Reverb, Economy vs. Ultra-High

Roadrunner

Roadrunner

Power User
I was playing with the reverb block back and forth Economy vs. Ultra-High on a simple amp + cab block preset, just to check the reverb quality itself.
I must say I could not notice a sound quality difference between Economy vs. Ultra-High.
Am I starting to lose my hearing or there is actually no audible difference?
 
I cannot speak for the III, FM3 or FM9, but on the II I hear a definitve difference between the two quality settings on the "Large Wooden Room" preset. Maybe try that one out.
 
Thanks, will try it.
As I'm using the FM3 for live only (I don't record with it), it shouldn't bother me I guess....but was curios
 
I hear a very distinct difference in the open-ness and the high end content on the tails, normal quality or better is good for me - I really don't like economy so much at all.

I see a lot of people on here saying things like 'you won't notice it' - that's not my experience at all, I play stereo with the reverb panned -20 left, very clear to me.

For me, it's the big draw to upgrade to the FM9 - I have an external reverb but the sound of the Fractal ones sound so good, I want to make them work
 
To my ear, on the III, ultra has a real sense of dimensional space, where without it is more just a lengthened tail. It's subtle, but it's not, just a richer, more detailed and evocative sound.

Would you hear it live in a mix? Probably not. Can I live without it when a preset runs out of cpu? Of course.

But in my little basement "studio", when the preset allows, I dig it.
 
To hear the difference clearly at different quality or density settings, turn the reverb mix up to 100% and volume up, then switch the quality setting back and forth while playing+listening - its significant, but not to my ear at 8% mix or so where I run it normally.
 
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I can easily hear the difference, esp. between economy and normal. And Ultra seems to have a tonal change as well. I always run as high as possible because why wouldn't you? If you need to lower it in the future, no biggie.
 
There is a night and day difference in my ears. I like to keep my reverbs on high or ultra high. That's actually the main reason I'm going for an FM9 in the end because I keep hitting the ceiling since the higher quality reverbs use so much cpu.

I'm a reverb junky however and I'm using long and dense tails. If you are using super short reverbs you won't notice it as much.
 
It depends on what you are going to be doing. Solo guitar into a recording console or live with a loud rock band in a room with hard floors and walls and a lot of echo?

The more instruments and distortion and the more live the room the less reverb you need or want so the quality becomes a non-issue.

Into a console you probably want to add reverb in post processing anyway so it should be dry.

i use economy and sometimes turn down/ off the reverb in live rooms.

Really it comes down to your ears and tastes and you will probably use several settings depending on many factors. Use what makes the song work.
 
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I seem to notice a nice increase in space between economy and normal, but less between normal and high (and up). I'd stick with normal if possible.
 
hendrik7 said:
There is a night and day difference in my ears. I like to keep my reverbs on high or ultra high. That's actually the main reason I'm going for an FM9 in the end because I keep hitting the ceiling since the higher quality reverbs use so much cpu.

I'm a reverb junky however and I'm using long and dense tails. If you are using super short reverbs you won't notice it as much.
Click to expand...
What are your favs? Mix? Much tweaking?
 
Fredlos120 said:
What are your favs? Mix? Much tweaking?
Click to expand...
I've had too little time with my Fm3 to be able to tell what my absolute favs are. I haven't been able to spend enough time with each algo. But lately I've been using the Cumulonimbus which I thought was the best sounding out of the four cloud named ones (after some quick a/b back and forth a couple weeks back. I will definitely check out the other three again soon however).

But I usually always start by adjusting the length and size. On my current setting it's set to just over 13 seconds and the size at 85. The mix (when in series) is usually somewhere between 20-35%, depending on how reverb heavy I want it. Other things I almost always tweak is the EQ (often cut some highs and sometimes lows if it's overpowering). Then adjust the low and high freq. decay times and diffusion and pre-delay (if needed). But Fractal offers so many other settings to tweak that I haven't had time to get accustomed to each and every one.

One thing I'll add is if you are going for a big spacious type of reverb with a long decay I recommend setting up all the parameters while the mix is at 100%. Then it's much easier to hear every nuance in the reverb. Then when you're happy with the sound, you turn the mix back down to desired level.

I've been really impressed by the reverbs I've tried btw. Many beautiful sounding ones. I hope Cliff and the team come up with even more big ethereal 'Blackhole' type of algos in the near future.
 
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