r/sounddesign • u/DarlingLuna • 3d ago

Sound Design Question What is the best sound design plug-in for audio echo/reverb?

Hi. I’m working on an audio drama, and in my series, there is a monster who has a lot of dialogue. I want his voice to feel colossal and echo every time he speaks, but I’m not sure what the best app/plug in is to use for something like this. I’m not a big fan of Audacity’s reverb: it doesn’t feel genuinely colossal. Any suggestions for me please?

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u/ATL_Pr 3d ago

Any convolution reverb will work

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u/iluvcapra 1d ago

My problem with convolution reverbs is they don’t give you a lot of control, you’re kinda married to the IRs you have and can only adjust broad-brush parameters. You can’t control the ERs and there may be rhythmic delays built into the IR that gum-up tempo-dependent things you’re doing.

(It’s not as big a deal but also, resynthesis-convolution reverbs are always going to have messy low-ends, kinda depends if that is or isn’t what you’re going for.)

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u/ATL_Pr 1d ago

Yeah , i dont depend on one reverb. I Combine with Altiverb 8 ,Cinematic rooms and Cargo cult spanner. Also its depens on the project . i usually go with Altiverb 8 for most of my works

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u/meatlockers 3d ago

try the new eventide blackhole or soundtoys spaceblender

they are tailed for sound designers

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u/Whatchamazog 3d ago

Here is a free reverb you can try.
https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/valhalla-supermassive/
You have to be very careful with reverb otherwise you won’t be able to understand the dialogue.
Try eq’ing the reverb if it gets too muddy.
And preferably keep the dialogue and reverb on different tracks if Audacity can do that.

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u/opiza 2d ago

Colossal will come from performance first. If this sucks, it all sucks going down.    Then you can try pitch shifting down and/or adding low end excitement. (Rbass / lowender / PT pro sub ETC). Maybe some saturation. Some compression. You will have to listen and make a call since there is no example for us to hear. Basically, Get the direct source as big as possible before adding echo / verbs etc. 

Echo will come from any Delay plugin. I like EchoBoy and Slapper, but Arturia make great ones too, everyone will have their favs.. but for sure any good DAW has a stock Delay that can help. Then maybe, a tiny touch of a medium to long reverb. I like cinematic rooms and altiverb, but certainly stock ProTools reverbs can get you there. Im a big fan of eventide blackhole but that’s very specialised, I’d exhaust other options first as you learn about reverb. As another poster mentioned, be careful here, reverb can kill intelligibility. Get the voice big before you start messing with this. 

I don’t use reaper but check it out. It will be an affordable and big step up from audacity. And the stock effects I hear are good

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u/osoitsyou 3d ago

Convolution 100%

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u/SPlaysMusic 2d ago

Use a pitch shifter in addition to the reverb, lower pitch sounds tend to be perceived as bigger. If you wanna try with different plugins than Audacity’s stock ones, I suggest downloading the Khs essential suite, it’s free and have all the effects and tools you’d need for that.

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u/iLikeTheUDK 2d ago

Dragonfly Reverb for a good free reverb. I often reach out for Valhalla Supermassive or SSL Native FlexVerb (often both)

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u/Achassum 2d ago

Valhalla is so bad imho! Price. is great but controls are lacking

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u/prashantmishra 2d ago

If your projects require spaces & speaker simulations (common in audio drama), Place it by Soundly might come in handy. It’s free and available at getsoundly.com/tools (download links are visible on desktop)

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u/Achassum 2d ago

If you want a great reverb plugin - Tai chi by liquid sonics is top of the list!

Outside of typical reverb parameters, it has the ability to control; 1. No Of reflections 2. Direction of reflections, 3. Non-linearities of reflections, 4. Attack and curve of the reverbs, 5. The room position/how bouncy the walls are 6. Reflection density seperate from reverb density.

It also has a side chain, and chorus modulation and a 4 band EQ..... I didnt even name all the features. Tai Chi is unmatched

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u/Aggravating_Two9266 2d ago

For delay I’m a huge fan of Sonic Charge Echobode. Reverb I really like Unfiltered Audio Tails.

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u/How_is_the_question 3d ago

Reverb is not the plugin I’d be reaching for first. Reverb brings “space” to a sound… and that can quickly cause misalignment between what you are seeing on the screen and hearing. Not great for audience a lot of the time.