So, I want to do a lo-fi project which is supposed to sound like everything was recorded in one small (rehearsal) room (so the same room for all instruments; the genre is basically rock/metal with some techno influences). Larger spaces seem to wash out the sound too much. Are there are IRs or any software which is specifically recommendable for something like that?

 

Audioease Altiverb/indoor vst - one of the best for realistic room simulations.
Or Wave Arts - Panorama for special sounding spaces)
In my opinion...

 

any Lexicon inspired preset named "Tiled Room" is applicable in your situation. Valhalla Vintageverb, Room, Lexicon Room, Bricasti etc all have it and it was inspired by the same famous preset from a Lexicon unit. It is well known, proven to be effective and been used in millions of records. One of the many reverb that deserves to be in the "Greatest Hits" among legendary reverb sound. It's bright by nature because it's more like reflections instead of actual reverberation that simulate a small reflective room. In my usage I never go more than 10% mix, it's like preamp, when you can hear it it's already too much, but works well together with a lot of tracks sent to it.

Check your fav reverb plugins 1st, most of the time they have it.

 

Last edited: Dec 27, 2023

Altiverb is pretty much industry standard by this point, at least in my country.

Reverberate 3 by Liquidsonics is pretty awesome too.

 

microphone and speaker in the bathroom or closet, rinse repeat...

 

You could try Sunset Sound and FAME by Ik Multimedia.

The 3 iso booths from Sunset could give you a tight room sound.

The FAME one is a moderately small recording room and it has mic placement already built-in by instruments, according to where they usually are set up in the room, so less of a headache when it comes to make a band all fit together.

Both are on sister site.

 

Last edited: Dec 28, 2023

I know you all are serious about getting the sound you want, but it is after all lofi. By definition it should be lossy and have artifacts. Good luck and good mixing...

 

UAD Sound City for early reflections on drums is insane

 

Chameleon by accentize is an interesting alternative: you can grab any ambience from any recording, even from your mobile phone, and convert it into a very tweakable reverb. It has become my go-to reverb for real ambience.

 

1. AudioEase Altiverb
2. Valhalla VintageVerb
3. don't forget Acon Digital Verberate 2 (Mastering Ambience A, as a starting point)

 

No need for Altiverb in my opinion!

The free Blackstar library for Rematrix Player has some smaller rooms.
https://www.overloud.com/products/blackstar-studio

I also like the "Dance Studio Room" in the free version of Convology (under "Real Spaces").

There are also the free "Groville" and "Poggio Loft" IR libraries by Morevox, which I believe are contained in their MoReVoX FREE SAMPLE PACK 2023

These ones are also pretty cool (the packs also contain samples recorded in those rooms):

And this collection also has some pretty cool rooms:
https://research.kent.ac.uk/sonic-palimpsest/impulse-responses/

 

Last edited: Dec 28, 2023

Reverberate 2 is still nice enough also, for those of us on Mac without a extended demo version of Reverberate 3.
Altiverb 7 is great if you do not mind the storage space commitment for a reverb.

This is what I was thinking also. You could use Voxengo Old Skool Verb, CamelSpace, mcd Revolver, Oxford Reverb or even any Lexicon. If you want a lo-fi result using the highest quality modern reverb you can find, can be counterproductive. You can put the individual parts sending to the old lo-fi reverb and still use that $5K M7 if you want.

 

Last edited: Dec 28, 2023

It's difficult to give a meaningful answer because rock/metal/techno says next to nothing about the musical qualities of the material. It could be a quiet ballad, but it could also be a 280bpm wall of sound. And "lofi" doesn't give any more precise information about the desired sound character without knowing the material. It could mean pretty much anything.

 

As of yet, IRs have done the best job for me in that area, although I was sort of surprised that the "Tiled Room" preset in Valhallava VV sounds quite decent. The best one I have encountered yet for my application is in a free pack by "Fokke van Saane" called "Amsterdam living room 1".

 

Here's a couple of freebies that work for me Room Reverb
https://www.elephantdsp.com/products/room-reverb/
RoomMachine [Old But works 32 bit only] https://plugins4free.com/plugin/571/

 

Not to be "that guy", but I've been looking at Acustica Silver for this small tight room. It's got a pretty good 3d-ness going on. I plan to remix a few songs that I had used Altiverb on just to get a good side by side comparison.

 

I would go with convolution and ir but thats my caveman opinion

 

Klevgrand's Kleverb could also be a nice and simple solution with character.

 

As you said some longer reverbs tend to wash out the qualities of the mix, so my suggestion would be to grab a delay plugin and set up a slapback-style delay which is different in timing on the left and right side.
My go-to would be u-he Satin, either of the two delay modes work pretty well to simulate some sort of room reflection which gets out of the way quickly and makes space for new sounds.

Sometimes the best "reverb" is a delay ;)

 

No idea if it's the best but I'm a fan of the UVI Plate Reverb.