“What are your favorite free reverb plugins?”

Ahhh…FREEeeee…music to a musician’s ears.

It wasn’t that long ago that is was hard to find a good paid reverb plugin (for Pro Tools 7 anyway).

Now there are several free ones, and some are quite good.

NUMBER ONE

One of my favorites is Ambience. A lot of folks consider this as good as a commercial plugin. Although free (donation ware actually), it does have a nag screen. If you donate any amount to the author he’ll send you a version without the nag screen.

Formats: Windows VST – Mac OS X Universal AU – Mac OS X PowerPC VST – Mac OS 9 PowerPC VST

NUMBER TWO

Another big favorite among the freebies is GlaceVerb.

This is Dasample’s first attempt to implement its works on Residual Vector Modulation (RVM) in a VST plug-in. RVM is a proprietary algorithm developed to calculate the deformations, the vibrations and the acoustic response of surfaces and materials.

Imagine a big orchestra playing in a giant box built with thin metal sheets. As the panels are not very rigid, the box will vibrate according to the energy of music and produce an audible spectral deformation. RVM algorithm is able to simulate such deformations and vibrations and apply them to the original signal.

Formats: Windows VST

NUMBER THREE

Here’s a free one that works on Windows and Mac OS X called KR-Reverb FS.

It you some nice controls without overcrowding the plug-in with gobs o’ knobs. The graphing and room visualizations are a nice touch that make it that much easier to use.

Formats: Windows VST – Mac OS X AU – Mac OS X VST – Windows VST

NUMBER FOUR

MdspDuckVerb throws an interesting twist into the mix.

It will compress the reverb output whenever there’s a certain level of signal from the sound source. What this means is that sounds that can become unintelligible with regular reverb retain their legibility instead of being washed over with reverberation as they get louder. Very handy, especially for vocals.

Formats: Mac OS X VST Universal – Windows VST

HONORABLE MENTION

This one is here because it is NOT free, but VERY nicely priced at just $39.00.

It’s ADverb from Audio Damage (formerly known as Reverence), a nice plate reverb.

Here’s the description from the developer’s site:

ADverb is a plate reverb simulation inspired by vintage digital hardware. It faithfully recreates the thick sonic character and easy-to-use interface of those early units, while providing the low noise floor and big headroom inherent in modern software-based reverb.

Perfect for synths, vocals, and guitar, ADverb is also capable of creating the unusual effects that are typical of vintage hardware units. Featuring a sophisticated and well-tuned reverb algorithm, ADverb has a much lower CPU load than convolution reverbs, and can be used as either a send or insert effect.

Formats: Mac OS X VST – Mac OS X AU – Windows VST

How about it? What are some of your favorite free reverb plugins? Leave a comment and let me know!

Ask Big Al: Favorite FREEeeee Reverb Plugins? is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

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