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Ted Spencer · 21st March 2010

I'm afraid I'm going to have to join the small group here who are not enthralled with the Native Reverb Bundle, or NRB as I'll abbreviate it from here on.

After spending quite a bit of time with the demo in various PT sessions, struggling unsuccessfully to get it to put a really big smile on my face, I sat down yesterday to find out once and for all what I could get out of the thing. I spent about 3 hours working with it and comparing it to my PCM90 (which I like very much, especially on vocals, which is what I use it for mainly) - I have a lightly edited version of the "Vocal Hall 2" preset which is my go-to vocal reverb when long-ish times are desired (it's set to about 2.8 seconds RT). I matched the 90's parameters, or started from scratch, and/or played with every single algorithm and editable parameter over and over again - but no joy. The PCM90's patch, which I didn't spend a great deal of time creating to begin with (years ago), consistently sounded far more satisfying to me than anything I could come up with on the NRB. Specifically, the 90 had a quality of decay (or perhaps it's better called 'sustain') in the midrange I could not achieve on the NRB with any amount of parameter twiddling. Voices 'carry' in the virtual 'room' in a wonderful, warm, pitch-sustaining way that I simply couldn't get out of the plugin. I meticulously, relentlessly tweaked parameter after parameter, over and over, in a vain search for this quality in the NRB.

When the two were compared in a mix context (I used a simple piano/bass/drums/vocal track), the difference was much more evident. The 90 gave the impression of a warm, satisfying reverberant space while the NRB seemed to wimp out in midrange sustain, resulting in a weaker, less musically interesting effect. The 90 made the vocal sound like it was recorded in an almost magical space. The NRB simply didn't.

I also threw in a bunch of other plugs for comparison. I used Ativerb IRs for EMT 140, AMS RMX16 "Ambience" and Lexicon 480L; and ReVibe, mostly set on its default "Large Natural Studio" patch, with various tweaks on its many Lexicon-like parameters. Of all the plugs, the best IMO were the Revibe and Altiverb EMT. Of those, ReVibe came closest to giving me what I get from the PCM90. I should say immediately that I do think the PCM90 has a more interesting decay, with more varied colors and textures (see "magical" above), but as for the 'musically satisfying sustain in the midrange', only the 90 and ReVibe had that quality. The Altiverb EMT was next best, but ReVibe did it better, and of course has edit-abilty far in excess of what any convo-verb can offer. Comparing ReVibe to all the others made me suspect that a PCM90 or something like it was squarely in the sights of its designers. The similarity in regard to the aforementioned midrange quality was unmistakeable, and absent in all others. Again, I don't think ReVibe is as good as a good Lexicon, but it's pretty darn nice. I've been using it and Altiverb (usually on EMT) almost exclusively for ITB (and many OTB) mixes for years now.

Bottom line - I won't be buying the Native Reverb Bundle. It's really very disappointing because had it lived up to my hopes I would have been perfectly willing to pay the price.

YMMV...

21st March 2010	#2641
Ted Spencer Gear Head Joined: Mar 2010 Posts: 50	I'm afraid I'm going to have to join the small group here who are not enthralled with the Native Reverb Bundle, or NRB as I'll abbreviate it from here on. After spending quite a bit of time with the demo in various PT sessions, struggling unsuccessfully to get it to put a really big smile on my face, I sat down yesterday to find out once and for all what I could get out of the thing. I spent about 3 hours working with it and comparing it to my PCM90 (which I like very much, especially on vocals, which is what I use it for mainly) - I have a lightly edited version of the "Vocal Hall 2" preset which is my go-to vocal reverb when long-ish times are desired (it's set to about 2.8 seconds RT). I matched the 90's parameters, or started from scratch, and/or played with every single algorithm and editable parameter over and over again - but no joy. The PCM90's patch, which I didn't spend a great deal of time creating to begin with (years ago), consistently sounded far more satisfying to me than anything I could come up with on the NRB. Specifically, the 90 had a quality of decay (or perhaps it's better called 'sustain') in the midrange I could not achieve on the NRB with any amount of parameter twiddling. Voices 'carry' in the virtual 'room' in a wonderful, warm, pitch-sustaining way that I simply couldn't get out of the plugin. I meticulously, relentlessly tweaked parameter after parameter, over and over, in a vain search for this quality in the NRB. When the two were compared in a mix context (I used a simple piano/bass/drums/vocal track), the difference was much more evident. The 90 gave the impression of a warm, satisfying reverberant space while the NRB seemed to wimp out in midrange sustain, resulting in a weaker, less musically interesting effect. The 90 made the vocal sound like it was recorded in an almost magical space. The NRB simply didn't. I also threw in a bunch of other plugs for comparison. I used Ativerb IRs for EMT 140, AMS RMX16 "Ambience" and Lexicon 480L; and ReVibe, mostly set on its default "Large Natural Studio" patch, with various tweaks on its many Lexicon-like parameters. Of all the plugs, the best IMO were the Revibe and Altiverb EMT. Of those, ReVibe came closest to giving me what I get from the PCM90. I should say immediately that I do think the PCM90 has a more interesting decay, with more varied colors and textures (see "magical" above), but as for the 'musically satisfying sustain in the midrange', only the 90 and ReVibe had that quality. The Altiverb EMT was next best, but ReVibe did it better, and of course has edit-abilty far in excess of what any convo-verb can offer. Comparing ReVibe to all the others made me suspect that a PCM90 or something like it was squarely in the sights of its designers. The similarity in regard to the aforementioned midrange quality was unmistakeable, and absent in all others. Again, I don't think ReVibe is as good as a good Lexicon, but it's pretty darn nice. I've been using it and Altiverb (usually on EMT) almost exclusively for ITB (and many OTB) mixes for years now. Bottom line - I won't be buying the Native Reverb Bundle. It's really very disappointing because had it lived up to my hopes I would have been perfectly willing to pay the price. YMMV...