Best reverb for classical music?

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:06 pm

My favorite SIR reverb free impulse download from the internet is
from noisevault.com and it's called Unfinished Chapal. The 3 versions
were made from a chapal without all the furniture installed in it yet
or something like that. It holds up well to relatively expensive software reverbs like Waves Ir and Altiverb.
A really nice Waves Ir impulse for classical or flamenco guitar is
Nekarot Cavern, taken from a very low cieling cavern in Jerusalem,
I think.
The impulses made from hardware reverbs tend to sound pretty bad if not unusable.

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:40 pm

DavidSpearritt wrote:

I reckon the sound source should go where the musicians are and the measurement mics should go where you would stick a couple of omnis for a main pair.

That makes sense, of course...

DavidSpearritt wrote:

The measurement mics should be omnis because you want flat pickup and you want the return from the hall, ie behind the mics, but it would also be interesting to have Blumlein and ORTF measurements as well. After all you are trying to reproduce what happens at the mics during a real recording.

Right! I think anyone serious about making impulses would be using a number of different stereo miking techniques at the same time. I have some for SIR, can't remember what they are now, that offer two or three different mic techniques. Each sounds a bit different...

Then again, would the differences between the capture techniques be of any true relevant after going through the convolution process?

DavidSpearritt wrote:

My acoustical mate James Heddle and I are still planning to go into the Con Theatre and measure it carefully and properly at 44/24 and 96/24 with a variety of mic techniques. James is working on a fantastic point source speaker system to radiate big SPL's in as close to point source as possible, so its still going to be awhile yet.

This sounds fantastic. With all of those things in place, you'll be halfway there (IMHO)...

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:39 am

aracu wrote:

The impulses made from hardware reverbs tend to sound pretty bad if not unusable.

It depends what you use them for.

For orchestra- yes, they're not usable. But then again, I've found very few boxes that were good for this in the first place.

For pop/rock vocals, they're quite good.

Otherwise, I'll agree, for orchestra - good samples reign supreme.

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:38 pm

aracu wrote:

My favorite SIR reverb free impulse download from the internet is
from noisevault.com and it's called Unfinished Chapal.

I couldn't find that there, but I found an unfinished chapel IR here:

http://www.impulseresponse.org/real_rooms.htm

It's under the heading "Huge Unfinished Chapel". Is that the one?

-Keith

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:17 am

whats the easiest/most efficient way to generate the "impulse"? hopefully something that can be carried around in my pocket... definitely not something that looks like a gun, which will get me into trouble with security personnel everywhere...

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:53 am

There's nothing you can carry in your pocket that will excite a room (concert hall) with enough energy. Even a loud gun is not likely to do it. If you want the response of the room to a symphony orchestra, you have to get somewhere near the energy production. Even though the system is supposedly linear with amplitude. Its all to do with having enough S/N in the measurement of the response.

A powerful multi driver loudspeaker point source capable of 120dBA is a good start. Add a decent signal generator and many mics and a multitrack recorder and you have some chance.

This is why there are not too many decent impulses out there and why companies like Altiverb protect their measurement results (their only real IP by the way) with great enthusiasm.

http://www.audioease.com/IR/

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 10:40 pm

"I couldn't find that there, but I found an unfinished chapel IR here:

http://www.impulseresponse.org/real_rooms.htm

It's under the heading "Huge Unfinished Chapel". Is that the one?"

Hi Keith, it's probably the same one, it has the same name and number
of files, but it's a different site so I'm not sure. I found it on noisevault.com
on the second page of the real spaces category, and the full name is the
same Huge Unfinished Chapel.

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:12 am

David -

I've been playing around with the Fabrik R and the preset you sent me (thanks by the way!) and have really started getting some sounds that I like, but for some reason, when I bounce or mix down the file, all I get is some random repetetive noise instead of the music+reverb. Did you experience this? If so, how do/did you combat it?

Thanks!
Jeremy

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:13 pm

Jeremy, I cannot speak for your situation, but I am using the Fabrik R inside the SK48 host. It works flawlessly inside the box in "internal" mode, but is glitchy in "plugin" mode due to a driver error which TC know about. They are about to release a fix.

What are you hosting the Fabrik R inside?

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:20 pm

A TC Konnekt 24D.

I got it to be the "in the studio" interface so that I didn't have to keep unracking and re-racking the Fireface.

Mine also works flawlessly in internal mode but I'd hate to do a full playback for a reverb. Although, if I went with any other hardware reverb, I'd have to do the same.

I'll just bite the bullet and let it do its thing.

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:26 pm

They know about the bug with the SK48 (presume its the same with the 24) and are soon to release an update. Then rendering with the plug will be possible inside the DAW.
http://forum.tcelectronic.com/viewtopic.php?id=660

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:30 pm

cool.

Thanks for the info.

The reverb is pretty smooth overall. Definitely more smooth than my IRs.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:23 pm

David -

Just a quick follow up:

Thanks again for sending me your presets to work from. I've taken it, listened to it extensively and have been playing around with the Fabrik R reverb a LOT over the past week. I'm coming around VERY quickly to using this reverb and once I figured out its (IMO) quirky interface, the reverbs sound amazingly smooth and full without any hint of a traditional reverb sound.

Thanks a million!

J.

Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 6:28 am

nobodye worte 'bout the Altiverb. For me, it is the most perfect Reverb Plugin for both PC and Mac. It it sounds really really good for classical recordings. as a hardware I found the new Brincasti a nice tool for that.

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