[sdiy] Cheapest good sounding digital reverb?

[Brian Willoughby]

You have a point here, Colin. Both reverb and mixing are LTI processes (linear time invariant), so the order of operations can be changed without changing the result. Mixing together the output of multiple identical reverbs, each with different inputs, is exactly the same as mixing those inputs first and then running the mix through a single reverb. The latter takes far less processing power, but it produces identical results.

However, as you surmised, the beauty comes when each reverb is slightly different, and there isn't a shortcut in the case.

I know of a successful pipe organ modeling software that uses multiple speakers in the church to create more realistic sounds in the space. Since not every client can afford to literally have an amplifier channel and speaker for every pipe, this modeling software also includes an MxN reverb that has a separate input for every modeled pipe, and a separate output for every speaker - the software calculates the MxN reverb to retain more of the natural sound even when there is a reduced number of speakers. I never found out how the reverb algorithm is determined, although it would be fascinating, I'm sure.

Does anyone know of references to papers on multi-dimensional reverbs - beyond stereo input and output?

Brian


On Mar 22, 2021, at 05:52, ColinMuirDorward wrote:
> Thinking more about this and wondering what would be the sonic difference between polyphonic reverb and "paraphonic" reverb.
> Unless each voice is using a different reverb, wouldn't they sound identical? A post-reverb VCA will change this, since you can have different notes gating on and off at different times, but this seems a high price to pay for a very subtle effect. Polyphonic effects I would be chasing are delay, chorus, flange, pitch, etc; those which could take advantage of per-voice dynamic manipulations.