How To Use Space Designer In Pro Tools

When Do You Use Space Designer For Reverb And When Do You Use Chromaverb? See If Our Expert Panel Agrees On The Answer

Logic Pro has two flagship reverbs that easily hold their own when compared side by side with the best third-party reverb plug-ins out there. I am, of course, talking about Logic's Space Designer and Chromaverb. They represent two completely different under-the-hood approaches to doing the same job, placing sounds within a space.

Space Designer is a convolution reverb that works with impulse responses of actual acoustic spaces. And Chromaverb is an algorithmic reverb, creating spaces with ones and zeros. Which one is best to use and under which circumstances? There is, of course, no one single correct answer. They both sound great and can both work just about equally well in most cases. So, how do you choose which one to use, and when? Here I've asked three esteemed Logic Pro colleagues to weigh in on this existential question.

Chris Vandeviver from whylogicprorules.com is an experienced mixer and educator. Edgar Rothermich, well known for his Logic Pro and Pro Tools graphically enhanced manuals, is an expert at digging beneath the surface and deconstructing complex subjects. Maurice Chevalier, an experienced composer, and mixer is known to many of us for his generous daily expertise on multiple Logic Pro-related Facebook groups. And Eli Krantzberg creates video tutorials on Logic, and other music software, at groove3.com.

Chris Vandeviver

In our last expert panel, we discussed the value of Logic's Compressor presets. And everyone involved, including myself, agreed that we don't rely on presets for "utility" plugins like EQ or compression. This time around though, my feelings are exactly the opposite. When it comes to reverbs, I pretty much exclusively rely on Space Designer and ChromaVerb's preset selection. And once I find that preset that matches the reverb sound in my head, I then fine-tune the results with EQ or compression.

Space Designer continues to be my trusted workhorse for most mixing applications. As a convolution reverb, Space Designer recreates the sound of just about any space - indoor, outdoor, and everywhere in between. But not only that, Space Designer can recreate any "space." From speakers to analog gear, moving textures to drum transformers, and even cool rhythmic patterns.

I most often use Space Designer for gluing instruments and mixes together. Whenever I need the sound of a room, chamber, hall, or plate, Space Designer is there for me. And in my opinion, the sounds that Space Designer delivers are wonderful. They sound natural and inspiring. And can be tamed easily with EQ.

While I turn to Space Designer for natural glue and ambiance, I tend to turn to ChromaVerb for more "special effect" reverb choices.  Think long, dramatic vocal reverb tails. Drenched reverb pads recycle into themselves thanks to ChromaVerb's awesome Freeze button. Slapback reverbs call attention to themselves as they quickly ping pong along.

I feel more at home with ChromaVerb when it comes to creative sound design as compared to Space Designer. With 14 different room types to choose from, Dampening EQ, and the many other controls, it doesn't take much time to dial-up an inspiring reverb. The workflow is similar to that of Fabfilter's Pro-R or one of the many Valhalla DSP offerings. With Space Designer I'm never looking to craft a reverb from scratch. Whereas with ChromaVerb it's a fairly easy affair.

So for me, Space Designer for natural glue and ambiance. ChromaVerb for sound design and effect. And the pairing of Logic's 2 reverb plugins can work in just about any mix.

Edgar Rothermich

In audio production, there are five categories of reverbs. ChromaVerb and Space Designer represent two of those.

• Acoustic Reverbs: These are the echo chambers like the famous Abbey Road Studios or Capitol Records, or if that is a bit out of your financial reach, your next-best bathroom or hallway.

• Mechanical Reverbs: Besides its big cousin the EMT Plate from the late 50s, the spring reverb was patented 1939 by Laurens Hammond (yes, the Hammond Organ guy), and besides the studio-grade AKG Spring reverb, spring reverbs are found in guitar amps or even synthesizers like the Moog Grandmother.

• Algorithmic Reverb: Logic's ChromaVerb is a descendent of a long line of famous algorithmic reverbs like the Lexicon 244 and 480 that entered the market in the late 70s. They use electronic circuitry (like delay lines) to simulate the various parameters of acoustic room reverb.

• Convolution Reverb: Although Altiverb was the first software convolution reverb in 2001, Logic included early on its own convolution reverb, the Space Designer, as an affordable (and now free) convolution reverb.

• Physical Modeling Reverbs: This is like the "all the above" category where engineers write computer code that "recreate" the sound and characteristics of existing reverbs of any type.

Although there are always exceptions, the main deciding factor for me whether to reach for the Space Designer or ChromaVerb Plugin is based on whether I need an Algorithmic Reverb or a Convolution Reverb.

ChromaVerb

The strength of most Algorithmic Reverbs is the ease of use because they follow the basic concept of a room simulation with their standard parameters. ChromaVerb is no exception, I can quickly set the Size of the room, the Predelay and the Decay, plus some additional parameters like the Attack, the Density and the Distance. to shape the type of reverb I'm looking for. Being able to set the Decay and Predelay to a value related to the Tempo like 8th note is nice to have but I find it hard to hear the effect of a grooving reverb.

My favorite feature on the ChromaVerb is the Damping Curve, which lets you quickly carve out the Decay value with a frequency curve via two shelves and two bells. The user interface can't get better than that displaying the decay time over frequency.
The Details page has a few more parameters but usually, I don't spend too much time on that with the exception of the Quality Control setting that produces a grainy or more precise reverb sound. And if all that is not enough, ChromaVerb has this nice eye-candy that keeps you entertained watching the reverb over the frequency spectrum.

Space Designer

Whenever I want to place an instrument or an instrument group in a specific room, then Space Designer is my goto reverb. Convolution reverbs with the magic of impulse responses just deliver that. You close your eyes and you can imagine the room the instruments are playing in. I don't use the various parameters too much and if I find myself tweaking them too long, then I rather load a different room that comes closer to what I imagine.

Capturing room acoustic via impulse responses is not restricted to acoustic room. There are impulse responses (SDIR) available on the internet from any imaginable and non-imaginable acoustic source if you want to use the Space Designer for experimenting with sound. One of the reverb that I used in almost all my music mixes over the last 15 years is a set of impulse responses captured from the Lexicon 224.
Note to myself, create impulse responses from ChromaVerb.

Eli Krantzberg

Full disclosure: I have no absolute formula for determining when I choose Space Designer over Chromaverb. I love them both. I've loved Space Designer since it was first bundled in with Logic v.6.5. It was my first convolution reverb, and it blew me away. There are loads of free or inexpensive impulse responses online, extending its sonic range even further. I've got an instance in my default template that I use while tracking, and more often than not, I end up keeping it as my main general mix reverb.

Generally speaking, Space Designer, and most convolution reverb for that matter, are a "set and forget" type of plug-in. If you like the sound of the impulse response, there usually isn't much tweaking involved. Space Designer covers everything from general all-purpose room/hall/plate/chamber style reverb to more esoteric spaces, like guitar cabinets and transistor radios. The latter, found in the "Warped" sub-menu, are great fun to experiment with for creative effect. If you don't want to spend much time tweaking, Space Designer will get your tracks into the perfect-sounding space with minimal effort.

Sometimes, however, a mix situation calls for more creative tweaking and sound design for the spatial elements of the mix. Chromaverb offers much more qualitative control over the character of the space. Things like density and how long the reflections take to die away in the different areas of the frequency range are potent tools in shaping the final sonic result.

The damping EQ is particularly useful to target resonant frequencies, so they die away more quickly. I love Chromaverb on drums. Notably, the ability to affect how bright versus dark the virtual space sounds when excited by the snare determines a lot of the character of the overall drum sound. I also like Chromaverb on drums to control the balance between the early reflections from the reverb tail. These initial echoes situate the listener's position in the space with the drum set. It goes a long way in establishing the primary room component of the drum sound.

Chromaverb is also fantastic for vocal (or instrumental) effects. Sometimes an element in the mix requires a single exposed hit or phrase bathed in a vast, spacious modulating effect to grab the listener's attention. Chromaverb shines in creating these sorts of artificially long tails. The added ability to modulate is yet another tool in the creative palette of options it provides.

So, to address the question at hand - which do I choose and for what; I offer you this in the way of an answer: I have Space Designer in my template for tracking, and more often than not end up keeping this as my main mix reverb. For drums, I usually use a third-party reverb (TSAR-1 from Softube). When necessary, I generally tend to reach for Space Designer before Chromaverb. It is predominantly out of habit and because it is easier and quicker to get the reverb sound the way I need it and then move on to the next task. If I don't find something I immediately like after a handful of impulse responses, I move on to Chromaverb, where I can take tweak a few parameters and sculpt the space with more precision.

Maurice Chevalier

I use Space Designer most often when picking one of Logic Pro's stock reverbs.  And most often I use it to create expansive complex spaces.  I'm not saying that Chromaverb can't create complex-sounding spaces because it can.  But because Space Designer uses impulse responses (samples of spaces) it usually sounds, well, more like real spaces.  Placing a room preset on a drum kit immediately achieves the illusion of having been in a space with the drums.  Adding a hall to a vocal send brings a sense of open space as if the recording was completed in the actual space.  When Space Designer was introduced I was completely shocked.  I had been ready to purchase a competing product for nearly the cost of Logic (at the time $999) and suddenly I didn't feel it would be a good purchase.  I now use many 3rd party plugins - but I still use Space Designer on almost every project.

Chromaverb is wonderful at creating rich beautiful sounding reverbs.  But it does so while also achieving much lower CPU usage.  This is because it uses algorithms (like many rack-mount reverbs used to) as opposed to IR-based reverbs like Space Designer and Altiverb.  I love using Chromaverb when I'm looking for a 'sound' that I can't easily describe.  When I want to evoke emotion on a synth pad or purposely create strange effects on a percussion instrument.  It's wonderful for creating haunting reverbs that immediately make the listener 'feel' something.  It also seems to have an 'immediacy' that just feels good on almost anything.

Okay, if you have read through this and you're thinking, "I could do those things with either of them", well, you're right.  You could. And often I do.  We are so fortunate to have two of the best-sounding reverbs in the industry included for free. They hold up well against reverb plugins costing 2 or 3 times more than Logic Pro.  Space designer has a wonderful Warped presets category that can lead one (definitely 'this' one) off on a creative tangent for hours.  But it can also be used to quickly glue a bunch of sounds together that were obviously not performed in the same space.  Or on the same day.  Chromaverb can too - but I'm less likely to be convinced by it's sound.  Especially on acoustic instruments.  So I guess, that is where the real difference lies for me.  Where I need sounds to 'feel real' I'm more likely to use Space Designer.  And when I need a quirky sound that fills spaces or creates energy I'll use Chromaverb.

So, there you have it. When and how do you choose between the two? Are there third-party reverbs that you find significantly better? let us know in the comments below.

Eli Krantzberg's greatest loves, beside his wife Mariam are drumming, his vibraphone, Logic Pro, and jazz. Leader of a commercial band for three decades, Eli has been demystifying and simplifying music software since 2008.

Read More →

Waves recently released the CLA Epic plug-in, which captures the Chris Lord-Alge workflow of mixing with depth, using four delays and four reverbs. In this video, I'll show you how to set up these Epic style effects routings directly in Logic.

Is Stratus, from Exponential Audio/iZotope really designed only for post-production? Hear it on a pop vocal and decide for yourself.

Chromaverb is unique in that its modelling is based on the sound absorption characteristics within a real space, like a room or hall. Here we'll look at three easy to tweak parameters that help give it the tonal shaping characteristics that make it so good.

Chromaverb, Logic's fully loaded algorithmic reverb brought Logic's reverb collection firmly into the 21st century. As part of a team series, Logic Pro Expert decided to dig into each of our favorite features about Chromaverb. Today, Chris explores his top features which make Chromaverb stand out from the pack for him.

Recently, Reverb added 2 new segments: LP and software. Reverb Software is of course, very much in harmony with our world of Logic Pro X and I would encourage you to go take a look at the offerings. Reverb's software section does have a slew of freebie offerings much like several other sites that curate links or downloads with an additional major bonus that is of particular interest.

How To Use Space Designer In Pro Tools

Source: https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/production-expert-1/when-do-you-use-space-designer-for-reverb-and-when-do-you-use-chromaverb-see-if-our-expert-panel-agrees-on-the-answer

Posted by: oharacompay.blogspot.com

Share this post