jkinkennon wrote:Do not assume that a recorded set of ambiance responses will necessarily sound better than a reverb created using impulse samples of real spaces combined with the best reverb technology. There are way too many variables to make such a blanket assumption.
Additionally, there can be conflicting goals in achieving our desired sound. Some will want to most accurately recreate the original historic space of the sampled organ. That's perhaps what most of us prefer. Others may desire to create a smaller ambiance that we find more believable in our homes. I find it interesting that I can easily "tune out" the listening room and hear a cathedral, others find this quite impossible to accomplish. Not unlike going to the theater or a movie. Some can easily become absorbed in the event while others find themselves distracted by a variety of not quite right qualities in the event. If a wet sample set comes across as drowning in reverb then there are few options except to turn down the reverb channels and perhaps truncate the reverb tails.
I'm not assuming anything and this isn't my first rodeo when it comes to reverbs, so I guess you won't be converting me any time soon. I'm also able to easily tune out my listening environment and enjoy my own cathedral in my 12' x 12' space without the need of any additional reverb trickery and the complications that typically come with it. This comes through speaker positioning and anything short of that is a crutch for a less than ideal speaker layout. With the proper layout I'll put the real recorded ambience / acoustic up against added $350 dollar reverb any day of the week, especially when we're considering. the newer 6 channel sets, and also especially when you start playing around truncating a wet set which I figured would likely be brought up as some kind of advantage, to me yet another crutch. Real processors also cost thousands not hundreds, and with a good layout we might then have a real comparison. Movie theates don't just throw up some speakers wherever and add reverb and hope it sounds good, it doesn't work that way. If you want things to sound like a good movie theater take close observation as to how the speakers are laid out, no reverb will make up for a poor speaker arrangement. Rather than fiddling around with reverbs I'd advise to spend your efforts on your speaker layout first and you'll save yourself a lot of time, money, and frustration. Once you have that part dialed in a good modern surround wet set (and I can rattle off a long list of them that will blow you out of the water) will give you everything you wanted and then some.
For now we'll have to agree to disagree on this one, and has been said here before, what matters most is you like it and it sounds good to you.
Marc