New Reverbs - What to Listen For

K

KenR

Inspired
I'm away from my AXE for the week, but I was wondering what you hear (or don't hear) in the new higher quality reverbs as compared to what we have had in the prior versions of Firmware? How audible is it? Does it very by the type of reverb? What makes a good quality reverb?

Looking forward to hearing thoughts.
 
To my ears, mediocre reverbs generate artifacts that detract from and muddy up the sound. The effect can be subtle or obnoxious.
High quality reverbs have a transparency that I find unmistakable.

A good quality reverb can be there in minute quantities and generate a virtual space that is awesome to listen to. In the last 10 years, the vocal tracks have dramatically dried up compared to 80's and 90's recordings. But the reverb is still there, just more discreet and of very high quality. You less hear it than sense it, if that makes any sense.

I've been looking for that particular sound when you can "dry" up the track and still have that beautiful space. Bricasti does it fantastically. I now think we have it with 16.03.

None of this of course prevents drenching the track with floydian or johnsonian reverbs. That's its own awesomeness. But the above, for me, is a special sound.
 
Just played an acoustic gig last night. I wrestled with the "should I upgrade to 16.03 a few hours before the gig?" question a bit, but the comments on the 'verbs sold me that I should.

They were right. The new verb programming is excellent, and much better... even WITHOUT the new HQ option. WITH the HQ... fuggeddabout it. They're jaw-dropping, compared to what we had before. Lusher, smoother, creamier... all that stuff.

Please bear in mind that my usage was entirely for acoustic sounds... mostly using the Tube Pre, EQ's, and no cab. But that's pretty revealing... so I think that's a pretty good test.
 
Listen for a change in the granularity of the early reflections, this carries over into the tail as the early reflections reverberate.
 
Just use your ears man.... do you like how it sounds. All that matters

Its like cooking, doesn't matter if some chef goes on and on about how rare and expensive the ingredients are, or how it took 18 hours to make the dish, does it taste good ?

I respect all the fellow Axe users on this forum, but don't base my opinions off what they think, I trust my ears. If I like how something sounds, then its good. Tone is totally subjective and one man's "good" tone can sound like crap to another, and amazingly, they are both correct with regards to their own taste

So just get home to your Axe, updated, and then crank it up and jam, see what you hear, or don't hear. Way more fun.
 
Yeah, the new reverbs are really cool. A lot of the time, especially with the kind of reverb units you think of when you think "guitar reverb," the effect tends to mostly add an ethereal/dreamy kind of background fill as opposed to making the guitar sound like it's being played in any particular physical space or room.

The new reverbs can definitely do the long-tail dreamscape type sounds easily too, but now it's a lot easier to get a convincing "realistic" kind of reverb you'd actually hear if you played your guitar in a physical space, and there are a lot of added "real spaces" in the selection menu as well.

I guess the best way I can describe the new reverbs is that now when you listen to them, it's a lot easier to get a mental picture of what the specific "room" looks like that the amp is being played in.
 
Interesting. Well it will be another week before I get back to my unit. I'm trying to understand what to listen for. Thanks for the replies.
 
GreatGreen said:
Yeah, the new reverbs are really cool. A lot of the time, especially with the kind of reverb units you think of when you think "guitar reverb," the effect tends to mostly add an ethereal/dreamy kind of background fill as opposed to making the guitar sound like it's being played in any particular physical space or room.

The new reverbs can definitely do the long-tail dreamscape type sounds easily too, but now it's a lot easier to get a convincing "realistic" kind of reverb you'd actually hear if you played your guitar in a physical space, and there are a lot of added "real spaces" in the selection menu as well.

I guess the best way I can describe the new reverbs is that now when you listen to them, it's a lot easier to get a mental picture of what the specific "room" looks like that the amp is being played in.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation. I was wondering what to listen for!!
 
A lot depends on the reverb settings.

But the two parts that usually stand out are the initial "burst" right after the note attack and the tail.

For natural sounding reverbs the initial burst is usually not overly exaggerated but the parameters control this. E.g. the popular 80's drum verb with a big exaggerated burst of early reflections.

The reverb tail is usually the easiest to "hear". Record with a reverb and hold a chord or note until it completely decays and listen close to how the reverb sounds as it disappears.
 
It is definitely apparent and noticeable, no doubt about that part. I instantly was blown away.

With the previous reverbs you had to really watch how much you turned it up because your tone would kind of get lost in there. The new reverbs seem to complement your tone rather than distracting from it, if that makes sense. In the same way we describe a blanket being taken off of a speaker and things sounding more "there", same thing applies with the new reverbs. To my ears, it is like the difference between mono and stereo. Just much more open and in your face.

Like I mentioned yesterday, the new reverbs and ability to do stereo Ultrares has just opened up the tone even more.
 
Older reverb algo's from Fractal were world class. New ones are better. You'll hear it instantly. Slam dunk.
 
New reverbs automatically take the place of old parameters?

Scott Peterson said:
Older reverb algo's from Fractal were world class. New ones are better. You'll hear it instantly. Slam dunk.
Click to expand...

Did the FW upGrade to 16.04 and new AXEEdit and have not had the opportunity to try it yet--are the new reverb algorythms automatically loaded
to all presets or does it require individual patch manipulation?

Thanks ALL!!
 
DBrianinAZ said:
Did the FW upGrade to 16.04 and new AXEEdit and have not had the opportunity to try it yet--are the new reverb algorythms automatically loaded
to all presets or does it require individual patch manipulation?

Thanks ALL!!
Click to expand...

Try it and see. Do not fear!
 
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