I recently compared a lot of the free reverbs in VCV Rack in the same patch. I’m curious what modules people here prefer and why.
My favorite is Airwindows Airwindows Suite for Rack
Depending on the patch I have various reverbs to choose from
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Yep
I recently made a video where I tested and compared a large number of free reverb modules in VCV Rack using the same patch, just to hear how different they actually sound.
Several people in the comments already started suggesting additional reverbs that I didn’t include, like some of the Airwindows ones (Galactic, kStation, kWoodRoom), so I thought it would be interesting to continue the discussion here as well.
here’s the video - although it’s mostly just me listening through them, and you probably already know your favorite ones
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I like the video, took me a few sessions to see it all, I was surprised how much I like the 2 Surge XT reverbs ( not spring) I had written them off, but they are nice. I reach for Galaxy first.
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Yeah the Surge XT reverbs are genuinely underrated! Reverb 2 especially — it’s got that diffusion and buildup control which lets you smear notes into each other in a way that feels more organic than most digital reverbs. And the modulation parameter adds just enough pitch movement to make it lush without sounding wobbly.
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I mean, Galaxy is Galaxy - a great port of the beloved Airwindows Galactic, it’s on 30k patches for a reason. But for a tight sequence Surge XT just fits better.
These days I mostly use SurgeXT:Reverb2 or Galaxy. But it depends on the voice, some reverbs and settings are better for ambient washes and some are better for impulses. And from your video I had forgotten how good the Blamsoft reverb actually sounds. Might get back to that one and use it some more. Plateau is also great of course but it has a tendency to get out of control and does have a distinct sound you can tire of.
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Same here actually. I recently started using Blamsoft Reverb more again and was surprised how lush it sounds
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Blamsoft is such a great collection, such a shame it’s not being developed any more. The filter is totally unique and the wavetable VCO is still one of the best too. I haven’t used the reverb for years though, might try it again.
Anyway, my favourite reverb in VCV is still Supermassive, you just have to buy Host-FX! We’ve had this debate before, and I know it doesn’t answer the question, so no point going through it again. It’s just that IMO there’s no combination of modules that comes close.
If we’re talking native modules, it’s still Plateau for guitar but for a bigger ambience, it’s DIY shimmer, which is a combination of Plateau with Clouds providing pitch shifting in a feedback loop.
The reverb on Grainer is great too, and if you have Pro the VCV one is also pretty good.
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I keep Supermassive for DAW post-production, but even then I rarely use it and it never really became part of my VCV workflow.
And yeah, Blamsoft modules are something else! I didn’t realize they’d stopped development; I thought they had just come back to VCV Rack around 2022 or so. Sad to hear that’s not the case.
As VCV Rack module: Valley Plateau, Blamsoft XFX Reverb.
VCV Rack Pro as VST3 plugin from DAW (or via VCV HOST-FX module): Variety Of Sounds epicPLATE mkII, ValhallaDSP Supermassive, Denis Tihanov’s OrilRiver, Fuse Audio VREV-666, TAL Reverb 4. Also I like Protoverb by u-he.
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This is not really a reverb I suppose, but I love using it as a reverb send effect, nothing sounds like it:
And this one for the pitch shift:
And if you want to get experimental:
Otherwise its Airwindows all the way!
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MVerb is one I have taken more seriously now too. I don’t want it for normal things, but getting it to hold notes forever is just glorious. After a melodic voice, you get chords, super fun.
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