Hi. Seeing as you can load your own IRs into REVerence, I was wondering what may be the pros/cons of using this vs SIR. The 32-bit-only freeware version looks like it might not compare too favourably but the paid SIR2 has got much more to it. Anyone got anything to say about these two?
Cheers,
C
You cannot compare the 2 when talking about the old 32-bit free version & REVerence - REVerence smokes it.
Thanks, Neil, I was hoping that would be the answer. Ever used SIR2? It would have to be a pretty compelling reason to make me pay for a reverb when Rev seems so good but I’m not that widely experienced with 3rd party stuff so I’m never sure how Cubase’s plugs compare (@mods: on a scale of great to even better, of course!) and need to get outside opinions from time to time.
I have been a proud owner of SIR2 since it’s release - Christian has done a superb job with it, and it is up there with the best of them. It also comes alive a little more if you get the extension impulse pack designed by Ralph Kessler - it’s the same HDIR algorithm that was also used as a third of the much lamented WizooVerb W2 and W5.
The only downside to SIR2 is paradoxically one of it’s strengths - there is no real library supplied with it (with the exception of the add-on pack, which I highly recommend) so you are dependent on having a good library of 3rd party IR.
REVerence suffers from the same problem too, and unless the library gets updated along the lines of AudioEase’ excellent regular - free - library additions (or to a lesser extent the Acoustics.net site for Waves IR-1 owners) then it will never get the recognition it deserves. It also needs some work, but if the bugs get ironed out, REVerence has the potential to be a good IR Reverb Tool.
SIR2 works beautifully, and is extremely stable with regular updates - support is very quick as well. It’s not cheap though.
No, it ain’t, hence the post. But thanks, you have put my mind at rest for now and thanks for the tips on where to go for some IRs.
One thing I’m not quite clear on. You mentioned HDIR algorithm - that was refering to SIR2, not the IRs, right? I was under the impression that an IR was an IR (quality issues aside!) and would work with any host.
HDIR is an alternate type of IR, and is a proprietary type rather like the ones that are for Waves IR-1 and AltiVerb (they cannot be used in any other convolution player) and HDIR only work in either W2/W5 (sadly deleted - thanks for nothing, Avid) or in SIR2 (which ships with a few, but there is an add-on pack for additional HDIR. The beauty of the old W2/W5 plugs was that they could use Algorithmic reverb, AIR (Wizoo’s proprietary form), HDIR (Ralph Kessler’s IR type) and also user IR as WAV files & better still you could mix & match these in ER & Tail as you saw fit. You could use an imported IR file in ER (or tail) and something completely different for the tail. It’s been killed off though, so no use my moaning about it I guess.
IR libraries are a good way to go though, and as already posted there are some crackers available for free in addition to other paid ones. Again, it pains me to have to say one of the better IR library companies has also gone under - Acousticas - who did some great Plates & Lexicons, but we still have Samplicity (Peter Roos’ outfit) who have done some cracking libraries of the TC6000 (and more) as well as the standby Lexicon 960L at €65 each and believe me they are well worth the outlay. There is also a library called “Halls Of Fame” - again it’s our old friends the TC6000 & the Lexicon 960 - very nice, but to my ears the Samplicity ones are nicer. I also have discs here from the Eventide 8000 & 3000 - cannot remember the company but will dig the discs out & see…
There are free IR out there as well. I can think of a couple of different versions of the Bricasti M7 (Samplicity, Signal-2-Noize & Acousticas) as well as whole heaps of files from the sadly missed Noisevault IR site - these were all made by enthusiastic users back when commercial libraries simply did not exist & we had no choice but to make our own by spiking or sweeping hardware units & deconvolving the sweeps back to the IR goodies. Drop me a PM with your email address & I will send you a list of the freebies I collected over the years if interested.
Might have missed something here, but I couldn’t find any way with REVerence to browse through IRs without importing them one by one and making VST presets. Which would have taken a lot of time / mouse clicks… With SIR2 (and SIR) you can audition IRs by scrolling through the files on your hard drive.
Or is there any way now to bulk import IRs into REVerence?
Good question! Maybe that’s one for the FR forum if no one comes up with an answer.