Flexible, natural reverb with massive control over acoustic spaces

RealVerb Pro is a flexible, natural sounding reverb that is based on our own unique set of algorithms. Allowing you to design the room just as you hear it, the RealVerb Pro goes beyond the barriers of simply big/small or dark/bright, giving you our trademark, distortion-free, smoothing diffusion control and ultra-long reverb tail.

RealVerb Pro uses complex spatial and spectral reverberation technology to accurately model an acoustic space. What that gets you is a great sounding reverb with the ability to customize a virtual room and pan within the stereo spectrum.

RealVerb Pro

Room Shape and Material

RealVerb Pro provides two graphic menus each with preset Room Shapes and Materials. You blend the shapes and material composition and adjust the room size according to the demands of your mix. Controls are provided to adjust the thickness of the materials — even inverse thickness for creative effects. Through some very clever engineering, the blending of room shapes, size and materials may be performed in real-time without distortion, pops, clicks or zipper noise. Once you've created your custom room presets, you can even morph between two presets in real-time, with no distortion.

Resonance, Timing and Diffusion

RealVerb Pro also includes intuitive graphic control over equalization, timing and diffusion patterns. To maximize the impact of your recording, we put independent control over the direct path, early reflections and late-field reverberation in your hands.

Stereo Soundfield Panning

Capitalizing on the psychoacoustic technology that went into the design of RealVerb 5.1, we have incorporated some of those principals into RealVerb Pro. Our proprietary Stereo Soundfield Panning allows you to spread and control the signal between stereo speakers creating an impression of center and width. The ability to envelop your listener in a stereo recording is an entirely new approach to reverb design.

Signal Flow

The diagram below illustrates the signal flow for RealVerb Pro. The input signal is equalized and applied to the early reflection generator and the late-field reverberation unit. The resulting direct path, early reflection, and late-field reverberation are then independently positioned in the soundfield.

RealVerb Pro signal flow

Reflected energy equalization is controlled with the Resonance panel. The pattern of early reflections (their relative timing and amplitudes) is determined by the room shapes and sizes in the Shape panel; early reflection predelay and overall energy is specified at the top of the Timing panel. The Material panel is used to select relative late-field decay rates as a function of frequency. The overall late field decay rate is chosen along with the room diffusion, late-field predelay, and late-field level at the bottom of the Timing panel. Finally, the Positioning panel contains controls for the placement of the source, early reflections, and late-field reverberation.

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Spectral Characteristics

The Shape and Material panels specify the room shape, room size, room material and thickness. These room properties affect the spectral characteristics of the room's reflections.

Shape and Size

The pattern of early reflections in a reverb is determined by the room shape and size. RealVerb Pro lets you specify two room shapes and sizes that can be blended to create a hybrid of early reflection patterns. There are 15 room shapes available, including several plates, springs, and classic rooms; room sizes can be adjusted from 1-99 meters. The two rooms can be blended from 0-100%. All parameters can be adjusted dynamically in real time without causing distortion or other artifacts in the audio.

RealVerb Pro Shape panel

To configure the room shape and size:

1. Select a room shape from the first (left) drop menu. The selected shape is displayed in the left side of the Shape circle. Adjust the room size with the top horizontal slider.
2. Select a room shape from the second (right) drop menu. The selected shape appears in the right side of the Shape circle. Adjust the room size with the bottom horizontal slider.
3. Blend the early reflection patterns of the two rooms by dragging the Blending bar. The relative percentages of the two rooms appear above their drop menus. Drag to the right to emphasize the first room shape; drag to the left to emphasize the second room shape. To use only one room shape, drag the Blending bar so the shape is set to 100%.

The resulting early reflection pattern is displayed at the top of the Timing panel, where each reflection is represented by a yellow vertical line with a height indicating its arrival energy, and a location indicating its arrival time.

Material and Thickness

The material composition of an acoustical space affects how different frequency components decay over time. Materials are characterized by their absorption rates as a function of frequency — the more the material absorbs a certain frequency, the faster that frequency decays. RealVerb Pro lets you specify two room materials with independent thicknesses, which can be blended to create a hybrid of absorption and reflection properties. For example, to simulate a large glass house, a blend of glass and air could be used.

There are 24 real-world materials provided, including such diverse materials as brick, marble, hardwood, water surface, air, and audience. Also included are 12 artificial materials with predefined decay rates. The thickness of the materials can be adjusted to exaggerate or invert their absorption and reflection properties. For a description of the different room materials, see About the Materials.

RealVerb Pro Material panel

Note: While materials are used to control decay rates as a function of frequency, the overall decay rate of the late-field reverberation is controlled in the Timing panel.

To configure the room material and thickness:

1. Select a room material from the first (left) drop menu. The selected material is displayed in the left side of the Material circle.
2. Adjust the thickness for the first material with the top horizontal slider:
   • A default thickness of +100% yields normal, real-world decays for the material.
   • Thicknesses beyond the default (up to +200%) exaggerate how the frequencies are absorbed and reflected.
   • Negative thicknesses invert the response of the material. If the material normally absorbs high frequencies (causing them to decay quickly) and reflects low frequencies (causing them to decay slowly), a negative thickness will instead absorb low frequencies (causing them to decay quickly) and reflect high frequencies (causing them to decay slowly).
   • A thickness of 0% yields decay rates that are not affected by the material.
3. Select a material from the second (right) drop menu. The selected material is displayed in the right side of the Material circle. Adjust the material thickness with the bottom horizontal slider.
4. Blend the absorption properties of the two materials by dragging the Blending bar. The relative amount of each material, expressed as a percentage, appears above their respective drop menu. Drag the Blending bar to the right to emphasize the first material, and drag it to the left to emphasize the second material. To use only one room material, drag the Blending bar so the material is set to 100%.

About the Materials

Some materials absorb high frequencies and reflect low frequencies, while other materials absorb low frequencies and reflect high frequencies. This characteristic is determined by the material surface and density.

Fiberglass, for example, absorbs high frequencies. When high frequencies strike fiberglass they bounce around inside the fibers and lose much of their energy.

At a thickness of 100%, fiberglass rolls off the high frequencies, a little bit each millisecond. After a while the high frequencies dissipate and the low frequencies linger. If we were to take fiberglass and increase its thickness to +200%, the high frequencies would roll off even faster. At +200%, this high frequency decay happens at twice its normal rate, producing a very heavy reverberant tail. At -200%, a very "sizzly" late field is created.

Some materials, such as plywood, naturally absorb low frequencies while reflecting high frequencies. Since plywood is usually very flat with little surface texture to capture high frequencies, high frequencies tend to be reflected. At +100%, the reverberation produced is very sizzly and increasingly bright. At -100%, it is very heavy.

Keeping this in mind, if you look at the graphics in the material control panel, you can get a sense of how chosen materials, material blend, and thickness will affect the decay rate as a function of frequency. Hard materials that have lots of small cavities (Brick, Gravel, Plaster on Brick) and soft materials (Carpet, Grass, Soil) tend to absorb high frequencies. Flat, somewhat flexible materials (Heavy Plate Glass, Hardwood, Seats) tend to reflect high frequencies. Marble is the one material that tends to uniformly reflect all frequencies.

You may have noticed the artificial materials the top of the Materials menu. These are materials designed to have predictable behavior and can be very handy for achieving a desired reverberation preset when you know what decay rates you desire. All these materials preferentially absorb high frequencies; they give the selected decay time at low frequencies, and a much shorter decay time at high frequencies. The frequency in each graphic is the transition frequency, the frequency at which the decay rate is halfway between the low-frequency and high-frequency values. At 100% thickness, the ratio of low-frequency to high-frequency decay times is 10:1. This means that the high frequencies will decay 10 times faster than the low frequencies. At 200% thickness, this is multiplied by two (high frequencies decay at 20x the rate of the low frequencies). At negative 100%, the sense of low frequency and high frequency is swapped --low frequencies decay 10 times faster than the high frequencies.

Many hardware and software reverbs tend to compensate for the high frequency absorption that air provides. RealVerb Pro instead provides "Air" as a material. If you do not choose to use Air as one of the materials, you can effectively compensate for the high frequency absorption properties of air with the Resonance filters. Set the right-hand Transition Frequency slider to 4.794 kHz, and bring the level down about -10 dB to -15 dB for large to huge rooms, and down about -4 dB to -9 dB for small to medium rooms.

The following table classifies the materials under two headings: those that tend to reflect high frequencies, and those that tend to absorb them. They are listed in order of their transition frequencies, from lowest to highest.

Materials with high-frequency absorption	Materials with high-frequency reflection
Audience	Heavy Plate Glass
Cellulose	Plywood
Drapery	Hardwood
Plaster on Concrete Block	Glass Window
Soil	Cork
Gravel	Seats
Paint on Concrete Block	Marble
Carpet	Concrete Block
Fiberglass	Linoleum
Grass
Plaster on Brick
Water Surface
Sand
Brick
Air

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Resonance (Equalization)

The Resonance panel has a three-band parametric equalizer that can control the overall frequency response of the reverb, affecting its perceived brilliance and warmth. By adjusting its Amplitude and Band-edge controls, the equalizer can be configured as shelf or parametric EQs, as well as hybrids between the two.

RealVerb Pro Resonance panel

To configure the reverb's Resonance as a parametric EQ:

1. Drag the Band Edge controls horizontally for the second and third bands to the desired frequencies. The first band is preset to 16 Hz. The frequencies for all three bands are indicated in the text fields at the bottom of the Resonance panel.
2. Adjust the amplitude of the bands (from -60 dB to 0 dB) by dragging their Amplitude controls either up or down. The amplitude values for all three bands are indicated in the text fields at the bottom of the Resonance panel. The shape of the EQ curve is displayed in the Resonance graph.

To configure the reverb's Resonance as a high-shelf EQ:

1. Drag the Amplitude control for the second EQ band all the way down.
2. Drag the Amplitude controls for the first and third bands all the way up, to equal values.
3. Adjust the Band-edge controls for the second and third bands so they are adjacent to each other. To raise the frequency for the high-shelf, drag to the right with the Band-edge control for the second band. To lower the frequency for the high-shelf, drag to the left with the Band-edge control for the third band.
4. To attenuate the frequencies above the shelf frequency, drag the Amplitude controls for the first and second bands up or down. For a true shelf EQ, make sure these amplitudes are set to equal values.

To configure the reverb's Resonance as a low-shelf EQ:

1. Drag the Amplitude control for the second EQ band all the way up.
2. Drag the Amplitude controls for the first and third bands all the way down, to equal values.
3. Adjust the Band-edge controls for the second and third bands so they are adjacent to each other. To raise the frequency for the low-shelf, drag to the right with the Band-edge control for the second band. To lower the frequency for the low-shelf, drag to the left with the Band-edge control for the third band.
4. To attenuate the frequencies below the shelf frequency, drag the Amplitude controls for the first and second bands up or down. For a true shelf EQ, make sure these amplitudes are set to equal values.

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Timing

The Timing panel offers control over the timing and relative energies of the early reflections (ER) and late-field (LF) reverberations. These elements affect the reverb's perceived clarity and intimacy. The early reflections are displayed at the top of the Timing panel, with controls for Amplitude and Pre-delay. The late-field reverberations are displayed at the bottom, with controls for Amplitude, Pre-delay, and Decay Time. To illustrate the relation between both reverb components, the shape of the other is represented as an outline in both sections of the Timing panel.

RealVerb Pro Timing panel

To adjust the timing of the early reflections:

1. Drag the Amplitude control for the early reflections up or down (from -80 dB to 0 dB) to affect the energy of the reflections. The Amplitude value is indicated in the text field at the bottom of the Timing panel.
2. Drag the Predelay control for the early reflections left or right (from 1-300 milliseconds) to affect the delay between the dry signal and the onset of early reflections. The Pre-delay time is indicated in the text field at the bottom of the Timing panel.

Note: The length in time of the early reflections cannot be adjusted from the Timing panel, and instead is determined by the reverb's shape and size.

To adjust the timing of the late-field reverberations:

1. Drag the Amplitude control for the late-field reverberations up or down (from -80 dB to 0 dB) to affect the energy of the reverberations. The Amplitude value is indicated in the text field at the bottom of the Timing panel.
2. Drag the Predelay control for the late-field reverberations left or right (from 1-300 milliseconds) to affect the delay between the dry signal and the onset of late-field reverberations. The Predelay time is indicated in the text field at the bottom of the Timing panel.
3. Drag the Decay Time control for the late-field reverberations left or right (from 0.10-96.00 seconds) to affect the length of the reverb tail. The Decay Time is indicated in the text field at the bottom of the Timing panel.
4. To affect how quickly the late-field reverberations become more dense, adjust the Diffusion control at the right of Late Reflection display in the Timing panel. The higher the Diffusion value (near the top of the display), the more rapidly a dense reverb tail evolves.

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Positioning

One of the unique features of RealVerb Pro is the ability to separately position the direct path, early reflections, and late-field reverberation. The Position panel provides panning controls for each of these reverb components. In addition, a proprietary Distance control adjusts perceived source distance. These controls allow realistic synthesis of acoustic spaces--for instance listening at the entrance of an alley way, where all response components arrive from the same direction, or listening in the same alley next to the source, where the early reflections and reverberation surround the listener.

Note: The Direct, Early, and Late controls are unavailable in mono-in/mono-out configurations.

RealVerb Pro Positioning panel

To pan the direct (dry) signal:

• Drag the Direct slider left or right. A value of <100 pans the signal hard left; a value of 100> pans the signal hard right. A value of <0> places the signal in the center of the stereo field.

Set the positioning for the early reflection or late-field reverberation with either of the following methods:

• Drag the left and right slider handles to adjust the stereo width. The length of the blue slider is adjusted. For a full stereo signal, drag the left handle all the way to left, and right handle all the way to the right.
• Drag the blue center of the slider left or right to set the positioning of the signal. If you drag all the way to the left or right, the stereo width is adjusted. For a mono signal panned hard left or right, drag the slider all the way to the left or right.

Distance

RealVerb Pro allows you to control the distance of the perceived source with the Distance control in the Positioning panel (see See RealVerb Pro Positioning panel). In reverberant environments, sounds originating close to the listener have a different mix of direct and reflected energy than those originating further from the listener.

To adjust the distance of the source:

• Drag the Distance slider to the desired percentage value. Larger percentages yield a source that is further away from the listener. A value of 0% places the source as close as possible to the listener.

Wet/Dry Mix

The wet and dry mix of the reverb is controlled from the Mix slider in the Positioning panel. The two buttons above this slider labeled "D" and "W" represent Dry and Wet; clicking either will create a 100% dry or 100% wet mix.

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Levels

The Levels panel adjusts the Input Gain and Output Gain for RealVerb Pro. These levels are adjusted by dragging the sliders to the desired values. You can mute the input signal by clicking the Mute button.

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Morphing

All RealVerb Pro controls vary continuously using proprietary technology to smoothly transition between selected values. This capability enables RealVerb Pro to morph among presets by transitioning between their parameter sets. This approach is in contrast to the traditional method of morphing by crossfading between the output of two static reverberators. The method employed by RealVerb Pro produces more faithful, physically meaningful intermediate states.

Click the Morphing Mode button to enable Morphing mode. When RealVerb Pro is in morphing mode, the other RealVerb Pro spectral controls are grayed out and cannot be edited. In morphing mode, two presets are selected using the pull-down menus. Once the desired presets are selected in the pull-down menus, the morphing slider is used to morph from one preset to the other.

When in Morphing mode, non user-adjustable controls will change their appearance and will no longer be accessible. When inserted on a Send effect, the "W" button automatically turns on (to keep the mix at 100% wet).

On an insert effect, the Mix will change back and forth between the two mix values of each preset.

RealVerb Pro in Morphing mode

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RealVerb Pro Preset Management

Factory Presets

In the preset menu there are thirty factory presets that can be changed by the user. Any modification to a preset will be saved even if you change presets. If you want to return all the presets to their default settings, select "Reset all to Defaults" at the bottom of the presets menu.

Edits to any and all presets in the list are maintained separately within each instance of a plug-in within a session. Factory presets are listed in the table below.

Acoustic Guitar	Hairy Snare
Apartment Living	High Ceiling Room
Big Ambience	Jass Club
Big Bright Hall	Large Bathroom
Big Cement Room	Large Dark Hall
Big Empty Stadium	Long Tube
Big Snare	Medium Drum Room
Big Warm Hall	Nice Vocal 1
Cathedral	Nice Vocal 2
Church	Slap Back
Dark Ambience	Small Bright Room
Drums in a Vat	Small Dark Room
Eternity	Sparkling Hall
Far Away Source	Tight Spaces
Ghost Voice	Wooden Hall

RealVerb Pro plug-in presets

You can access RealVerb Pro's presets using the UAD preset browser.