Which reverb type...hall, plate, spring or room?

T. C. Furlong · From: Lake County, Illinois, USA

For those of us who use a digital reverb, I am wondering which is the most beloved reverb type for steel. In digital effects boxes where you can choose between hall, plate, spring or room, (or another) which do you end up liking the best? Also feel free to include favorite parameter settings such as decay time, pre-delay, hi cut, size, etc. Many thanks.
TC

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

I'll bet you'll find a lot of people use plate reverb due to it's smoothness and high density and I've heard a lot of people talk about spring reverb but I'll tell you when digital reverb came out I never wanted to hear amp spring reverb again to me it sounds grainy muddy and very lose sounding at least in most spring reverb units I had in my amps did.

So when I started seeing emulations of spring reverbs on digital effects I got a little chuckle and moved right on to the plate or hall setting.

Now to answer your question there is no way to give a general response so I'll just tell you a couple of different effect units I use and the reverbs I use in them because a hall reverb in one unit might sound like a spring reverb in another.

When I use my transfex pro I like the plate and hall reverb with the HF damping completely off so it's good and bright I like a 2 to 3 ms decay with 10 to 20 ms predelay. Sometimes I like to run my reverb in series with chorus in front of it to get a chorused sounding reverb. I like to add a little delay and like I said some chorus once in a while.

When I use my quadraverb I like the halls and plates with some low freq rolled up a little and high freqs bumped a little as well. I like the pre delay set around 10 ms and the length around 50 which equals about 2 seconds on the quadraverb. I also like the reverb algorythm only when you start adding other effects the quality of the reverb goes down very quickly. Although they do have several effect chains/algorythms the reverb suffers when you use them.

When I use my Genesis 3 I like the room reverb with about 10ms of predelay and 1.5 to 2 secdonds of reverb. The reverb on the Genesis is pretty good quality but the best reverb or all 3 is the quadraverb even though it's antiquated.

So as you can see I generally like a pretty average length for my reverbs and I like them to shimmer and be very transparent and silky.

Bob

James Morehead · From: Prague, Oklahoma, USA - R.I.P.

Well now, you got me to get up and look at my RV5, and it's on hall. I use just a little, so I can just hear it. I also use a DD6 with just a touch of delay. I play through a Twin and K-130s, but the amp reverb is off. In fact I don't even have a reverb tank in it right now. Spring reverb is a little too ringy to my ears. Got spring reverb on my RV5, but it's too ringy, too.
I got to a gig a few weeks ago to find out my effects got left at the house. I ran dry as a bone, and sounded great anyways. You can do that when you play in a gymnasium!! HA!

David Higginbotham · From: Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA

I prefer the plate reverb settings, pre-delay 30 ms, 2.7 on time, and thru on the filters. I currently use the Roland GP-100 & Peavey Bassfex units.
Dave

[This message was edited by David Higginbotham on 10 December 2005 at 09:08 PM.]

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

I like the spring reverb on the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail, set at about half-way. It sounds like the old steel recordings from the 50's and 60's....and you don't have to worry about a sonic explosion if someone bumps into your amp.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I'm using "spring" in my POD XT. For steel that seems to be the best option for a general use reverb. For lead guitar it could be different.

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I've actually gotten all psychotic with my Lexicon MPX 110, storing preset after preset of each different type of reverb, each adjusted to what sounded best for me. Then, when I compared them back, they all sounded just about the same. I think the decay and delay and blend have more to do with it than the actually choice of imitated sound generator. I now have it set up with two plate and two hall presets, but that's just arbitrary for the sake of simplicity.

Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

Hall.
I have another setting called 'Budokan.' I'm not sure about the history of that sound.
The only good spring reverb is a real spring reverb, the kind you can bump your guitar against.

John Daugherty · From: Rolla, Missouri, USA

I prefer a "delay" which I can adjust to my liking. The "hall", "plate",etc, are just "delays" that are preset. They use 3 parameters: delay time,delay intensity and number of repeats(feedback).

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www.phelpscountychoppers.com/steelguitar

Barry Blackwood · Posted 11 Dec 2005 7:08 am

Plate.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

True a reverb is a type of "delay", but generally the reverbs are in the 30 ms (millisecond) range and the "delays" are in the 250 to 350+ ms range. Quite a difference.

The old two spring reverb that Fender used for years (and may still be using) had a delay of 29 ms on one spring and 31 ms on the other spring.

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Plate in general, but if I want the mix to be bigger in general sound field a small hall works.

I like a fairly thin bottom, and some roll off of the highs, but not so much the mids clash with content.

I have around 5-6 totally different reverb patches
set up in the Transfex amp.

Bob Martin · From: Madison Tn

I was doing a little research on reverb and I found the origon of the reverb at least according to bell labs and Mr. Hammond (of B-3 hammond) Below is an excerpt of the article and if you want to read the whole article here's the link http://www.accutronicsreverb.com/history.htm
-------------------------------------

When Laurens Hammond introduced the first Hammond Organ in 1935, most people were only familiar with the traditional pipe organs the had heard at churches and theaters. So, when they purchased a Hammond for their homes, they expected the same room filling sound they had come to know and love. Of course, in their thickly carpeted living rooms with low ceilings and drapery covered windows, they didn’t get it.
---------------------------------------

If you have the time it's a very interesting article on reverb.

Bob

jim milewski · From: stowe, vermont

ya, great article indeed! And I have one of those reverbs with the "beautiful women" sticker, now I know the rest of the story

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I have a Lexicon unit in my rack setup but I don't use it for reverb. I use a Tube Works spring unit for reverb and it sounds great. It is a two channel unit and if you REALLY want reverb you can combine the two channels.
Erv

John Macy · From: Rockport TX/Denver CO

TC--I grew up on real plates, so I tend to go there first for steel, though not always. Usually around 1.4, with a touch of predelay around 30ms. On my live rig, I wnet back to stomp boxes and use a RV5 at the end of the chain with the plate setting, though most of the "space" comes from delays more than verb...

Somehow I 'spect you have a pretty good setting on what you use

...

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Yea, what John just said. I always go for the plates first on steel. They have the mellowest top end and have the right kind of smooth diffusion and decay that I like on steel. Sometimes I end up with a "hall" 'verb, but I try to make the plates work first.

Dark delay repeats too so you don't hear much of the pick attack in the repeats, but you do get the notes echoing to give the size and dimension you're after. Typically I try to make the third echo either barely detectable or not at all detectable.

Brad

Steve Waltz · From: USA

"I have another setting called 'Budokan.' I'm not sure about the history of that sound."

I would take a guess that it is a setting trying to sound like that Cheap trick concert record, "live at Budokan." It's got that clasic I want to you to want me thing and more. I got mine for 25 cents.

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

"Budokan" is a famous concert hall in Japan, where a lot of acts have recorded live albums. You might have the "Ozzy Osbourne", the "Bob Dylan", maybe even the "KISS" reverb on your machine. That would be a treat.

Roger Francis · From: kokomo,Indiana, USA

I've been using a line 6 verbzila for about a month that has 11 diff reverbs, and the one i keep going back to the most is the 63 fender off board spring tank. It has a nice warm, lush sound. So far the plate is my second choice.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

IMHO, it all depends on where you're playing, what kind of tone and amp you're using, and on the guitar. Just like there is no "best" guitar or amp, there is no "best" reverb or reverb setting. What works in one instance sounds lousy in another, and what sounds great on stage often sounds lousy out front.

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Gotta agree with Donny. There's no setting for amps, guitars or anything that always works best everywhere, at least not in my experience. I might start with the settings that sound best to me in a dry room, studio, or outside situation, and then depending on the room, band, everything else, they get tweaked or changed from there. Same with reverb and echo settings.

Even then, I'm wondering what it really matters, when you spend all this time on eq settings, reverb settings, etc. and the sound guy on the mixer out front has got God-only-knows-what kind of eq and reverb on you anyway...

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 13 December 2005 at 02:12 PM.]

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