Imagine standing in a cathedral and clapping your hands. The initial clap is the direct sound source; what follows are complex reflections that bounce back from the cathedral’s walls, ceiling, and floor. Reverb is this phenomenon of sound reflections that glance off multiple surfaces before reaching our ears.
These reflections reach your ears at different times and varying intensities, creating an effect where the initial sound is lengthened.
In smaller spaces, these reflections are quicker, creating a shorter, more intimate reverb. In larger spaces like cathedrals or caverns, reflections take longer to reach your ears and are less intense, resulting in a rich and layered sound.
Reverb plugins strive to recreate this, simulating the sound of real and non-real spaces. Your DAW will come loaded with a reverb plugin but our list of the 17 best reverb plugins is perfect for exploring the plethora of innovative and realistic plugins available on the market.
In a hurry?
Don’t want to read about every reverb plugin? Here are our five favourites:
| Strymon BigSky Plugin | An exact plugin recreation of one of the world’s most loved reverb pedals, this plugin includes all 12 algorithms ranging from traditional halls to experimental pitch-shifting with creative Freeze and Hold modes. | Check the current price |
| Sonible Smart:Reverb | AI-powered reverb algorithm creates reverb automatically in seconds, customisable with a unique tone matrix and frequency decay control. | Check the current price |
| Baby Audio Spaced Out | Create entirely unique reverb tones by blending delay, reverb, and modulation with four modes and built-in FX. This is great for achieving immersive and ethereal reverb. | Check the current price |
| Lexicon MPX Native Reverb | Seven classic studio reverbs in one plugin from one of the world’s most celebrated effects manufacturers, including hall, chamber and room modes featuring real-time frequency response visualisation. | Check the current price |
| Soundtoys Little Plate 5 | An incredibly simple plugin that recreates the sound of a classic EMT140 Plate, capable of going from tight and warm to massive and spacious, augmented with a modulation switch for added movement in your repeats. | Check the current price |
Types of reverb
Hall
Hall reverbs emulate concert halls where orchestras typically play. Their large size means they have lots of complex reflections, resulting in long decays that last multiple seconds. These big reverbs are perfect for ambience, adding space to orchestras, making vocals sound epic, and pushing sounds back into the mix. However, hall reverbs can make things sound muddy and cause instruments to lose definition if overused.
Chamber
Chamber reverbs pair the intimacy of a room reverb with the lush ambience of a hall. They’re denser than other reverbs, filled with early reflections for a lively sound whilst providing extra clarity to give instruments space and definition unlike the washed-out effect inherent in hall reverbs. Chamber reverb is great for many instruments from vocals and acoustic guitar but excels in creating powerful drum sounds.
Room
Room reverbs simulate smaller acoustic spaces and purpose-designed recording studios. They’re closer to the natural reverbs we hear in the real-world rooms, characterised by faster earlier reflections, creating an intimate sound.
They’re natural and lively, making them ideal for any instrument. Because of this, they can provide depth to individual instruments or put all elements of your mix into one cohesive space, glueing them together.
Plate
Plate reverbs, one of the first synthetic reverbs, emulate the sound of audio passing through a metallic plate. When developing plate reverb, this technique caused vibrations in the plate, creating a smooth and dense reverb. The timbre was dependent on the material and damping used but remained bright and smooth with a long tail and few early reflections.
More atmospheric but less exciting than other reverbs, they’re great for bringing elements such as background vocals to the front of a mix with minimal smearing.
Spring
Similar to a plate, spring reverb doesn’t model a real-world space. Sound is passed through vibrating springs, creating a reverb sound like no other. A tight and bright sound, spring reverb sounds closer to super-fast echoes than it does smooth reverb. Hailed for how it sounds with guitars, it’s often found on vintage guitar amplifiers because of its non-linear tone, making it a staple of classic rock guitar tones.
Types of reverb plugins
Algorithmic
Algorithmic reverbs use mathematical modelling (algorithms) to simulate the sound of real-world spaces or mechanical reverbs. This can be everything from natural spaces, such as rooms, chambers, or halls, to mechanical plates, springs, and more.
Because of their modelling design, they’re often extremely flexible and feature a full range of parameters to tweak the reverb to your exact requirements, making them ideal for sound designers. Although they aren’t “real” world spaces, they’re still capable of producing extremely convincing results but are also flexible enough to create non-realistic reverbs, such as huge ambience.
Convolution
Convolution reverbs use recordings of real-world spaces to create IRs (Impulse Responses) of that location. An instantaneous test signal (or gunshot) is used to create a loud signal in the location, creating the natural reverb of the space which is then recorded by microphones before being turned into a single IR file.
This IR can then be used in a convolution reverb plugin to apply the characteristics of the recorded space to any sound in your mix. This fixed impulse is less flexible than an algorithmic reverb, using much less CPU power, but produces much more realistic results.
The best reverb plugins
1. Lexicon MPX Native Reverb
Type: Algorithmic – Seven modes include: Small Plate, Large Plate, Small Hall, Large Hall, Small Chamber, Large Chamber, and Room
Pros
- The exact sound of legendary Lexicon hardware in a plugin
- Plenty of tweaking options to adjust the reverb to your taste
- Nice addition of a frequency response graph for the reverb
Cons
- Potential to be CPU-heavy on lower-powered machines.
The Lexicon MPX Native Reverb puts the sounds of classic Lexicon hardware into your DAW. With seven types of reverb included in all the categories you’d imagine, it’s a fantastic all-around choice at a very low cost.
A simple interface presents all 10 parameters you could ever need on one screen to make it incredibly easy to find a sound that will sit in your mix. At this price, the addition of the frequency response graph is a very nice touch!
2. Klevgrand Rum – Room Simulator
Type: Algorithmic – Room
Pros
- 10 unique rooms modelled with extreme accuracy
- Tonnes of control over your sound including omni and cardioid mic types
- Three stereo-spread algorithms enhance your sense of space
Cons
- No display showing the room size or decay length of each reverb
An ideal solution for post-production or to make instruments sound more “live” in a mix, the authenticity of all 10 rooms included in this reverb plugin is incredibly high. As with all Klevgrand products, Rum has a sleek interface, making it very easy to audition each verb and for customisation.
It has an interesting take with two microphone polar patterns for each mode along with three character modes and three stereo spread modes.
A useful feature in a dense musical mix, Rum also includes a fully-fledged “Ducker” to keep your dry signal clean.
3. Soundtoys Little Plate 5
Type: Algorithmic – Plate
Pros
- Beautifully rich tone
- Incredibly simple to use
- Modulation switch helps add movement to your reverb
Cons
- It won’t be suitable for every instrument in a mix
Lush, deep, and warm. The Little Plate 5 is an extremely simple plugin. With one knob for Decay, a high-pass filter, a mix knob, and a modulation switch, it’s easy to get a great sound. Ranging from 0.5 to infinite decay time, you can go from tight and bright to spaced out and vibey with ease.
Taking the guesswork out of adjusting parameters, you can add movement to your reverb decay with a simple modulation switch. While a fantastic-sounding reverb, it could be forgiven for being a bit basic when it comes to sound design.
4. PSP Nexcellence Plugin
Type: Algorithmic – Spring
Pros
- Extremely customisable to find your sound with multiple spring options
- Suitable for much more than just guitar amps
- Opto-comp and input gain controls let you achieve saturated reverb tones
Cons
- The interface is quite dated
The necklace-style spring reverb of Nexcellence is a great choice to have in your arsenal. It sounds unlike anything else and has a huge range of parameters to customise your tone.
Add input compression for saturated tones, adjust the EQ, enhance the stereo image, adjust the number of springs, and more to find the right sound for your mix.
Unlike traditional springs, this actually works on instruments other than country and blues guitar.
5. Dear Reality Exoverb
Type: Convolution – 50 different environments
Pros
- Innovative triangle matrix interface
- Independently adjustable late and early reflections frequency response
- Huge range of reverb sounds to explore
Cons
- An A/B button would be extremely useful for a plugin with this much depth
Different to the rest so far, EXOVERB introduces more depth with the reverb functionality to really put your sounds into a space rather than just apply reverb to it.
Its user interface is streamlined enough to have all the parameters available to you whilst offering more interactive matrix dragging to find the right balance between the late and early reflections, something that should integrated into more reverbs in my opinion.
The many different spaces it has makes it a versatile tool for any instance, a great buy.
6. Baby Audio Spaced Out
Type: Algorithmic – Four modes include: Vacuum, Small Space, Medium Space and Outer Space
Pros
- A complete reverb solution with reverb and delay to blend together
- Incredibly dense and rich tone with huge decay for spacey tones
- Exciting creative design functions such as auto-generate
Cons
- Catered more towards sound design and less towards realism for instruments
Blurring the lines between reverb and modulation, Spaced Out puts massive and evolving reverb tones in a streamlined plugin with lots of sound design elements. Less suited to instruments in a mix and tailored more for sound designers for film, TV, and games, you have four different reverb algorithms to choose from along with the ability to blend 16 tempo-synced delays in the signal.
7. D16 Group Toraverb 2 Space Modulated Reverb
Type: Algorithmic
Pros
- Create your own custom reverbs from scratch
- Intelligent single-knob ducker to get a cleaner sound
- Crosstalk parameter delivers a more realistic distinction between early and late reflections
Cons
- Difficult for beginners to find the sound they want quickly
An innovative algorithm-based reverb, Toraverb 2 lets you sculpt your own reverbs from scratch. Featuring independent control over the early and late reflections with two parametric EQs, and crosstalk, among others, you can tailor your reverb to any instrument in a mix. There’s also adjustable size, diffusion, and more.
It’s excellent for lead vocals, with one-knob ducking which pushes the reverb behind the vocals for a cleaner sound.
8. Sinevibes Luminance Shimmer Reverb
Type: Algorithmic – Shimmer
Pros
- Granular pitch-shifter creates musical shimmer effects up or down
- Intuitive, colour-coded interface
- Lush, atmospheric tones, perfect for a huge range of sounds
Cons
- Two-octave pitch range would be a welcome addition
The perfect texture reverb for synths, guitars, or vocals, Luminance adds musical depth to your mix.
Simple to use, its features have been trimmed down to only the essentials, with some parameters controlling multiple settings under the hood. If you’re into synth soundscapes with evolving reverbs, this is the plugin for you.
9. Cherry Audio Stardust 201
Type: Algorithmic – Hardware emulation
Pros
- Full modelling of a world-renowned hardware reverb/delay unit
- Pairs perfectly with most instruments and sounds in a mix
- Stereo compatibility puts your sounds in a wide soundstage
Cons
- Only one reverb mode
If you’ve ever wanted the classic reverb and delay sound of ‘70s prog, pop, and rock for your synths, vocals, and guitars then this is a must-have. A complete end-to-end emulation, the Cherry Audio Stardust 201 gives you the full reverb soundscape tone for droney ambience and so much flexibility to tweak to your liking.
With only one reverb mode, the bulk of the plugin is the BBD delay circuit which blends perfectly with the reverb for a huge, vintage sound.
10. SSL Native FlexVerb
Type: Algorithmic – Room, Hall, Plate, and Chamber
Pros
- Complete control over the dimensions and character of the virtual space
- Excellent six-band EQ
- Ducking possibilities with side-chained input compressor
Cons
- No level fader for the modulation
A do-it-all reverb, FlexVerb is a great all-around reverb option. It has four of the five main reverb types, letting you adjust the virtual character of the space with independent control over the late and early reflections, and the six-band EQ is perfect to fit it into any mixing style.
The modulation controls work really well and blend naturally with the reverb tone, though a level control would be great here. Even better, the sidechain input is great for ducking the reverb out of the way of important tracks such as lead vocals.
11. Universal Audio Lexicon 224
Type: Algorithmic – Three Halls, Three Plates, One Chamber, One Room
Pros
- Goes beyond the features of the original
- Hardware quality sounds across any instrument in a mix
- Comes loaded with presets from industry veterans to get started straight away
Cons
- The interface can be confusing if you have no experience with the hardware
A fantastic reverb plugin that puts the sound of studio hardware into your DAW, the Lexicon 224 has a lush, thick, and spacious tone. The slider-based interface can be confusing if you’ve not used it before, but it rewards you with lots of flexibility to customise the sound however you want.
Bass and Mid-Reverb Time let you fine-tune the reverb decay response to fit any kind of mix, whilst controls for the Crossover deliver natural crosstalk between stereo channels for enhanced realism.
12. Strymon BigSky Plugin
Type: Algorithm – 12 modes
Pros
- Streamlined interface with unique parameters per mode
- Infinite/Free and Hold functionality for endless ambience
- Unique modes to Strymon including Chorale, Magneto, Bloom, and more
Cons
- For the price, it lacks customisable parameters
A pretty remarkable feat, the Big Sky Plugin is an identical replica of one of the most famous reverb pedals ever. Though typically used on guitars, the plugin lets you use one of 12 modes on any instrument in a mix, with incredible results.
Known for its massive ambience with modes such as Cloud and Bloom, the simple interface of BigSky Plugin lets you access huge, endless ambiences which can be truly infinite with the Freeze function. It also includes more traditional modes such as Hall, Room, Plate, and Spring for traditional textures and depth in a mix.
13. Sonible Smart:Reverb
Type: AI-powered – Adaptable reverb types
Pros
- Perfect for beginners, takes the guesswork out of your settings
- Instrument-specific modes help to get more accurate reverb tones
- Sleek and ultra-modern interface makes it easy to make adjustments
Cons
- Non-specific reverb types might catch professional producers off guard
A first of its kind, Smart:Reverb makes reverb easy. Automatically create a tailored reverb for your sound in seconds, with no manual movement necessary (unless you want to adjust afterwards). It has an excellent sound but can be forgiven for being a little bit “samey” across some of the modes.
Though it’s automatic, you can still customise your reverb – and it’s incredibly easy with the simple interface which lets you control crucial parameters, like the decay and envelope density, and frequency response over time.
14. Toolroom Records Infinite
Type: Algorithmic – Hall
Pros
- Extremely simple one-knob design
- Perfectly tuned reverb algorithm for dance music
- Global high and low-pass filters let you fit it to your mix
Cons
- Only one sound, so it won’t work with everything in a mix
Part of a larger multi-effects plugin, Infinite is designed to supercharge your workflow and not overthink your mixing. For this reason, it’s a fantastic hall reverb that’s tuned to add the signature ambience and decay of dance music.
Putting it on vocals or drum loops can add that ethereal soundscape, and with only two knobs for the mix amount and decay time, you can’t go wrong.
15. Melda MReverb
Type: Algorithmic
Pros
- Drag the sound source in a 3D field with unique Spatial Positioning System
- Add movement with four modulators
- Built-in EQ and analysis tools
Cons
- Extremely detailed, not suitable for beginners
When you want all the reverb, the MReverb is for you. It has just about every reverb style you could ever need, sounds incredible, and is extremely versatile. It’s unique in that you have to virtually place the sound source in the spatial field to give a sense of depth and space in your mix.
Its built-in EQ and four modulators lend themselves more to sound design aspects rather than traditional reverb techniques, meaning that if you’re looking for something basic, this won’t be the plugin for you.
16. Kilohearts Convolver
Type: Convolution – 300 different impulse responses
Pros
- Extremely realistic reverb impulses
- Unique waveform editor lets you customise the start and end of the reverb impulse
- Light on CPU
Cons
- No way to audition impulses without loading
Sleek and streamlined but packed with sounds, Convolver is home to hundreds of real-world impulse responses to put your sounds in hyperrealistic spaces. It features a unique waveform editor with fade in and outs and a Flex-stretch parameter to mangle the impulse and create something new.
With everything from open-air outdoor, church halls, cathedrals, studios, garages, and experimental spaces, you can find a reverb for any instrument or mix with it.
17. Sugar Bytes Graindad
Type: Granular
Pros
- Capable of stunning ambience and otherworldly soundscapes
- Use in conjunction with other effects in the plugin for unique tones
- Four different reverb modes
Cons
- Tricky to understand workflow to get the best sound possible
A complete departure from anything else on the list, Graindad transforms your incoming signal into small portions of audio which are then manipulated independently. While it’s very complex, it can be very rewarding to transform your audio into evolving soundscapes.
How many reverbs do I need?
Do you need multiple reverb plugins to get the best sound? Not really. You can get by with just a few high-quality reverbs or, in some cases, just one. The more you dive into mixing and mastering, working with different instruments and different genres, the more reverbs you’ll need.
Once you master how to use different reverb types to change the character of your sound, you’ll be able to pick the right reverb for the job, helping you get better mixes. Reverb plugins come with vastly different features, so it’s worth considering how much tweaking you want to do when putting your sound in a virtual space.
FAQs
Which is the best reverb plugin?
The best reverb plugins to use for music production are:
- Strymon BigSky Plugin
- Sonible Smart:Reverb
- Baby Audio Spaced Out
- Lexicon MPX Native Reverb
- Soundtoys Little Plate 5
- Klevgrand Rum – Room Simulator
- Cherry Audio Stardust 201
- Universal Audio Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb
What is the most popular reverb of all time?
The most popular reverbs of all time include the EMT 250, AMS RMX 16, Lexicon 224, and the Lexicon 480L. These early studio hardware reverb units are algorithmic reverbs and have been featured on countless albums. Many have been recreated as plugins for modern producers to use in their DAWs.
What is the best-sounding reverb for vocals?
Chamber reverbs are the best-sounding reverbs for vocals. Chamber reverbs marry the intimacy of room reverbs with the lush decay of hall reverbs. Although not as natural as other reverbs, they’re often bright, small rooms with lots of early reflections to thicken the sound and make it more lively.
Final thoughts
Reverb is an essential tool for production. Your DAW will come loaded with its own reverb plugin, but these are often limited and not as high in quality as the options that are available externally.
In my opinion, it’s a good idea to explore what third-party developers have to offer, such as the ones on our best reverb plugins list, in order to upgrade your production.
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