Reverb is one of the most widely used effects music producers and audio engineers use during the mixing process. It's a versatile effect that adds space, dimension, and depth to any sound, which is especially useful in the age of ultra-clean digital recordings.
Because it's such a popular effect, there are a myriad of options to choose from - both free and paid. In this guide, I will go over the 5 best reverb plugins to help give you more clarity into which ones are best for you and your mixing needs.
What Are the Best Reverb Plugins?
While there are many great plugins out there that could have potentially made this list, I've narrowed down the top reverb plugins to these 5:
Valhalla Reverb Series - Free to $50
Rev Intensity (Arturia) - $99
Little Plate (Soundtoys) - $99
Spaced Out (Baby Audio) - $69
Your Stock DAW Reverb - Free
All of these plugins offer their own unique take on reverb and add an unmistakable character to your tracks. With all that said, let's dive into our list of the best reverb plugins.
Cost: Free to $50
Free Trial: Offers free demo*
Valhalla is one of the most widely known plugin development companies when it comes to reverb and delay. They offer a wide variety of specific and unique types of reverb such as Plate, Room, Shimmer, and many more. All their plugins are also famously simple to use and understand, making it easy to incorporate them right away into your mixing workflow without much of a learning curve.
Personally, I'm a big fan of the VintageVerb and Room plugins. The VintageVerb offers a faithful emulation of old-school hardware reverbs from the 70s and 80s while the Room offers cleaner and more precise emulations of various acoustic spaces such as Small Rooms, Medium Chambers, Large Halls, etc.
Additionally, they offer 3 of their plugins (Super Massive, Space Modulator, and Freq Echo) completely free, allowing you to get your feet wet with their products before taking the plunge into some of the paid plugins.
Here's a helpful video which shows the VintageVerb (one of the many effects they offer) plugin in use:
Click the button below to learn more about Valhalla reverb plugins and to download your free trials!
*The free demo gives you the full version of the plugins, however the effect fades out and back in every 45 seconds.
Cost: $99
Free Trial: 7-day free trial
Rev Intensity from Arturia is one of the newer reverb plugins to hit the market in the last few years. While other reverbs pride themselves on emulating a specific type of analog reverb, Rev Intensity prides itself on being a new and innovative reverb that will provide you with unique and experimental sounds to spice up your tracks.
Offering advanced controls such as attack, release, pre- and post-filters, and even a reverb step sequencer, this plugin allows you to shape your sound in ways other reverb plugins aren't capable of. And even with all those advanced parameters, the plugin interface is still clean and easy to understand.
Rev Intensity is also packed with a bunch of unique presets to help show you all the different sounds and textures you're able to achieve with this plugin. Exploring the presets is a great way to get your creative juices flowing and discover the exact effect you're looking for.
Here's a helpful video which shows the plugin in use:
Click the button below to learn more about Rev Intensity and to download your free trial!
Cost: $99
Free Trial: No free trial
Little Plate from Soundtoys is a plate reverb plugin (surprising, I know) that does a fantastic job at emulating the classic lush and warm sound associated with plate reverbs. It's great to use on pretty much any instrument but is especially pretty on guitar and vocals.
One of my favorite things about this plugin is the incredibly simple design - there's only 3 knobs, which you'll find out is really all you need. The Decay knob controls the length of the reverb tail (from 0.5 seconds to infinity), the Low Cut knob allows you to filter out the lower frequencies generated from the reverb which can often muddy your mix, and the Mix knob allows you to control how much of the wet signal you're adding. There's also a Modulation switch that you can toggle on and off depending on what tone you're trying to achieve.
Here's a helpful video which shows the plugin in use:
Click the button below to learn more about Little Plate and to download your free trial!
Cost: $69
Free Trial: 7-day free trial
While some of the other plugins on this list specialize in a specific type of reverb, Spaced Out from Baby Audio acts as a one-stop-shop for all your reverb and delay effect needs. It can do everything from adding subtle ambience to your sounds to creating huge cosmic spaces.
This plugin features 3 main modules - Echoes, Space, and the Central Mixer. The Echoes module allows you to control the type of echoes generated, adjust the intensity, add various textures, and much more. The Space module allows you to pick the type of reverb, add shimmer, adjust the amount of modulation, and much more. And lastly the Central Mixer is your main output control center where you can adjust the amount of wet/dry signal, glue the wet signals together, and more.
Here's a helpful video which shows the plugin in use:
Click the button below to learn more about Spaced Out and to download your free trial!
Your Stock DAW Reverb
Cost: Free
Free Trial: N/A
While it may seem obvious, before you go spend money on a premium reverb plugin, make sure you play around with and learn the stock reverb that comes with your DAW. In most cases (depending on what DAW you use), the stock reverb will serve your needs just fine if you're just looking for a basic reverb effect.
As a Logic Pro X user myself, I know the stock Space Designer and ChromaVerb plugins are extremely powerful and fantastic at creating custom reverb effects, and I'm sure DAWs like Ableton and FL Studio have solid options as well.
Premium reverb plugins are great if you're looking for unique presets/FX or faithful emulations of vintage gear, but other than that you'll likely be just fine with your free stock reverb.
I hope this guide helps you learn about some of the top reverb plugins available on the market! Enjoyed this guide? Make sure to check out our Bedroom Producer Essentials Guide or some of our other reviews/buyer's guides.
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