Best Reverb Plugins for Vocals in 2024

Reverb is a beloved studio effect, possibly even the most popular ever since the dawn of music and sound recording. The way it can take a dry and lifeless piece of audio, and give it so much spaciousness, warmth and character is a brilliant case of instant gratification in the studio. 

The application of reverb when recording vocals has shifted and evolved significantly over time. In years gone by, reverb was added by playing the dry recording in a room or space with natural reverb, and some purists still love recording in places like churches to get that organic reverb.

However, in the year 2024, many of us do not have the means to seek out spaces with amazing reverb, as it can be a very timely, costly and logistically tricky project. The thing that has changed the game for reverb for vocals and music at large has been the development of digital hardware units (a great example being guitar reverb pedals) that digitally recreate the reverb of said spaces.

The world of music production and recording took another tectonic shift when you could instantly load up phenomenal-sounding reverb on your laptop when reverb plugins were developed to be used in Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). So if you want to make sure your vocals and vocal production doesn’t sound dull, dry and devoid of character, you’ve come to the right place to find out what the very best reverb plugins for vocals are. Let’s dive straight into this Headliner reverb plugin buyer’s guide so you can sing with pride and spaciousness.

Waves H-Reverb

• No hint of muddiness in the sound

• Huge dimension

Quite simply one of the most popular reverbs out there, Waves H-Reverb is our first entrant for being the best reverb plugin for vocals, and is also very much one of the most affordable at being right below £50/$50. Features aplenty: real reverse, advanced analogue modelling with drive control and more.

To sweeten the deal further, Waves offers a large and varied preset library of reverb presets. It’s a totally innovative reverb plugin with features such as ‘input drive’ that make it one of the most progressive plugins out there. No surprise that Waves truly deliver with this one.

VIEW PRODUCT

Valhalla Plate

• Wonderful warmth

• Great for dense reverbs

It’s high praise for Valhalla that they are a certified go-to name in the saturated world of reverb, particularly thanks to their very reasonable pricing, even offering some brilliant reverbs for free like Super Massive. Valhalla Plate, priced at just $50, can be found in many a producer’s toolkit.

Plate stakes its claim as one of the best vocal reverbs thanks to its stunning shimmering sound. It uses an algorithmic reverb which means it will almost immediately fit into your mix without needing to spend ages tweaking the sound. This is also thanks to a simple and effective user interface. Join Thor and Odin in Valhalla by grabbing this reverb.

VIEW PRODUCT

LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven

• Comes with a solid reputation

• Plenty of presets

Seventh Heaven presents an extraordinary software model that faithfully reproduces the renowned Bricasti M7 hardware reverb unit, certainly one of the best hardware reverbs, and now presented wonderfully as a plugin. The unit was known for its remarkable precision and authenticity, and with a distinguished reputation as one of the most versatile and velvety-sounding reverb units ever created.

Seventh Heaven arrives with a plethora of well-crafted presets, encompassing a wide range of reverb styles such as plates, chambers, concert halls, churches, and even some unconventional ambient spaces, providing quite the array of options. The plugin's intricate sound arises from its three distinct reverb engines, each handling early, late, and low-frequency reflections independently, allowing control over their individual levels.

VIEW PRODUCT

Universal Audio Lexicon 224

• One of the world’s most trusted plugin brands

• Based on legendary hardware

Universal Audio, a name that would be remiss to not include in a best reverb for vocals list (or any plugins list, for that matter) is renowned for making extremely high-end emulations of historic audio equipment, and their recreation of the classic Lexicon 224 reverb unit is no different.

The original Lexicon 224 unit is heard all over hit songs since it was first unleashed in 1978. This plugin goes to great lengths to recreate its legendary sound to the highest degree of authenticity. UA’s plugin models every single parameter of the original unit, right down to the inherent system noise and bug fixes in its chorus program (which can be enabled or disabled).

VIEW PRODUCT

Slate Digital VerbSuite Classics

• Arguably all of the best vocal reverbs in one

• Top-notch emulation

If you’re trying to hunt down the best reverb for vocals, Slate Digital have gone one better with their VerbSuite Classics, which emulates an exhaustive number of the best hardware reverb units yet seen. So there’s an argument to be had that Slate are giving you all of the best vocal reverbs.

The suite offers a convolution reverb plugin, and these digital models of hardware are frighteningly accurate. They are based on such famed units as the Lexicon 480L, Eventide SP2016, EMT 250, Quantec QRS, Sony DRE 2000, Neve RMX16, TC Electronic 6000, and the Bricasti M7. In other words, a stack of physical gear that would potentially put you into thousands of pounds of debt if you tried to buy them all. But instead, boxed up into an affordable plugin set. You can’t argue with that!

VIEW PRODUCT

FabFilter Pro-R

• Create and tweak the reverb sound of your dreams

• Great features

Why on Earth are you adding a filter plugin to a best reverb for vocals list, I hear you bawl? Well, take a breath, because FabFilter offer lots more than what their name might suggest. They’ve become beloved also for their limiter, compressor, delay, and for our spacious purposes today, the Pro-R reverb, which works an absolute treat on vocals.

This digital algorithmic reverb gives you huge creative control to create the reverb you’re after, rather than trying to replicate some specific hall somewhere. The brightness, character and distance knobs are highly user-friendly, and the user interface looks fantastic. The featured parametric ‘Decay Rate EQ’ provides huge flexibility. Fabulous by name and nature.

VIEW PRODUCT

Audio Ease Altiverb 7

• The original convolution reverb

• Great if you have very specific reverb tasks in mind

Altiverb is seen my many as the OG granddad of convolution reverb plugins and has garnered a reputation as the go-to choice for top studios and established engineers. Its vast preset library includes a massive range of venues, including good old Wembley Stadium.

Whether you seek to infuse the ambiance of a bedroom to enhance the your sound realism, or you desperately want to imbue your vocals with the exact reverb characteristics of a favourite song, Altiverb excels in handling any reverb-related task that comes its way.

VIEW PRODUCT

Types of reverb for your vocals

Plate Reverb

Plate reverb emulates one of the earliest methods of reverb: projecting a recorded signal onto an actual steel plate using a transducer, capturing the resulting resonant metallic vibrations with a contact microphone. The outcome is a richly dark, dense, and diffuse timbre. The reverb's intensity and decay directly correspond to the plate's size.

Plate reverbs are an excellent choice when aiming for a thick, vintage vocal tone or seeking warmth and cohesion without emphasizing brightness. However, do be careful with plate reverbs, as they can introduce low-end frequencies that may muddy up the mix.

Spring Reverb

Spring reverb, based on equally old-school tech, delivers a brighter and more vibrant character. Just as plate reverb emulates reverberation on a metal plate, spring reverb replicates the reverberation that occurs within metal springs.

Most plugins allow adjustment of the ‘tension’ and ‘number’ of emulated springs, where looser springs produce a more chaotic and sloppy decay, while tighter springs generate the classic, higher-pitched ‘splash’ effect. Due to their relatively compact sound compared to plate reverbs, spring reverbs work wonders in scenarios where minimal pre-delay is desired.

Room Simulation

As you may have figured from the name, room reverbs simulate various types of rooms. Digital room reverbs offer control over room sizes and building materials, ranging from grand symphony houses to narrow halls.

Many reverb plugins provide settings for tiled rooms, concrete halls, wooden gymnasiums, and more. Each preset determines the pre-delay time, amount of diffusion, early reflections, and other parameters to align with the chosen room's spatial and acoustic characteristics. Room reverbs usually impart a more contemporary sound to vocals compared to springs or plates, while offering lots of control over every parameter for customization.

So with all that said, hopefully you are left with a spring in your step and ready to spin a few plates as you find the reverb that gets your vocals sounding as perfect and dreamy as you can possibly imagine.

Further reading:

Best pitch correction plugins for vocals

Best plugins for vocals