Looking at Reverbs, and what not
So I’m looking at reverb plug-in that I haven’t spoken of before in these virtual pages, and haven’t known about before for that matter…What I’m looking at is the Wizoo Wizooverb W5 5.1. This is a combination of Convolution Reverb with Algorithmic Reverb… The W5 is selling for, what looking like an amazing price… $250 at Musiciansfriend.com.It’s been hard as hell finding reviews of the W5, but I have found this review of the W2 ( little brother to the W5 ) on Sound On Sounds website. As near as I can tell.. the main differences between the W2, as seen in the SOS review, and the W5 are as follows:
- The W5 is a 5.1 Surround sound reverb, where as the W2 is stereo
- The W2 came with only 15 Impulse responses as of the review, where as the W5 has 25. Impulse responses are the actual sampling of acoustic spaces, I’ll talk about this a lil more latter.
Ok.. so lets get into this all a little bit..
For starts, the difference between convolution and algorithmic reverbs
Convolution reverb use “impulse responses” to “sample” acoustic spaces. Convolution reverbs provide the most realistic reverb sounds you can get.. there draw backs are limited abilities to actually edit the sounds.. so you don’t really have a tun of flexibility… or whatever flexibility you have probably comes down to your ability to choose from toue impulse response library. Algorithmic reverbs, on the other hand, are.. well.. algorithmic.. and very flexible.. though not always very realistic.. Still, for various reasons.. you often don’t want super realism.. or there are advantages to algorithmic reverbs.. mind you you can use convolution technology to sample algorithmic reverbs.. so this stuff can get interesting but… So the promise of the w5 is very nice indeed… and the SOS review seems to suggest that it really is all that.. so it’s certainly something to look at… Off in draft form is an entry on audioease software, including altiverb.. which is something I’m also looking at. Altiverb is the best of breed for convolution reverb.. has a mega huge library that the w5 can’t even think about competing on.. and blah blah blah.. still, one could get a W5.. for $250.. and to get the version of the altiverb that supports surround sound.. you’re looking at around $1000. The notion of getting a great sounding reverb.. that supports surround sound.. for $250.. is an amazing thing.
This brings me to a couple of question marks..
I was looking at the all in bundle from Audioease.. that runs at a little over a grand.. includes speaker phone, altiverb, and a few other plugs that would help round out my studio.. I could.. instead of getting altiverb.. just get speakerphone and the W5.. Speaker Phone, after all, does come with some convolution reverb of its own.. and between that, what comes with DP, and W5, that might very well cover my basic bases.. with $250 to spare.. Though as I think about this now, this isn’t as good a deal, i don’t think…. as the extra plugs that are a part of the all in bundle.. are worth more then $250, and you are getting.. in the all in bundle.. the best of breed reverb.. I guess where the w5 looks interesting to me.. is as something that would compliment my current studio.. It’s probably not necessary, but its interesting to look at and think about.
A few latter:
The big question is one of the quality of the integration of the algorithmic and the convolution… how well its able to draw from the strengths of both technologies while minimize there respective weaknesses. Does it really cover a whole other set of bases then the other convolution reverbs? I’ll talk about more related issues latter, for now.. lets just post this sucker!