| I just picked up a Kurzweil Rumour for this exact reason. Ultimately, I wasn't happy with software reverbs. I have dozens of them, and some are fairly good, but not quite right.
I found that convolution reverbs with good impulses sounded the best. From there, I found that I prefered the sound of certain hardware machines - invariably expensive.
It seems a bit silly to use convolution of algorithm reverbs, but until the software algorithmns are as good, there's really no option.
The good hardware makers patented their algorithmns, and they have the years of research and development. They don't want to give these away to be hacked, so the best way to protect their investment is to use proprietory chips in a steel box.
Since I liked the sound of the KSP8 impulses I obtained for free, it seem logical that the hardware unit would sound as good, or better. The Rumour is the cheap version of the KSP8, but exactly the same algorithmns and presets. The number of channels, and apparantly the quality of D/A converter and clock is not as good as the KSP8. But that becomes irrelevant when using s/pdif and an external clock.
I can confirm that the sounds are better than the impulses - in fact, i didn't realise how truncated the impulses were until I had the real thing. Also, i had previously noted the sine-sweep artifacts in the impulses - which didn't come from the real thing.
But the good thing about the real thing is that you can tweak the sound to your own taste.
In all fairness, it's not a quantum leap in sound quality. But worthwhile, since I need a spare D/A converter too, and the Rumour is pretty good.
The Sonicflavours R66 software reverb proves to me that it is possible to get highend reverb from a software plugin. They just need to re-develop the GUI to make it accessible to humans. |