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I have fallen out of love with my UAD reverbs- it's probably all in my head, but it seems that since they updated them to be more faithful to the gear they are modelling, they went to great lengths to make sure that every irritating quirk of the original units has been preserved. Seems like every time I jack up the EMT140/250 or the BX10, they resonate and get muddy sounding when I turn them up to absurd decay times.

Maybe I just miss my long lost Quadraverb.

Anyone have any plugins they like for spacy ambient vocalizations?

Eventide ultraverb and blackhole?
You can rent with gobbler includes those plus Stereoroom great for more standard use.

Ultraverb is basically Hall,Plate,Room from the Space, but some slight differences and extra controls.

Valhalla have a couple of free plugins that might do the job

https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/val ... ermassive/

https://valhalladsp.com/shop/delay/valhalla-freq-echo/

Fabfilter Pro-R is amazing, it gives you complete control over every parameter. I've tried a lot and always go back to this one.

On the UAD system I think the 480L is the best. You also have the RMX16 and the 224 on there though I don’t like them compared to the original boxes. Out of UAD I like the Eventide SP2016 plug. Why don’t you run the UAD trials to see if you like them?

The UAD Lexicon plugs are pretty amazing. Tried them out yesterday. Very happy.

tdbajus wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 21, 2020 3:32 am

The UAD Lexicon plugs are pretty amazing. Tried them out yesterday. Very happy.

Great.

I have compared the 480L to the original hardware..and yeh its very similar. The only downside is it is missing a lot of the FX algorithms..but it pretty much nails the classic reverb programs which is what most people want. I dare say Cocteau's would have been using the 480L..they certainly had that unit in September Sound and Robin Guthrie used it a lot on guitar at least.

All the suggestions here are fine, but the specific issue the OP is having may be more a matter of technique than of gear (including plugins in the "gear" category).

Managing absurd amounts of reverb in a musical way can be tricky.

If I want massive, long reverbs I will almost always EQ the send in some way or another, and I will very often EQ the return as well.

I can be quite aggressive in this regard. I might high pass as high as 800, 1k for a send to a plate, chamber, or spring if I want it to be really long and/or extreme without totally swamping and ruining everything in a mess of bloat.

Yep...but I got what he was getting at. The reverbs the OP were suggesting swamp up easily with long unatural decays hence why I wouldn't pick them in the first place for that job. All the UAD lex's and the AMS do a much better job if that's what you want to do with things like band specific decay parameters and now LARC automation of course...I wish they's do the 224XL since always use the band specific "stop decay" parameters on that machine.

Great responses.

I have been eq-ing both the sends and returns, but maybe I'll get more aggressive. Also thinking todays experiments will be running a long Lexicon reverb into a very short EMT, and see if I can get the best of both worlds.

Since so many here seem to use these plugs, I'm wondering if anyone else has thought that the newer, updated EMT plate sounded more "realistic", like they had made a more accurate model that more accurately included the limitations of the unit. I could swear that I was able to just swamp things with the old version- you know, the one that didn't have its front panel aged.

I suspect it's just getting a better ear and noticing something just sounded bad all along (and should have noticed earlier but didn't).

tdbajus wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 21, 2020 11:04 am

I suspect it's just getting a better ear and noticing something just sounded bad all along (and should have noticed earlier but didn't).

Most of the time when I'm suddenly bothered by something, it has been something like this

That goes for recording, mixing, AND playing!

I haven't tried the newest UAD EMT140 plugin. I had the older one, then the SoundToys "Little Plate" came out, and I liked that just as well (if not more), and it didn't use up UAD DSP resources, so I sort of stopped using the UAD one, and haven't tried since.

I mostly just use them for demos and home stuff, anyway. We have a couple of EMT 140s at the studio, and I usually use those if I want a "plate type thing," (which is very different from a "Lexicon plate type thing", it must be said!)

Of course our two EMT140s don't sound very much like the plugins... actually they don't sound very much like each other! I've never heard two EMT140s that sound exactly the same. It's uncommon to hear two that sound even remotely the same!

Tuning is everything with a 140, and the proper tension for those little clips is often considered to be "just barely before they snap and break." So it's not like you can go past the point and then back it off a little!

tdbajus wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 21, 2020 11:04 am

Since so many here seem to use these plugs, I'm wondering if anyone else has thought that the newer, updated EMT plate sounded more "realistic", like they had made a more accurate model that more accurately included the limitations of the unit. I could swear that I was able to just swamp things with the old version- you know, the one that didn't have its front panel aged.

I think I have it, could be they f*cked it up..often happens..but I've never found a plate plug that satisfactory. The nicest ones I found were in the expensive Bricasti. But even then I still didn't favour it often. Could be a taste issue?? The nicest real plate I've owned was the 240 gold foil which was an absolute delicate PITA..but I'd still like to hear a plug of that beast.

Anyway..have you tried the UAD Capitol Chambers? I've not yet but they seem like they could be cool..another flavour to add.

I have some experience with the actual chambers at Capitol and I have the UAD plugin.

The plugin is pretty good. Is it exactly interchangeable with the real thing? Probably not, but certainly evocative and good on its own merits.

Much more useful to me than the Waves Abbey Road chambers (I have no firsthand experience with the actual Abbey Road chambers, so I can't say for sure how evocative the plugin is of the real thing)

If anyone wants to hear what the Lexicon sounds like, it's slathered all over these rough mixes.

https://bathyspheremusic.bandcamp.com/a ... apocalypse

I kind of realized with this reverb sound that I love 70s guitar sounds, 80s reverbs, and 90s hip-hop production.

Was meant to sound sort of like Low making a Tones On Tail record, produced by Eno and Hank Shockley/The Bomb Squad, with Neil Young's amps. I was pleased to be able to throw a little 70s era Pete Townsend sequencing into the mix as well.

I should have rendered the version I did feeding the Lex into the EMT, which was very ringy and resonant, even with a super low decay time.

I think I was just missing my old Quadaraverb.

At one point they were giving it away but no longer, but I have nothing bad to say about the Arturia plate reverb. It can get pretty massive and has some decent controls too.

https://www.arturia.com/products/softwa ... v-plate140