Best vocal reverbs

This guide will tell you what I think is the best vocal reverb and also the ones that you give the best value for money.

Reverb is such an important effect you’ll be hard-pushed to find any recording without at least some.

This is even more the case when it comes to vocals. Like it or not, the vocal is the thing that people notice first and you need to get the best reverb effect for that vocal sound.

As important as reverb on vocals is it’s also important to get the reverb “right”. What works for one recording won’t necessarily work for another.

The reverbs featured in this article are my personal favourites, each one has at least one thing I like about it. The good news is that if you are looking to make a choice, there’s not a bad vocal reverb listed here.

If you get any of these, you’ll be getting a very good reverberation tool for your recordings. Obviously, some of them will be more suited to some than others. I’ll list some of my favourite features here to help you make that choice for yourself.

Remember everyone’s different and no two people have the same needs. What you might find important may be practically useless to someone else. Bearing this in mind, let’s go through the ones I use.

Audio Ease Altiverb 7

First I’m going to list what I think is the best reverberation plug-in on the market. That’s the Audio Ease Altiverb 7.

It looks quite different to any of the other reverbs I’ve covered in this article.

Altiverb is a convolution reverb device that samples real spaces. If you are using Ableton 11 you already have a convolution reverb hidden in there. if you want to experiment with this type of reverb.

There are plenty of real spaces from around the world that have been sampled and plenty more are being added all the time. These space samples are called impulse responses. They literally cover just about any space you could think of.

From the obvious concert halls and cathedrals, to cockpits of aircraft and famous recording studios. As you click through you are presented with a picture of the environment. They have also simulated plenty of classic gear from the past. It sounds fabulous. Quite simply on its own, you play sounds into it and just listen. It does sound “real” that’s the best way I can describe it.

It’s very difficult to use words to try to describe sounds. That’s why sounds exist, as they are so much better than words. You really have to listen to it on good equipment. It’s difficult to imagine anything you would need in the world of reverberation that hasn’t been covered by the Altiverb. It can’t be all good I hear you exclaim.

There must be some bad things about it. Well, lots of people have said it’s very processor intensive but I’ve not found that to be the case. There are certainly some other reverb plug-ins that I mention later, that use as much processing power but I’ve not seen this criticism levelled at them. In typical use, I find, with a drum loop on Ableton Live, it reads about 6-8%.

How much does it cost!

The other thing that gets mentioned is the price. At around £500 you wouldn’t describe it as budget. The thing is though, I come from a time when reverb units were all hardware. You couldn’t get a digital reverberation device for under £200.

The budget ones just didn’t compare to anything on this list and a good one could only be afforded by recording studios and cost thousands. When you compare the cost of the Altiverb today, and what it can do, it seems like a bargain.

You wouldn’t really need much else and as a vocal reverb, it does sound good. Check out the video.

Baby Audio Crystalline reverb

The first thing you’ll notice about this plug-in is its appearance.

To me, it looks like a “real” unit, in the same way, the Native Instruments Massive X does. It’s as if someone’s taken a photograph of the hardware, which of course doesn’t exist! Because of this, I think the controls are push buttons and sliders. Well, the sliders actually are but the things that look like buttons aren’t.

Size, for instance, is a multiple-choice selector however, next to it, sparkle is fully variable. You have to click on the controls to see which each is but you soon get used to them. Also, some of the graphics change as you alter the settings. One of these is modulation. This has a straight line when it’s at zero or no modulation but as you increase the setting, the waveform becomes more prominent.

It’s all quite nice, intuitive and a bit different from the normal.

If you want to go a bit further than the normal reverb sounds, this unit makes it easy with some features that are quite unusual but different and interesting.

The panel has four sections, reflections, depth, clean-up and shape. There are some unfamiliar named controls in these sections. Sparkle, shimmer and transients for instance. They all make some subtle and interesting changes to the sound.

Tempo based reverb and pre-delay

Something slightly different is the slider’s start and end. These are hidden under the preset screen when it’s open. These are basically pre-delay and decay, but they can be switched from time increments to musical notes that synchronise with the tempo. This can make some excellent musical tempo-based reverb and echo-type effects.

I mentioned the preset screen which opens in the middle of the unit. The presets are excellent, many and varied. One thing to mention is that all the settings are stored in a preset and that includes the wet/dry setting.

So if you have it set and then switch to hear what another preset sounds like the wet/dry setting alters to what was stored with that preset. This can be a bit annoying but don’t worry as there is a button under the wet/dry slider that “sticks” this control so selecting a different preset won’t override it.

Processing power usage notes

The Baby Audio Crystallin is quite heavy when it comes to processor usage and if you’re pushing your system, you can lower the resolution control, which will use less processing power. If you are looking particularly for a very low processing but good-sounding reverb, then check out the Red-line Reverb II that I try out later.

If processing power is important to you check out the end of this article where I’ve listed all of the plugins and their CPU usage.

A special mention to ducking and reverse

For me, the two best features on this plug-in are the ducker control and the “Rev” button. The “Rev” button creates a reverse-type effect and the ducker reduces the reverb effect when a signal is present.

This is particularly useful on vocals as it stops them from getting swamped and losing definition. There is also a button under the ducker slider to switch between normal and gentle settings. Read here if you need more information on ducking reverb.

This is definitely the reverb unit I go to for a uncluttered reverb sound and that’s what makes it so good for vocals. If I could only use one word to describe the sound, it would be modern. If you shop around you can get the Baby Audio Crystalline reverb for $49. Have a look at it in action on the video.

Native Instruments Raum

I mention the appearance of the Baby Audio Crystalline looking like a hardware device and the Native Instrument Raum follows the same theme.

I do like this appearance, it’s probably phycological but still, it looks good and that matters when you’re working with something.

You may also notice (you should notice) that it changes colour depending on the mode you have it in. The first mode is “Airy”. This is for the normal or usual reverb sounds that you might recreate.

It is best to start with this one to get used to the sounds. This one is more of a hall reverb starting point. If you want something a bit different you can try out the “grounded” mode in which the unit changes from blue to orange and goes from hall to room. The third mode is “cosmic” in which the unit becomes purple and some of the control knobs change.

It’s fair to say this is the most creative mode that the Raum becomes. You can hear a few examples going through the presets on the video.

I think anyone who’s ever used a reverb device before would be able to start using this without reverting to the manual. Everything is as clearly laid out and about as simple as it could possibly be. When it comes to controls, all the usual suspects are here along with a few others.

Don’t be afraid to freeze

You may notice the front panel has a snowflake symbol on it. This is not for air conditioning, it’s a freeze control.

It freezes the reverb sound and makes it a continuous tail instead of one that dies away. This can provide a surprising but creative pause in a track.

There are also feedback and modulation controls. These enable a few “ off the wall” type effects and can be very useful used sporadically in a track. The Native Instrument Raum costs $49 so it’s not going to break the bank.

Redline Reverb II

The appearance of the Redline Reverb II reminds me of my dad’s old Hi-fi. I think it’s the brushed aluminium knob effect.

I think it’s safe to say the Redline wouldn’t be my first choice in looks. Don’t judge a book by the cover ad all that though because behind that exterior (some would call it classic) there is a very good reverb unit, sound-wise and operation-wise.

You may also notice that there not skimping when it comes to the amount of control you get either. I counted 23 different front panel controls! One of the controls is “Stereo”. This is quite a rare control to have on reverb units. It alters the stereo width. Give it a listen and then turn this up. It widens the vocal signal and gives it a different presence or perspective.

You may notice that the presets are grouped. These groups’ names might seem familiar to you. In fact, they seem to be named after the model numbers of Lexicon hardware units.

One thing I noticed with this unit, is that in use the CPU percentage indicator in Ableton barely went up while in use. This has one of the lowest CPU usage of all of the devices here. This can make a difference even if you seem to have plenty of CPU power as once you start stacking up a few effects it does start to creep up.

Lexicon PCM Native Reverb

While I mentioned Lexicon in the last paragraph no vocal reverb list would be complete without a lexicon reverb.

Lexicon made its name with its groundbreaking hardware units. All the top studios used them and I wonder how many records used a Lexicon reverb unit! While most of the others load a plug-in that has different types of reverbs, the Lexicon differs in that the different types of reverb, room, plate, and hall, are all different plug-ins to start with.

The look and controls are all similar whichever one you load, but they obviously sound different. Talking of the look, they have quite a vintage appeal to them, which isn’t a bad thing. I like the sliders. I think they work better with plug-ins as they work better with a mouse than a rotary control and it seems more natural to slide than rotate. T

his is a very good reverb plug-in and you won’t be disappointed with it in use.

I don’t use it as much as I used to because of the Native Instruments Raum and the Baby audio Crystalline. It is however still a very useful plug-in to have.

iZotope Neoverb

Finally, we get to the iZotope Neoverb.

You may have heard of the iZotope name before. They are no strangers to plug-ins and produce them for mixing mastering and sound restoration. I must mention their sound restoration plug-in. It’s not often I get excited by something like this but their “RX” plug-ins are remarkable and I didn’t think their claims were possible but they can remove almost any sound from a track. From clicks and hums to complete vocals. You have to see it (or hear it) to believe it.

Anyway back to reverb the Neoverb, it’s no surprise given their reputation that the Neoverb sounds so good. As well as the usual settings and features, it has something called “Reverb Assistant”. You play the vocal track into it, it listens analyses it and creates an effect and setting unique for that track.

You can then alter a “Style” slider, from “Realistic” to “Dramatic”. The size can be altered from “XS” to “XL” and the tone can be altered to one of the four choices of “Clean, Dark, Bright or Airy”. In use, the Neoverb does use quite a bit of processing power. I noticed the CPU percentage peaking at around 23% playing a vocal track. With the Redline Reverb II, this was around 4%, so there’s quite a difference.

Best Vocal reverb plug-in CPU usage

I used the same audio track and noted the CPU usage for all of the plug-ins.

Plug-in	Percentage of CPU use
Altiverb 7	6-8%
Baby Audio Crystalline	16-17%
Native Instruments Raum	6-9%
Redline Reverb II	4-5%
Lexicon	4-5%
iZotope Neoverb	20-23%

As you can see others quite a difference. At the bottom end of the usage spectrum are the Redline Reverb II and the Lexicon. Surprisingly the heaviest CPU usage was the iZotope Neoverb. Also, I was surprised by how low the CPU usage was for the Altiverb 7 as in reviews this usually gets flagged as being CPU intensive. Maybe these just rewrite stuff rather than test!

Final Thoughts: The best vocal reverb

Out of all of the plug-ins here the best vocal reverb in my opinion is the Altiverb 7.

That may come as no surprise as it’s also the most expensive and lots of other people have come to the same conclusion.

When it comes to vocals the reverb makes a lot more difference than say a synthesizer sound. Like it or not the vocal sound is the thing that gets the most attention first so everything about it needs a lot of attention.

I also use the Native Instrument Raum and the Crystalline Baby Audio reverb a lot on vocals. You won’t be disappointed with either of them. They both provide a very modern reverb sound for vocals and provide a lot of bang for your buck. They are both available at under £50. Not a lot for the quality of vocal reverb you get.

I’ll also point out that to get the full effect of the sound of these you really need to have them installed on your own system and have a decent monitoring system.

You can’t really do the quality of them just on a video as you can’t capture the required recording quality with a video. I have however tried to show you what they look like, their operation and what some of the sounds they can produce are like. I’ve also given my opinion so I hope that help in your choice of vocal reverb that is right for you.

Don’t forget the other vocal processing

As I mentioned in the introduction, the vocal is the part that most people listen to first, and the most intently. You have to get this right if you want to be taken seriously.

Not only do you need to not only get the vocal reverb effect correct but also the other processing has to be spot on. You can read here for more information about using other effects on vocals.

Also, make sure the vocal recording is right in the first place.

Don’t worry if you can’t afford the latest all singing all dancing reverb that you’ve set your heart on.

The fact is that some of the stuff that’s included in DAWs and the free reverb plug-ins that you can get are very good. The standard of music software these days is quite phenomenal.

Some of the plug-ins that you can get for free nowadays would rival what would have been considered top-of-the-range just a few years ago. Just think about that for a moment. You’ve probably got access to sound generation and processing that is better than what some classic albums of yesteryear were recorded with!