Shimmer Reverb

V

Vinirosa

New Member
Hi, there!

I'm trying to get a shimmer reverb on my Axe FX II but I can't find it on the Reverb menu on the Axe Edit software.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere the Axe does have the Shimmer Reverb.

Can someone help me with this?

Happy Christmas!!

Thanks in advance.
 
Shimmer isn't really a type of reverb anyway. It was invented by taking a pitch transposer up an octave... through a delay.... and feeding back that signal to the input again so that the pitch cascades upward by octaves until it dies out. Often a reverb block is useful at the end of a shimmer path to smooth out any artifacts.

Try the pitch block and/or the Delay block... both have ways to build a shimmer or crystals sound.
 
well i'd argue that it had become one since so many processors offer a "shimmer verb", most notably the Eventide Space and Strymon Big Sky, the top reverb pedals around. I see what you are saying but shimmer verb has definitely taken on a life of it's own.
 
It can also be stated the reverb is nothing but a whole bunch of delays simulating the reflections of a space. Some reverb units now have the ability to do shimmer. But it still has to have some kind of pitch shift most of the time. Not pure reverb.

I was pointing out why its not found in the reverb block in the AXE FX.... its a pitch and delay effect... so those are the blocks where it's found.
 
To produce a really excellent sounding (in my highly-inflated opinion) shimmer reverb you need both a muti-delay block and a reverb block.

This is where the Axe-Fx II really excels over something like a simple pedal like the Strymon stuff. Not that those aren't lovely in their own rights, but they are fixed and locked to the routing and ideas of the creator. If you wanted to do anything other than the exact type of shimmer it offered: no dice. If you wanted trails going down instead of up: no dice. If you wanted it to be more delay, less reverb: no dice. It does what it does.

Not so with the Axe-Fx II. And, as Cliff says (and I whole-heartedly agree with), there's a lot to be gained from the box by just following your ears. So follow mine I did and I threw down a quick example of a shimmery reverb preset for you. It was done using 12.03b4 so you need to be running the beta 12.03 release 4 or better to use this. It uses all kinds of snazzy new stuff in that beta: the Carr Rambler amp, the Dimension-D chorus. But oh man! Sounds pretty crazy if you ask me!

The mix on this clip is much wetter than I'd probably play with, but it serves to illustrate the point of how you can concoct an excellent, shimmery reverb with minimal effort. The blocks involved in the shimmer effect are mostly at their default settings. I fixed the mix and level values on the multi-delay. And the reverb block had it's time and pre-delay settings jacked up so it'd be a huge wash of a reverb, but that's it. The other reverb is, I believe, Scott P's dark studio verb. It's there because hey, why not? We can do crazy stuff like this in the Axe-Fx II and ain't no one gonna stop us!

The routing sends the signal out of the cab block an on a parallel adventure! It's run in to the shimmer side of the patch, which is on row 1. It's run straight through the chorus and to the output for a "dry" signal on row 2 (plus a little "dry" gets mixed in to the washed out shimmer reverb block). And it's run to the simple reverb side of the patch on row 3.

shimmery-rambler.png


How'd I arrive at that routing you might ask?

I started simple: I had a row 1 shimmer path that took signal from just before the chorus block and that was it. I felt the washed out reverb on row 1, having only delayed signal, wasn't sitting quite right. So I routed some of the post-chorus block "dry" signal up to it.

Then I felt like it was just too shimmery -- the ambience in the patch was coming solely from the shimmer stuff on row 1. So I added the third row and routed the post-chorus "dry" signal to a parallel reverb just for it. That gave it the body I was looking for and made me smile so I saved it.

Ears followed the entire way through here and nothing else.

And so you can hear how it sounds:



And here's a patch for you to play with: http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=2050
 
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Iarsee.. very cool.
Have you tried using only one reverb block and merging the "cables" and putting an enhancer block at the end to save some CPU?
 
jeppekristoffer said:
Iarsee.. very cool.
Have you tried using only one reverb block and merging the "cables" and putting an enhancer block at the end to save some CPU?
Click to expand...
I haven't, but only because I'm not sure that would sound the way I wanted it to sound. :)

The reverb blocks are wholly different reverb types. Large hall on row 1 and studio on row 2. The both bring a different amount of space to the patch. The large hall is set to fill the far space -- it's delayed and heavily washed out and diffused. The studio fills the near space as it's punchier and shorter.

BUT I arrived at the patch because I had a sound in my head and I followed my ears. My ears just weren't looking for what I think you're describing with your block changes -- not that what you're asking to change is wrong in any way at all.

If you think getting down to one reverb and an enhancer will unlock the sounds you hear in your head I encourage you to TRY IT! Do it now! Go for it. The beautiful thing about the Axe-Fx II is how utterly unconstrained it can be when you're chasing the less-than-normal sounds like this. The routing grid is powerful. The block types are plentiful and powerful. Try your ideas out and some times you end up amazed at the results.
 
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Nice.

I like to apply some hi-cut on the shimmer effect (in the MTD block). This improves the separation between dry signal and shimmer.
 
yek said:
Nice.

I like to apply some hi-cut on the shimmer effect (in the MTD block). This improves the separation between dry signal and shimmer.
Click to expand...

Ohh. That's an excellent idea. That would definitely keep it in the background as a pad that's just underneath it all. It's overwhelming in the patch I created for sure.
 
I see. I didn't know you had different reverb types.
I have tried the enhancer block after and really liked it.
I asked because I wanted to hear someone else's opinion.
I cannot try it now because my axe is 600 km away!
Hahaha Christmas!

Ps. I'm one of those that don't care if the Axe simulates something specific since I know I can use it to make everyppossible sound iteration with my knowledge being the only barrier!
And since I believe that the only time when I can't learn anything more is when I die I keep trying to learn.
 
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Really nice explanation of your preset creating process. Thanks!
iaresee said:
To produce a really excellent sounding (in my highly-inflated opinion) shimmer reverb you need both a muti-delay block and a reverb block.

This is where the Axe-Fx II really excels over something like a simple pedal like the Strymon stuff. Not that those aren't lovely in their own rights, but they are fixed and locked to the routing and ideas of the creator. If you wanted to do anything other than the exact type of shimmer it offered: no dice. If you wanted trails going down instead of up: no dice. If you wanted it to be more delay, less reverb: no dice. It does what it does.

Not so with the Axe-Fx II. And, as Cliff says (and I whole-heartedly agree with), there's a lot to be gained from the box by just following your ears. So follow mine I did and I threw down a quick example of a shimmery reverb preset for you. It was done using 12.03b4 so you need to be running the beta 12.03 release 4 or better to use this. It uses all kinds of snazzy new stuff in that beta: the Carr Rambler amp, the Dimension-D chorus. But oh man! Sounds pretty crazy if you ask me!

The mix on this clip is much wetter than I'd probably play with, but it serves to illustrate the point of how you can concoct an excellent, shimmery reverb with minimal effort. The blocks involved in the shimmer effect are mostly at their default settings. I fixed the mix and level values on the multi-delay. And the reverb block had it's time and pre-delay settings jacked up so it'd be a huge wash of a reverb, but that's it. The other reverb is, I believe, Scott P's dark studio verb. It's there because hey, why not? We can do crazy stuff like this in the Axe-Fx II and ain't no one gonna stop us!

The routing sends the signal out of the cab block an on a parallel adventure! It's run in to the shimmer side of the patch, which is on row 1. It's run straight through the chorus and to the output for a "dry" signal on row 2 (plus a little "dry" gets mixed in to the washed out shimmer reverb block). And it's run to the simple reverb side of the patch on row 3.

shimmery-rambler.png


How'd I arrive at that routing you might ask?

I started simple: I had a row 1 shimmer path that took signal from just before the chorus block and that was it. I felt the washed out reverb on row 1, having only delayed signal, wasn't sitting quite right. So I routed some of the post-chorus block "dry" signal up to it.

Then I felt like it was just too shimmery -- the ambience in the patch was coming solely from the shimmer stuff on row 1. So I added the third row and routed the post-chorus "dry" signal to a parallel reverb just for it. That gave it the body I was looking for and made me smile so I saved it.

Ears followed the entire way through here and nothing else.

And so you can hear how it sounds:



And here's a patch for you to play with: Axe-Change - Download Preset - Shimmery Rambler - by iaresee
Click to expand...
 
Shimmer Verb has been in presets back to the Axe-Fx Standard. There are You Tube videos about it, and presets on Axe-Change.
Use a reverb 100% wet in parallel, followed or preceded by a multidelay set to Plex shift octave up.
Some simply use the Plex Shift and it sounds great on its own!
 
Admin M@ said:
Use a reverb 100% wet in parallel, followed or preceded by a multidelay set to Plex shift octave up.
Click to expand...

I highlighted the "followed" by a multi-delay set to plex in the above to say: if you haven't tried reverb -> delay yet and you like the big ambient sounds you are SERIOUSLY missing out. Dean Wareham describe the reverb -> delay approach as the Lee Hazelwood "voice of god" effect in his book Black Postcards and that always stuck in my head. When I want the HUGE reverb scapes, that's how I set it up: reverb -> delay.

I'm going to go try this with the plex delay now! Thanks for the reminder M@!
 
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