I grabbed black hole on discount a few months back, and if you're into experimental sound and adventurous pursuits... It will be one of the greatest things you'll ever EVER add to your collection. The amount of distraction I've experienced just mucking around and playing with it alone was worth every penny. And the sound you can get out of it is just amazing.
I'd gotten the Relab LX480 Essentials reverb free when I ordered my Pulsar EQ and compression bundle over the Christmas holiday. I liked it a lot when set as a vocal plate. I'd run mine as a send that had a Studio One 6 Analog Delay going into it and a sidechain compressor to duck it into the quiet areas.
Cinematic Rooms is hands down my favorite. I never got along Crystalline and have not had a go at the Strymon Big Sky but I'll take Valhalla and Liquidsonics reverbs all day. Cinematic Rooms does a great job of preserving the transients and providing a nice tail.
Great video, I've just bought Bigsky and am loving it. I hate to be the guy who suggests other reverbs but to me another absolute top reverb is Melda MTurboReverb. It's quality and the things you can do with it are mind blowing.
I just fell into the Melda rabbit hole of massively editable effects. I haven't gotten to Turbo level yet, however my MReverbMB, MUltramaximizer, MDelayMB, MSaturatorMB, MDistortionMB, and MRingModulatorMB sound great themselves. Even the MFreeFXBundle bundle with 37 more basic level plug-ins are really good.
I wanted to hear how the Big Sky and Blackhole hold up against those others. Not bad. Valhalla Rooms sounds pretty good but sort of ”generic”. My own favorite reverb VST, and purely for its sound, is Raum. My favorite pedals are my RV500, X-Space, and Specular Tempus. I tried the Blackhole pedal this past holiday season and loved it, makes me want to get the Space pedal or perhaps just get the whole H9 suite of effects as VSTs for $200 when on sale. Or both, lol
Great demo of some very nice reverb plug-ins. I myself have recently gotten several Melda plug-ins, among those was the basic bundle of 37 various effects. It's free, and after I sampled it for a bit, decided to upgrade the whole thing for $52. I call them basic, but that's only compared to their other effects levels, like the multiband versions of reverb, delay, distortion, saturation. There's a whole lot of settings to edit and truly create your own sounds. I didn't get the top Turbo editions just yet. I'm not attempting to compare these in the video with Melda, it just happens that was the brand I chose. And if I hadn't, I'd be buying something like the Cinematic Rooms or Blackhole.
WOW another great review I really love the sound the Baby Audio Crystalline plugin and its great how you should the comparisons of the plugins so you can really get a feel for them. I feeling I may have to spend some money as Crystalline looks such a good plugin for the price.
Very nice and professional review. Thanks for that Daniel! There are so many great reverbs out there these days. Never mentioned, however, is the MeldaProduction Turbo Reverb, which sounds so incredibly beautiful and can be adjusted forever.
Some of the TC Electronic reverbs are amazing too. The problem is there are many good reverbs that have kind of specific strengths. But I can't argue with your list at all; these are great. The shimmer made me think: I wonder if you could use a narrow eq on some material and then pitch-shift that up a couple or three octaves and then maybe eq that to get a different kind of shimmer.... Probably not, but I'm going to try that and see if there's anything there. Thanks!
@@ComposerDanielWillett I really like the TC 8210. It's not terribly versatile, but it does s couple things exceptionally well. Also the VSS4 and VSS3 (I think the 4 is just a more updated version of 3). These allow some fine control over the placement of the image and other can-be-important tweaks. They are just SW versions of the old hardware units (which I think were always digital anyway), so they are retro in that sense, but they also have a familiar sound, I think. Everything old is new again, as the saying goes, but there's nothing wrong with that. 🤓 You can also get all their delays and early reflection generators as well as the MD4, which is my go-to for "magic dust." It's a multi-band compressor, eq, and limiter. I use one of the presets and just don't touch it in my master chain before final saturation and my final choice of limiter (which is elevate these days). It just does that certain something and it's impossibly transparent. Check it out if you haven't; it's a secret weapon, in my opinion. And, if you wait until they have their sale--which I believe is in early summer--you can get the whole shebang (mastering tools, reverbs, compressor, eq, etc) for $695 I believe (compared to around $2k regular price). It's a bit of money, but there are several tools that are well worth the price. I would pay full price for MD4 without hesitation now that I know what it can do. I should add that black hole at $29 is a great bargain. Just buy it, you'll use it.
Great video. Among all the reverb plugins I own, the BigSky is the best. By far! I wish they will also release their flagship delay as a vst. I even emailed them personally. 😅
Wow, nice video, Blackhole is on sale so I thought I would have a listen and eh, the first few bars and I'm sold.....I'll take a look at Crystalline one day when I get some more pocket money to blow on VST's! 😅
@@ComposerDanielWillett everything!! Drums, instruments & vocals. I learned some techniques from Mick Guzauski. That Reverb is amazing. I also love the Arturia & UAD 224 reverb, Soundtoys Little Plate, I'm looking forward to try Soundtoys new Reverb...Super Plate. I also love Ik Multimedia MixBox & the Reverbs & Delays that are in there
My favorites are iZotope's Exponential Stratus and MeldaProduction's MTurboReverb. Nothing I've tried can touch them for natural reverb sounds (and in the case of MTurboReverb, deep ambient washes as well)
Can the blackhole immersive sound the same? I don’t care for surround sound for now . I just got the immersive & hoping I could get the Alleluia effect you demonstrated.
I must be the only person in the world who can’t get on with the Valhalla verbs. I keep trying but they just sound so digital to my ears. I’ll try again 😂
I feel that way about the Eventide VST's. They just don't sound good to me. I love Valhalla Vintage Verb and Shimmer though. (Also digital not necessarily bad, a lot of great digital hardware reverbs out there)
@@FC-xc3zy The high end is all good and I've tried filtering the high end out in the plugin and also tried using an EQ before it. I'm just not a fan of the sound, except the Sanctuary setting can be cool sometimes.
I got the chance to buy Nimbus and R4 before they were discontinued, I accidently got them in an Izotope bundle for $30. Like wow I'm so lucky, you'd easily spend $400 for equivalents....
I've had hardware reverbs forever but lately i've been thinking of selling them because i find myself using the plugin counterparts more and more (480L, AMS verb and DDL, Eventide H3000, TC 5000). I think your video just convinced me to finally commit to putting them up for sale. Will probably keep the Bricasti and sell everything else. Your orchestral piece is really beautiful BTW. :) Thank you!
Well, I’ve tried Vahalla room and vintage verb, have the Bigsky hardware, blackhole(on ipad), uad plate140/250 and I just love valhalla vintage verb. Seems to have all I need. Bigsky would be second,but will not buy the software for obvious reasons.
Thanks for the review, I love reverbs. One thing about the seventh haven and classic instruments music at 6:53 It was flute, harp, violins that play a high note and some cellos. The presence of the reverb is too high. The instruments presence is getting lost. If t was full orchestra you would have a mess. Less presence of the reverb both on the flute an cello would do much better justice with the instruments, even if this music is for dreamy stuff. Still, is sounds wonderful reverb.
Thanks for the video. I have a question if you could give me your opinion, why so much Melodyne on vocals? I understand not every singer is good enough, but it seems to me that this became a norm, almost everywhere in the world. I personally did it before mostly because I was lazy to record people for a long period of time and then spend hours to choose the best takes after, but then sometimes it was a must as the customer thinks his or her singing is good while it was a disaster actually. But most of the time Melodyne is not needed, and the worst part of it is that it destroys more than it fixes most of the time. It gets funny when people argue about which plugin is better on vocals while using those destroyed melodynized takes. :)
I don’t use Melodyne. I use autotune on very light settings. The way that I like to use it is so that’s it unnoticeable but it just makes the singer sound like they were more on pitch.
@@ComposerDanielWillett Thanks. When I say Melodyne I mean any of those pitch correction plugins as they all destroy the vocal almost the same way. But it is very audible, this is why I asked you about it. 🙂👍
@@BojanBojovic I think that if you use it the lightly you shouldn’t even notice that it’s there. People who are using it more heavily are usually going for that effect that it gives.
LUNAR LANDER from Pulsar Modular is missing when you're talking about the best ones ever made. There are some very good plugins in your list already but it's not complete without LL. 😊 Personally I use and like Cinematic Room. It's good for pre-echoes although sometimes too comb-filtery sounding. Room is good also. 7th Heaven sounds incredibly stiff and dead. I demoed it and was so disappointed. Most plugins don't respect body, transients and original audio width enough and often the tails are super boring and repetetive. Also widening the audio often sounds too fake. Lunar Lander will highly surprise you. 🎉
Surprised Altiverbs not on the list, as that one can do all of these combined, plus more. And it sounds more realistic as well, although it is a way more intensive cpu suck, so gotta run it on a buss imo.
@@divisionmonarchy It's super high quality with smoother better shimmers than anything else. These are really high quality chips in here. Super depth and open sound. Collider is good if you don't want the extra algorythims in the reverb and delays. I sister the NEMESIS pedal along with it. Some software is great and really close but these pedals always have an edge over the plugins in clarity.
People always say this, but the answer is no. Different things work better under different circumstances. It's not like there's some magical trick you can use to make a plugin into something it's not.
I would like to see that because I can't get that thing to sound good at all. Sounds like a rat running in a cardboard box full of aluminum scrap metal
”realistic” you mean? Some hardware reverbs go for that, but most do not since most folks don't want realism in their reverbs. I don't either. How 3D VSTs can sound depends on how you EQ and mix them. Same as with hardware, in my experience.
Big sky & Cinematic rooms are the freaking reverbs I was looking for! Thank's a lot!
Awesome! I'm so glad that this video was helpful. :)
I grabbed black hole on discount a few months back, and if you're into experimental sound and adventurous pursuits... It will be one of the greatest things you'll ever EVER add to your collection. The amount of distraction I've experienced just mucking around and playing with it alone was worth every penny. And the sound you can get out of it is just amazing.
Thanks for the video. I use Relab LX480 a lot to my big pleasure.
I'd gotten the Relab LX480 Essentials reverb free when I ordered my Pulsar EQ and compression bundle over the Christmas holiday. I liked it a lot when set as a vocal plate. I'd run mine as a send that had a Studio One 6 Analog Delay going into it and a sidechain compressor to duck it into the quiet areas.
I've not bought another reverb since Cinematic Rooms. But Blackhole might be a contender. That sounds seriously great.
It’s amazing! There’s really nothing else like it for electronic music. I often use it for cinematic music too!
@@ComposerDanielWillett I was thinking some high woodwinds might sound nice through that. Brass too.
Nice list, I have most of them except BA's Crystalline and Strymon's Big Sky, amazing sounding reverbs!
I agree! Thanks for your comment! 😊
Cinematic Rooms is hands down my favorite. I never got along Crystalline and have not had a go at the Strymon Big Sky but I'll take Valhalla and Liquidsonics reverbs all day. Cinematic Rooms does a great job of preserving the transients and providing a nice tail.
I agree! Cinematic Rooms is incredible. Thanks for your comment! 😀
This was a great comparison of a 5 top high end verbs. Thanks fornusing keys and vocals and orchestra music as samples.
Great video, I've just bought Bigsky and am loving it. I hate to be the guy who suggests other reverbs but to me another absolute top reverb is Melda MTurboReverb. It's quality and the things you can do with it are mind blowing.
Thanks for your comment! I’ll check it out! 😊
I just fell into the Melda rabbit hole of massively editable effects. I haven't gotten to Turbo level yet, however my MReverbMB, MUltramaximizer, MDelayMB, MSaturatorMB, MDistortionMB, and MRingModulatorMB sound great themselves. Even the MFreeFXBundle bundle with 37 more basic level plug-ins are really good.
I just recently bought the entire Liquidsonics bundle and I love every single plug-in in there ❤
Btw you should try out Adaptiverb by Zynaptiq, another one of my favorite reverb plug-ins
I know! They are seriously amazing. 😊💥
I wanted to hear how the Big Sky and Blackhole hold up against those others. Not bad.
Valhalla Rooms sounds pretty good but sort of ”generic”.
My own favorite reverb VST, and purely for its sound, is Raum. My favorite pedals are my RV500, X-Space, and Specular Tempus. I tried the Blackhole pedal this past holiday season and loved it, makes me want to get the Space pedal or perhaps just get the whole H9 suite of effects as VSTs for $200 when on sale. Or both, lol
I like the sound of crystalline, going to look more into it
Wow! Great video and I learned so much. Your examples were so good, so relevant. I subscribed immediately.
Great demo of some very nice reverb plug-ins. I myself have recently gotten several Melda plug-ins, among those was the basic bundle of 37 various effects. It's free, and after I sampled it for a bit, decided to upgrade the whole thing for $52. I call them basic, but that's only compared to their other effects levels, like the multiband versions of reverb, delay, distortion, saturation. There's a whole lot of settings to edit and truly create your own sounds.
I didn't get the top Turbo editions just yet.
I'm not attempting to compare these in the video with Melda, it just happens that was the brand I chose. And if I hadn't, I'd be buying something like the Cinematic Rooms or Blackhole.
Avalina was beautiful my friend. thank you for the video, i've been looking for a new reverb to add to my toolbox
Thank you Swisha! I’m glad that it was helpful. 😊
The Valhalla and the black hole are awesome all by themselves! I'm going to add the liquidsonics for that lushness!
WOW another great review I really love the sound the Baby Audio Crystalline plugin and its great how you should the comparisons of the plugins so you can really get a feel for them. I feeling I may have to spend some money as Crystalline looks such a good plugin for the price.
Thank you Echoes! These are all so fun to use and Crystalline is fantastic!
Very nice and professional review. Thanks for that Daniel! There are so many great reverbs out there these days. Never mentioned, however, is the MeldaProduction Turbo Reverb, which sounds so incredibly beautiful and can be adjusted forever.
Gracias Daniel muy buen video ¡ felicitaciones y saludos desde Chile
Some of the TC Electronic reverbs are amazing too. The problem is there are many good reverbs that have kind of specific strengths. But I can't argue with your list at all; these are great. The shimmer made me think: I wonder if you could use a narrow eq on some material and then pitch-shift that up a couple or three octaves and then maybe eq that to get a different kind of shimmer.... Probably not, but I'm going to try that and see if there's anything there. Thanks!
Thanks for your comment! What TC Electronic reverbs do you recommend?
@@ComposerDanielWillett I really like the TC 8210. It's not terribly versatile, but it does s couple things exceptionally well. Also the VSS4 and VSS3 (I think the 4 is just a more updated version of 3). These allow some fine control over the placement of the image and other can-be-important tweaks. They are just SW versions of the old hardware units (which I think were always digital anyway), so they are retro in that sense, but they also have a familiar sound, I think. Everything old is new again, as the saying goes, but there's nothing wrong with that. 🤓 You can also get all their delays and early reflection generators as well as the MD4, which is my go-to for "magic dust." It's a multi-band compressor, eq, and limiter. I use one of the presets and just don't touch it in my master chain before final saturation and my final choice of limiter (which is elevate these days). It just does that certain something and it's impossibly transparent. Check it out if you haven't; it's a secret weapon, in my opinion. And, if you wait until they have their sale--which I believe is in early summer--you can get the whole shebang (mastering tools, reverbs, compressor, eq, etc) for $695 I believe (compared to around $2k regular price). It's a bit of money, but there are several tools that are well worth the price. I would pay full price for MD4 without hesitation now that I know what it can do. I should add that black hole at $29 is a great bargain. Just buy it, you'll use it.
Toneboosters new reverb is the only reverb i use it sounds the best to me crystal clear everything from the smallest room to awesome lush reverb
Do you mean Reverb4?
I didn't know there was a strymon plug-in was on the verge of buying one thanks buddy I get to save few bucks now...
Great video.
Among all the reverb plugins I own, the BigSky is the best. By far!
I wish they will also release their flagship delay as a vst. I even emailed them personally. 😅
Excellent Video. Thank You. 🙏
Wow, nice video, Blackhole is on sale so I thought I would have a listen and eh, the first few bars and I'm sold.....I'll take a look at Crystalline one day when I get some more pocket money to blow on VST's! 😅
nice headphones these where my starters on my headphone journey..
now i stick with arya and stellia but the NDH 20 are good 4 beginning
Love the Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven. I can do an entire album with just that Reverb
What are you favorite uses for it?
@@ComposerDanielWillett everything!! Drums, instruments & vocals. I learned some techniques from Mick Guzauski. That Reverb is amazing. I also love the Arturia & UAD 224 reverb, Soundtoys Little Plate, I'm looking forward to try Soundtoys new Reverb...Super Plate. I also love Ik Multimedia MixBox & the Reverbs & Delays that are in there
Great video mate!
My favorites are iZotope's Exponential Stratus and MeldaProduction's MTurboReverb. Nothing I've tried can touch them for natural reverb sounds (and in the case of MTurboReverb, deep ambient washes as well)
My favorite is Ircam Verb. Often I use it in combination with a secondary delay.
That piano at 13.26 👌🏽🔥
Eventide SP2016 is a killerrrrrrr
Can the blackhole immersive sound the same? I don’t care for surround sound for now . I just got the immersive & hoping I could get the Alleluia effect you demonstrated.
I must be the only person in the world who can’t get on with the Valhalla verbs. I keep trying but they just sound so digital to my ears. I’ll try again 😂
I feel that way about the Eventide VST's. They just don't sound good to me. I love Valhalla Vintage Verb and Shimmer though. (Also digital not necessarily bad, a lot of great digital hardware reverbs out there)
Maybe you have too much high end in your mix. Cut down on the high end.
@@FC-xc3zy The high end is all good and I've tried filtering the high end out in the plugin and also tried using an EQ before it. I'm just not a fan of the sound, except the Sanctuary setting can be cool sometimes.
I got the chance to buy Nimbus and R4 before they were discontinued, I accidently got them in an Izotope bundle for $30. Like wow I'm so lucky, you'd easily spend $400 for equivalents....
I don't understand. why do the dry audio sources already have reverb on it? it makes it hard to tell the differences precisely.
I've had hardware reverbs forever but lately i've been thinking of selling them because i find myself using the plugin counterparts more and more (480L, AMS verb and DDL, Eventide H3000, TC 5000). I think your video just convinced me to finally commit to putting them up for sale. Will probably keep the Bricasti and sell everything else. Your orchestral piece is really beautiful BTW. :) Thank you!
Which reverb plugin is good for making the vocals thicker ?
I know a lots of people use reverb as a vocal thickener.
Thanks.
It depends on the genre really, also you can use parallel compression to thicken vocals.
@@ComposerDanielWillett Could you please give me some instructions on that
1. Duplicate your vocal track.
2. Apply heavy compression on the 2nd track.
3. Blend in the 2nd track with the original to thicken.
Well, I’ve tried Vahalla room and vintage verb, have the Bigsky hardware, blackhole(on ipad), uad plate140/250 and I just love valhalla vintage verb. Seems to have all I need. Bigsky would be second,but will not buy the software for obvious reasons.
All the Liquidsonics recent products, 7th Heaven, Illusions or Cinematic Rooms, are world class.
Thanks for the review, I love reverbs. One thing about the seventh haven and classic instruments music at 6:53
It was flute, harp, violins that play a high note and some cellos. The presence of the reverb is too high. The instruments presence is getting lost. If t was full orchestra you would have a mess.
Less presence of the reverb both on the flute an cello would do much better justice with the instruments, even if this music is for dreamy stuff.
Still, is sounds wonderful reverb.
Valhalla need a SYNC mode
A low cut would also be nice
Low cut made it within the latest update of ROOM. Beside that I don't think any reverb unit needs DAW sync.
it does
1:30 - 5:50 - 6:17
Reaverb in Reaper is all i need and it can do a lot more!
No it sucks terribly, and I really love Reaper.
Could you recommend one for drums? I liked the big sky but not sure how it would go on drums
How would you compare Cinematic rooms to crystalline , for big warm last reverbs
Were you using a NDH30 headphone?
Thanks for the video. I have a question if you could give me your opinion, why so much Melodyne on vocals? I understand not every singer is good enough, but it seems to me that this became a norm, almost everywhere in the world.
I personally did it before mostly because I was lazy to record people for a long period of time and then spend hours to choose the best takes after, but then sometimes it was a must as the customer thinks his or her singing is good while it was a disaster actually.
But most of the time Melodyne is not needed, and the worst part of it is that it destroys more than it fixes most of the time. It gets funny when people argue about which plugin is better on vocals while using those destroyed melodynized takes. :)
I don’t use Melodyne. I use autotune on very light settings. The way that I like to use it is so that’s it unnoticeable but it just makes the singer sound like they were more on pitch.
@@ComposerDanielWillett Thanks. When I say Melodyne I mean any of those pitch correction plugins as they all destroy the vocal almost the same way.
But it is very audible, this is why I asked you about it. 🙂👍
@@BojanBojovic I think that if you use it the lightly you shouldn’t even notice that it’s there. People who are using it more heavily are usually going for that effect that it gives.
They're all great but i use one reverb plugin for absolutely everything
Native instruments RAUM❤
It is a GREAT reverb indeed, use it al lot!
Those are all PRETTY - But I will still stick with ORIL RIVER...
what kind of reverb used juice wrld In his last song? Light
LUNAR LANDER from Pulsar Modular is missing when you're talking about the best ones ever made. There are some very good plugins in your list already but it's not complete without LL. 😊
Personally I use and like Cinematic Room. It's good for pre-echoes although sometimes too comb-filtery sounding. Room is good also. 7th Heaven sounds incredibly stiff and dead. I demoed it and was so disappointed.
Most plugins don't respect body, transients and original audio width enough and often the tails are super boring and repetetive. Also widening the audio often sounds too fake. Lunar Lander will highly surprise you. 🎉
Stiff and dead? That's just what real spaces sound like.
What about the Wet Reverberator by Neunaber?
How do you think can the Seventh Heaven replace the Cinematic Rooms? thanks
Surprised Altiverbs not on the list, as that one can do all of these combined, plus more. And it sounds more realistic as well, although it is a way more intensive cpu suck, so gotta run it on a buss imo.
More realistic than a convolution reverb? How?
Which one won then
Kleverb by Klevgrand and Silo by Unfiltered review please
Comet and tai shi also n8ce reverbs
Big Sky is over rated. You'll get tired of the same shimmer sound pretty quick.
Thanks for the info, Rog!
You prompted me to buy it!
@@brhodes0 I would of recommended the Source Audio VENTRIS if you needed a pedal.
@@RogerBrenonwhy would you recommend the Ventris instead? Any thoughts on their Collider pedal?
@@divisionmonarchy It's super high quality with smoother better shimmers than anything else. These are really high quality chips in here. Super depth and open sound. Collider is good if you don't want the extra algorythims in the reverb and delays. I sister the NEMESIS pedal along with it. Some software is great and really close but these pedals always have an edge over the plugins in clarity.
Breverb 2
I’ll have to check it out!
So which one took it?
Best Reverb is the reverb you're hyped about currently (he said and his bank account shuts down in tears :P)
❤
Soundtoys Superplate is another amazing reverb.
No UAD Lexicon 224 review...well, can't take this seriously then.
1:29 6:18
So who won?
the old waves reverb is just as good as any of these - * If you know how to use it *
People always say this, but the answer is no. Different things work better under different circumstances. It's not like there's some magical trick you can use to make a plugin into something it's not.
Adaptive reverb ? CPU eater so I had to uninstall.
Huge fan of Seventh Heaven. BUT...every preset loads at 100% wet and ridiculous. Makes no sense whatsoever.
bruh. i can recreate all of this reverbs with fl studio's standard reverb plugin. you youtubers exaggerate everything.
I would like to see that because I can't get that thing to sound good at all. Sounds like a rat running in a cardboard box full of aluminum scrap metal
Where is MeldaTurboReverb? Unbelievable...
Where's X other plugin? It's almost as if 200 plugins would be too long to put into video.
Vsts pale in comparison to hardware. Just sound more real. 3 D as they say.
”realistic” you mean?
Some hardware reverbs go for that, but most do not since most folks don't want realism in their reverbs. I don't either.
How 3D VSTs can sound depends on how you EQ and mix them. Same as with hardware, in my experience.
I think in a blind test you may be surprised
Hardware rack units have the software inside of them only unless it is a analog unit.
VSTS can contain impulses which are literally real reverb recordings. More realistic than any hardware. What are you on about?
98% of mix engineers are using software reverb right now. I don't know why you are doing this.