When it comes to reverbs we’re spoilt for choice these days. Whether you need an emulation of a classic studio reverb, something which accurately simulates rooms or a convolution reverb with impulse responses of real spaces, there’s a reverb plug-in available to suit your needs. There are hundreds to choose from, but which are best suited to audio post? Well, in order to answer that question let’s first set a couple of criteria. The plug-in must be a current product which has been updated in the last year. Also, it needs to support Dolby Atmos by providing an output channel count of at least 7.1.2. Here are 5 of our favourites.
Exponential Audio Stratus 3D
Back in October 2022 iZotope announced that they were streamlining their line of Exponential Audio reverbs down to just two: Symphony, a character reverb, and Stratus, a reverb built on a more natural sounding core engine. Both plug-ins have a 3D option available, supporting up to 24 channels. For post, Stratus 3D is a particularly good choice and it includes 1700 presets along with detailed gain and filter parameters, channel specific delay and level controls and warp controls with compression and overdrive which can be used to tailor the envelope of the reverb around the source material.
Liquidsonics Cinematic Rooms Professional
Liquidsonics provide a number of surround reverbs. There are 5 to choose from and all of them support multi-channel setups up to 7.1.6. All of them are excellent and each one provides something unique which is why we’ve included 3 of them in this list. Let’s start with Cinematic Rooms Professional. Liquidsonics describe it as a reverb dedicated to the intense acoustic demands of surround room simulation. There are several features which make Cinematic Rooms a good choice for post but two key ones are surround editing planes and advanced cross feed control. Surround editing planes allows different settings to be applied to the front, rear, side, centre or elevated planes, providing full control over the reverb. The cross feed controls allow you to glue the reverb to the source of the action by attenuating or suppressing the reverb in other channels as sounds are panned.
Nugen Audio Paragon
Paragon is a convolution reverb which offers in-depth tweakability and control. Unlike most convolution reverbs which use large libraries of impulse responses, Nugen Audio Paragon needs just 30 because of the extent to which the reverbs can be tailored. It uses re-synthesis to provide full control of the decay, room size and brightness of reverbs modelled on 3D recordings of real spaces without time stretching, thereby causing no artefacts. It’s Dolby Atmos compatible and offers individually configurable crosstalk and high and low pass filters per channel. A spectral analysis view of the frequency content is provided. Paragon operates in up to 7.1.2 channels and combines the benefits of convolution and algorithmic reverbs.
Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven Professional
Seventh Heaven Professional is Liquidsonics’ recreation of the legendary Bricasti M7 hardware reverb. It includes every single preset available in the M7, including all v1 and v2 firmware revision presets and the special non linear reverbs. Several additional interior presets not found in the hardware are also included. An innovative capture process was used to produce the thousands of impulse responses needed for Seventh Heaven Professional. The early reflections, low frequency reverb and late reverb were captured individually, for the ultimate in control and acoustic realism. Whilst it’s technically a convolution reverb, the versatility of Seventh Heaven Professional means that, in terms of the control on offer, it operates more like an algorithmic reverb. This is a similar philosophy to the approach taken by Nugen Audio with Paragon. Seventh Heaven does everything the Bricasti M7 can do but with the convenience of a plug-in. With presets including tight, realistic interiors, chambers and studios along with lush outdoor expanses, cathedrals and halls, it’s well suited to a range of post production scenarios.
Reverb Foundry HD Cart
Released under Liquidsonics’ sub brand, Reverb Foundry, HD Cart is an emulation of the Lexicon 480L hardware reverb from the 1980s. In particular, an expansion cartridge known as the ‘HD’ cartridge. This added support for surround reverb modes and contained the only algorithm to ever fully take advantage of the units considerable dual-board processing capabilities. The hardware is extremely rare these days so for most of us the HD Cart plug-in is as close as we will ever get to the rich, dense reverb of the original and that’s no bad thing because it sounds great! While the Lexicon hardware supported stereo, quadrophonic or high density stereo modes, HD cart expands this to 7.1 and 7.1.6 for Dolby Atmos compatible period-authentic reverb. HD Cart is an algorithmic reverb rather than convolution and it includes several features which help bring the classic sound into the modern era. These features include dynamics, a gate, EQ, hundreds of additional presets, chorus modulation and pre-delay DAW tempo sync. If you want a Dolby Atmos capable reverb which is equally at home in music projects as it is with post, HD Cart is a great choice.
Final thoughts
If you work in audio post and need a surround capable reverb plug-in with Dolby Atmos support, all of the plug-ins on this list are worthy of consideration. We’ve selected them with the requirements of post production in mind but it’s also worth mentioning that Liquidsonics actually offer another two 7.1.6 capable reverbs which are more music focussed. Lustrous Plates is a rich and luxurious contemporary plate reverb with ten distinctive models and Reverb Foundry Tai Chi offers character reverb specialising in chorused reverbs suited to synth, guitar, electric piano and vocals.
What are your favourite Atmos capable reverbs for post? Let us know in the comments.