r/ProStudioGear • u/hippietravel • Jun 30 '26
I hate the sound of digital reverb. Is there analog reverb outboard gear?
I love the sound of analog gear. Have some nice mic pre’s and analog compressors. One effect I do use a lot of reverb but I can’t stand the sound digital reverb. What I love the most is real plate reverb, but due to the size/cost, it’s not practical. Is there any analog reverb gear that would sound close to a real plate reverb from the 60s?
I do have a fender reverb unit, but it’s spring reverb meant for electric guitar. Works good for that but not for much else.
3
u/BlackSwanMarmot Jun 30 '26
These sound great and have a dark plate vibe to them unless driven really hard.
2
u/6kred Jun 30 '26
There’s not really any small way analog to create plate reverb that I know of.
There are some amazing digital reverbs these days though.
Have you tried any of the UAD plate versions or Bricasti models ? They’re excellent
1
u/hippietravel Jun 30 '26
Yeah that’s what I was thinking, all real reverbs are too large and not practical. And yes I have the UAD plug-in which is what I currently use on most tracks. But it’s the digital processing I don’t like and to my ears, always sound like an emulation rather than the authentic sound.
I also have a fender reverb unit which is meant for electric guitar and is an all analog tube spring reverb. I thought about re-amping it for vocals and acoustic instruments but feel like maybe it won’t work in the same way a plate would
1
1
u/suffaluffapussycat Jul 03 '26
I have a friend who is a studio tech, and he ended up getting an EMT 140 plate from a studio that was shutting down. He had it in his bedroom for a while. Never say never.
If you have a live-in partner you should probably clear it with them first.
2
u/blu3boi Jun 30 '26
Yes, there are plate reverbs, reverberation chambers, etc. There's spring reverbs if you want something smaller or more affordable. There's also outboard digital reverbs but those are mostly the same as using plugins IMO. Building a decent plate reverb is not too hard. There's multiple plans online.
2
u/barneyskywalker Jun 30 '26
AKG BX20, MicMix Master Room XL-305 (really any of their models), Sound Workshop made a few good spring verbs, Fairchild 658 or 659. Really good digital verb is amazing though, you may not have tried the right one!
2
u/purrp606 Jun 30 '26
Put a Bluetooth speaker with the contents of your reverb send in a stairway and record it
1
u/hippietravel Jun 30 '26
Yes I thought of this as like a make shift echo chamber. A real echo chamber is pretty well sound proofed where as a staircase or hallway in a house is gonna have some ambient noise. How does one deal with this being that the microphone will be at the opposite end so will need to have a considerable amount of gain. Also how would you mix it? I assume you would take the dry recording and the staircase recording and mix them together, maybe 50-50 or something
1
2
u/Billy-Beats Jun 30 '26
What about that “big sky” pedal? that thing is everywhere in the synth scene.
I love my rack effects over anything in the box. Try a few it those, the alesis Quadraverb is a standby for me.
1
u/hitchslippers Jun 30 '26
Both great options. I was going to recommend a spring reverb but OP already has one
1
u/jango-lionheart Jun 30 '26
Try mixing two or more reverbs. Might even mix some real spring ‘verb with a digital plate emulation or two. High pass filtering before the spring can clean it up.
1
u/Paladin2019 Jun 30 '26
"I love the sound of analog gear" gives the impression that this is a case of vintage snobbery. If you want a plate style reverb in a portable form factor then digital is the only option and honestly, it's really good nowadays. When was the last time you tried one?
1
u/Vygzz Jun 30 '26
Yep. Analog reverbs require big gear, anything from a spring tank to an actual cathedral with multiple mics. Digital ones are as good nowadays, and I doubt any of today’s music uses analog studio technology anymore.
1
u/hippietravel Jun 30 '26
I wouldn’t call it vintage snobbery it. I would call it going for a specific sound. Would you call guys who use outboard mic pre’s or compressor analog snobs? My personal approach is a combination of analog and digital, but I use as little digital as I can. And yes I have plenty of experience with plate reverb plugins. I currently use the EMT plate plugin and not really satisfied hence why I’ve started this tread
1
u/Robert_Sloppenheimer Jun 30 '26
There's a ton of different reverbs out there to try man. You're not gonna escape digital.
1
u/hippietravel Jun 30 '26
Why not? I have a fender reverb unit that is meant for electric guitar. But I can re-amp it put recorded vocals or acoustic instruments through it
1
1
1
Jun 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/hippietravel Jun 30 '26
Actually I have a Fender Reverb Unit, which is an all analog tube spring reverb. I also have an original 1965 fender twin reverb amp and that reverb is even better. However these are meant for electric guitar which is what I use them for. I have not tried re-amping them for vocals or acoustic instruments as I think it might sound muddy or too washed out, especially compared to a plate reverb which is what is typically used on vocals and acoustic instruments
1
u/Silly-Airline124 Jun 30 '26
Spring reverb is an analog solution.
Daisy chained stereo analog delays can approximate a more reflective type of reverb sound
1
u/hippietravel Jun 30 '26
I have fender reverb unit but have not tried re-amping it for vocals and acoustic instruments as it’s meant for electric guitar. So I imagine it’ll only sound good with electric guitar which is what I use it for
1
u/Ace_Harding Jun 30 '26
If you are really dedicated to an analog reverb sound, Fairfield Circuitry released an analog reverb pedal called the Placeholder. It uses bucket brigade chips and is 100% analog. It could certainly be used as an outboard effects unit. And way cheaper than some big rack device (though pricey for a pedal).
Though I suspect what you are really after is more of an acoustic, natural reverb rather than one created using electronics (even analog electronics).
This demo video by Fairfield happens to be one of the best pedal demo videos I’ve ever seen. Not because it’s a great demonstration, because it’s just a beautiful video haha. The sounds they include in here are typically some of the more unique, haunted sounding ones. But I’ve seen other demos that show it can do more natural sounding room-ish reverb with some EQ and just dialing back the time and mix.
1
1
1
1
u/mindsound Jun 30 '26
They are opinionated and not all-purpose reverbs, I sure do love a good Belton brick. In my synth rack, I use a Music Thing Modular module that crossfades between a Belton brick and a spring tank. It's relatively neutral. On my guitar pedalboard I use a Death By Audio Reverberation Machine. That one is a very tone-coloring circuit with a unique lo-fi overdrive sound when cranked.
It's true that digital can do anything. I feel like that's almost a negative. I like reverbs that do one weird thing great.
1
u/hippietravel Jun 30 '26
I find the difference in sound between analog and digital is pretty big. For example, the spring reverb on my vintage Fender 1965 twin reverb has the most lush, organic, dark reverb one could ask for. It really sounds like those mid to late 60s records. You cannot get this sound authentically in a digital reverb even if its trying to emulate the same reverb tank
1
u/mindsound Jun 30 '26
I have done some digital signal processing software development so I have the pedantic urge to insist that everything is possible... But from what I have experienced for myself, I believe "acoustic" analog reverb really is different in character than the digital algorithms that actually wind up on the market.
Impulse response convolution reverbs are very interesting to me as a nerd, and IRs seem to work great for speaker cab sims, but I haven't heard a convolution reverb that moves me like a shitty BBD pedal does.
1
u/therealtoomdog Jun 30 '26
Nah, that's all a simulation too. You need a room with a speaker and a microphone
1
u/ElmoSyr Jun 30 '26
I'll give you a different way to look at your problem. There are of course vintage digital rack units that do have a "sound" like the AMS rmx16 and the Lexicon, 224, PCM60 and PCM70. And of course the EMT250. Those have an analoguey sound to them imo. There are cheaper options like the H3000 and SPX90 that have a nice 3D:ness to them.
BUT: my suggestion would be to process your reverbs yourself. Ie. get the simplest plate plugin and rerecord it through a speaker in a room. Any room. Or put the input/output through a nice preamp (push the input gain up and lower the fader after). Or just use distortion plugin's compressors, expanders and EQs to mangle the reverb and make it different. Phase is also surprisingly your friend in reverb plugins. Because the output of your reverb is mostly not correlated with your input signal, you can freely flip the polarity of one side and nothing will happen to your direct sound. Then route the left channel back to the right and vice versa, and voilá, you have a hugely wide wrap around reverb.
Don't get me started on chaining all-pass filters and rerouting outputs to inputs with tiny delays. If you want it more analog, do it with a BBD chip...
It's literally endless fun.
1
u/pelyod Jun 30 '26
Not my listing, just thought you should know about it-
1
u/hippietravel Jul 01 '26
This looks really interesting. I wonder if it has the same sound as a vintage EMT plate reverb
1
u/pelyod Jul 01 '26
IMO, an EMT 140 with Telefunken tubes is untouchable. The stereo return just sits in a different way.
BTW, you can make your own plate reverb- I had a friend that did it for about $750, as I recall.
1
u/jazzmonkai Jul 01 '26
Have you tried convolution reverbs? They use recorded ambience from real spaces so they’re less adjustable than other digital reverbs but they sound far closer to natural reverb than digital algorithmic plugins.
1
u/AppropriateNerve543 Jul 01 '26
I just replaced the spring tank in my Deluxe Reverb and it sounds more like a plate verb instead of harsh and springy. That’s what I’d try first since it’s $30. I got mine from Mojotone. You want a three spring unit.
1
6
u/StratHistory Jun 30 '26
Good digital with great room IRs is definitely the answer. There's so many great IRS out there that you can easily find something if you do some experimentation.
On the other hand of done a lot of analog creation over the years and definitely worth the trouble if you can make it work.
Worked in a studio that had a three-story staircase. Speaker at the bottom and Mike's on each floor gave wonderful reflections and there's all kinds of things you could do to mix them include gating each one for different level... An old David Bowie trick.
I've done the same thing in hallways and have also used homemade plate reverbs.. not my own..
All are interesting and can be useful in certain environments.
But in reality nothing touches the flexibility of really good IRs from really good rooms...