Advice on Reverb and Reverb Units

[Marko]

I\'d like some advice on how I can get a good reverb effect. I am not happy with the Gigastudio NFX. Perhaps I have not experimented with the settings enough. I think I\'m biased because I\'ve owned a Kurzweil 2500 sampler for several years and I have grown very fond of some of its reverb effects (i.e. the K2500\'s KDFX internal effects unit. For those who have the KDFX, I think the reverb in the Studio 85 setting is excellent.)

I have been using Gigastudio for about 7 or 8 months. Occasionally, I compare recordings I\'ve made on my k2500 to recordings I\'ve made on Gigastudio. The Kurzweil has very clean reverb and I cannot get the Gigastudio reverb to approach this quality. My Gigastudio recordings seem duller.

I switched from a k2500 to Gigastudio primarily for the polyphony and for the new sound libraries that are being produced (e.g. Garritan Strings, Dan Dean series, etc.) and I enjoy these benefits, but I would like some suggestions on reverb units, reverb plug ins (if any work with Gigastudio) or any other suggestions. Perhaps there are some settings and adjustments with which I can tweak the NFX.

Would I fare better with a dedicated Reverb unit like a TC M2000? (I don\'t think I could afford a Lexicon PCM81 or 91.) Does anyone work with any of these units? What are the benefits of a stand alone reverb unit?

I am primarily interested in reverb. I don\'t use many other effects at all. I work primarily with samples of acoustic instruments.

I have a Pentium 4, 1.4, 1 gig of ram, 2 hard drives (40 + 80 gig at 7200 rpm), Echo Gina24, Windows 2000 and I sequence with Cakewalk Home Studio (an old version).

I\'d appreciate any informed opinions.

Thanks.

Marko

[pantonality]

Hi Marko,

Reverb is the holy grail of virtual orchestral production. I\'ve never even tried the NFX reverb, but I\'ve heard nothing good about it. I have a separate sequencing computer that runs Logic. I\'ve tried using S
Cakewalk\'s Soundstage (aka NFX3) to put each instrument in a place on an orchestral stage, then use Sonic Timeworks 4080L plug-in on the master buss the get a richer reverb. But that all pales in comparison with my old Roland SRV330.

Here\'s what tempts me now, Lexicon\'s M200 has digital i/o so it can be used as external D/A converter. It has good reverb patches (heck it\'s a Lexicon) and most places sell it for $300. An external reverb still kicks butt over most plug-ins. If you\'re on a Mac you might consider Altiverb, but it\'s a resource hog from what I\'ve heard.

Good luck,

Steve Chandler
http://www.mp3.com/stevechandler (\"http://www.mp3.com/stevechandler\")
aka Ettienne
http://www.mp3.com/ettienne (\"http://www.mp3.com/ettienne\")

[Marko]

Steve,

Thanks for your comments. I\'ll take a look at the Lexicon MPX 200 and the MPX550.

Marko

[timby]

As a K2500/KDFX owner myself, I agree that the reverbs in the Kurzweil are top notch. I\'ve found them to be some of the best sounding effects I have...

So why not just use the sampling option on your K2500 so that you can route Giga sounds through the KDFX? I plan to do that myself, but I haven\'t had enough down time to get the sampling board installed...

Anyway, just a suggestion. cheers.

[Marko]

Timby,

Thanks for the advice. I thought about this, but I don\'t have the sampling option installed on my K2500. Even if I did, wouldn\'t the input be limited to 16 bit? I don\'t think I would want to start from this low ceiling. If and when cd-rom samples are offered in 20 bit, the limitations of relying on the 16 bit K2500 sampling option (as an effects processor) may prove to be undesirably retrograde.

What do you think?

Marko