What's the difference between a $600 reverb like Alti and a stock reverb like Ableton Reverb?
Don’t they have the same parameters? How is Alti worth so much money?
Having owned Altiverb, I can confirm there’s a big difference between Altiverb and stock ableton. For start; they are two completely different kinds of reverb. Altiverb is a convolution reverb which uses impulse responses taken from real places (people already have said this a bunch.) and Abletons Stock Reverb sort of simulates a plate reverb.
That said, someone already also mentioned M4L has a convolution reverb thats not too bad. You can even import you own IRs to it. Obviously they also mentioned, you don’t have the equipment or likely ability to record in the places Altiverb does, or even at a level of quality that is similar. altiverb The question of its value, in my opinion, comes down to practicality. While I think Altiverb is the best reverb on the market; I found myself using Blackhole (Eventide) way more, which I got for free the day they took that first photo of a blackhole. I think altiverbs worth it scale has to be scaled against the type of music you make. Personally, I would say altiverb is better for more “refined” music. (For lack of a better word.) Due to the level of malleability altiverb has. It’s interface shows you a 3D image of the track and the reverb on it and you can manipulate every aspect of the reverb on a MUCH more detailed level than any other reverb I’ve seen so far. I just don’t think the average producer would ever need that much detail over a similar structure like Fab-filters pro-r. In my head I picture altiverb being much more practical for soundtrack producers, or more directly classical inspired artist. (Imagining San Fermin or maybe even M83.)
TL;DR: Altiverb is incredible, and totally worth the cost, but is not practical for most producers.
Today I learned there’s a reverb plugin that goes for $600+