Galbanum Aether Reverb

rick-slo · #1 04-15-2010, 06:00 PM

Galbanum just updated their Aether Reverb. It was pretty good before but they really hit it out of the park with this update - it is a lovely sounding reverb.
http://www.galbanum.com/products/aether/

Here is a song of mine I applied the reverb to (12% wet to dry).
It is a wav file so it may be slow loading.

http://dcoombsguitar.com/Guitar%20Music/Other/Aether/SustainPow2Full.wav

ScottAllyn · #2 04-16-2010, 05:25 AM

I'm at work right now and these $10 speakers will have you sounding like a little music box, so I'm gonna wait until I get home this evening. Could you post a dry clip for comparison?

I've been pretty happy with the ArtsAcoustic Reverb (http://www.artsacoustic.com/) and SIR2 but am always looking for new verbs. I really liked that Lexicon Native Reverb demo, but that thing is waaay out of my price league!

Is that 12% in the neighborhood of your typical mix, Rick? I know it's going to vary with the reverb. I usually end up ~ 17 to 20 dB down with the verb level after an hour of second guessing myself, during which time the level is all over the place.

rick-slo · #3 04-16-2010, 08:03 AM

Hi Scott. I run reverb pretty dry and it probably would be pretty hard to appreciate it with your typical computer sound card and speakers. This recording as I mentioned I used used 12% and the late reflections were down another -6.2 dBs. I am thinking I should do another take with higher levels of reverb so you can clearly hear it and how smooth it is. If I get around to doing that I will let you know.
Regarding other reverbs I did go ahead and get the Lexicon Native Reverb and at first approach it is smooth and relatively thicker sounding than the Aether Reverb but not as clean on the initial transients. I just may like the Aether better. However I will have to spend a lot more time crafting my own set of presets to see what I can get each to do for my ears.
In reverbs I also have TC Electronics VSS3 (Powercore version), Waves Renaissance Reverberator, and the convolution reverbs Waves IR-L, SIR and Voxengo Pristine Space. All can be made to sound very good although I think the Lexicon and Aether have the smoothest reverb tails and both use modulation on the tails. However for the amount of reverb I use it is almost splitting hairs sometimes so I hope I am done spending money on reverbs at this point.

Down the road if interested send me a short wav file of a raw recording and one you put reverb on and I will run the raw one through a reverb or two and get it back to you.

ScottAllyn · #4 04-16-2010, 02:47 PM

Hiyas Rick. Man, that sure does sound sweet - buttery smooth! Is there a faint sporadic buzzing/crackling/static-like sound from time to time in the recording? I first hear it after the second note at the beginning of the recording and then at various times throughout the recording. Sometimes it sounds a bit like a rattle but other times it almost sounds digital. That's one advantage to the high noise floor on my previous recordings... they cover up things like that!

That TCE VSS3 is a plugin card, right? Do you think the software verbs are finally catching up with the hardware units in terms of sound quality?

I may just take you up on the offer to add reverb to one of my recordings. I always feel like I'm shooting in the dark with the reverbs - it'll be interesting to hear what someone else might do with one of my recordings. Maybe next month when I'm stuck on the couch for XX weeks recovering from ankle surgery.

rick-slo · #5 04-16-2010, 04:13 PM

Scott, most if not all of that is some fret/string noise. It comes from the guitar itself in any case. It is not just a recording artifact.
Native has or will catch up to outboard DSP hardware. A good example is the Lexicon Native Reverb. It is all just software programs so it does not matter where the software is located. It is just a matter of getting the best software put into plugins.