusing dept. It should not sum them and then attempt to process.

anyway - I forgot, there's a better demonstration:

1: get ANY wave, stereo / mono / whatever ... no need for a utility
2: send it to the same big reverb as before (100% wet) turn off all chorus and spin. stereo set to 100 (default)
3: pan the origin channel hard left and right

the reverb stays central. I think the reverb is mono

further tests to eliminate the pan pot (ie are sends post fader pre pan pot?)

1: take a stereo test wave which is first 100% right, then 100% left (I re-sampled a drum loop hard panning 1 bar left, 1 bar right )
2: play back the re-sampled panning wave, send it to the reverb
3: set the reverb send as 'prefade'
4: turn down the panning wave and listen to the reverb

the mono signal is still evident from a hard panning origin, despite eliminating as much of the track signal chain as possible.

I think it's a mono reverb

Dr. Zoiberg
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Post by Dr. Zoiberg » Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:48 pm

If I understood correctly, the problem is that Live Reverb processes mono signals only.
When you feed it with stereo signals, you could simply use 2 reverbs with the same settings, one for the left channel, one for the right.

leedsquietman
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Post by leedsquietman » Fri Mar 09, 2007 10:15 pm

No, I didn't try Altiverb 6 yet but 5 was a CPU hog (most reverbs are and esp. convolution so not just an Altiverb problem by any means), although the workaround with most reverbs and especially convolution verbs is to audition them in low quality and change them up to high quality only on the mixdown .wav or .aiff export rendering.

IK's Classik reverb is worth a demoing if you want a nice reverb that sounds a bit lexiconish which isn't a convolution reverb.

SIR is great for free, although it has horrible latency, so best to audition it and then leave it off any real time mixes until time for rendering your mixdown file. SIR is said to be the same reverb as Roomworks in Cubase SX3 incidentally.

I also like these 2 little freebies, although they need a bit of tweaking to get the best out of them...

http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php

a great range of freebie vsts including classic reverb (classic delay, chorus and phaser are also good, and the mastering limiter is not bad and easy to use)

and dasample's Glaceverb (much liked by the cubase.net community)
http://www.dasample.com/index.php?show=glaceverb

dj superflat
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Post by dj superflat » Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:15 pm

i too like banaan and space master (the reaktor fx seem worth the price of the SW to me, leaving aside the synths (which i like too)).

sebovzeoueb
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Post by sebovzeoueb » Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:22 pm

I see I've started quite an interesting reverb thread... well, judging by the amount of non Live reverb people seem to use, I'll have to get a reverb sometime. Maybe I'll use some reverbs from my Pod XT Live, some of them are quite nice...
MacBook Pro 17", 2GB RAM; Live 6, Pod XT Live, MOTU Ultralite, M-AUDIO Axiom 25, Electric and Acoustic Ukuleles, Fretless Bass.

http://www.myspace.com/s2belectronica

nathannn
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Post by nathannn » Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:48 pm

as soon as some bafoon post a test all you lemmings jump on the band wagon and ride that test with him. "oh geuss what lol lives reverb is in mono lol" " hey chimps lives panning law is flawed i made a pie chart to prove it lol"
everyone needs to quit worrying about these corny science projects and get on with it!
who cares if live doesnt sound like some other crap out there! does every mixing desk sound the same? does every mic sound the same ? does every guitar sound the same? no so why the hell would every piece of software sound the same?
freaking wanna be science nerds!!!
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no computers or synths

20 Copies of Ableton Live Lite.

sebovzeoueb
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Post by sebovzeoueb » Sat Mar 10, 2007 12:07 am

nathannn wrote: who cares if live doesnt sound like some other crap out there! does every mixing desk sound the same? does every mic sound the same ? does every guitar sound the same? no so why the hell would every piece of software sound the same?
freaking wanna be science nerds!!!
Surely there is a difference between sounding the same and sounding good? sure a crap mixing desk sounds different from a good one, but it's still crap... although of course for some things a nice gritty sound can be good!
MacBook Pro 17", 2GB RAM; Live 6, Pod XT Live, MOTU Ultralite, M-AUDIO Axiom 25, Electric and Acoustic Ukuleles, Fretless Bass.

http://www.myspace.com/s2belectronica

R.J.Dubya
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Post by R.J.Dubya » Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:52 am

I do quite like live's reverb for some things. An effect type reverb. I little metallix yes, but I really like in some cases.

Otherwise, wavearts masterverb and quikquak's rayspace do the trick for me.
Rayspace is very worth checking out if you haven't, a unique verb. Build your own room shapes and such.

zrev is a cool effect reverb too, and reaktor's reverbs are amazing if you ask me. I just always forget to use them. But ya space master and the old 6-rev are great.

But I still think fondly of live's verb though. Hadn't noticed this mono business, but whatever, hasn't bothered me yet.

rjw
aka glitchrock-buddha
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b0unce
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Post by b0unce » Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:55 am

leedsquietman wrote:Altiverb is great but until recently was mac only and costs 2 kidneys and a testicle to buy. And convolution verbs suck the crap out of CPU.
leedsquietman wrote:No, I didn't try Altiverb 6 yet but 5 was a CPU hog (most reverbs are and esp. convolution so not just an Altiverb problem by any means)
well I did try altiverb 6, see my post where I say its my lightest plugin, and see polyslax post where he says its amazingly light.

conclusion = altiverb 6, a convolution reverb, is light on the cpu. So I guess you should try out altiverb 6 before you discourage people from trying it with your misinformation ?
spreader of butter

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