2.1.0 Reverb bug

I just updated VMS to 2.11.2, clean install. Although the reverb does sound better, it's still not fixed properly. If someone else can confirm, the instruments playing have reverb in them but they end abruptly (sound stops dead), with only a smaller reverb tail after sound on the end.

Clean install of 2.13.8, I thought the problem may have been solved, reverb was higher. But still sounded different. So I compared a short midi converted with VMS, 2.10.1 vs 2.13.8 in Audacity. The older resulting wave is louder, has more reverb in the mix. Sure enough, I reinstalled 2.10.1, and the reverb was much fuller again.

@Kj, first of all I'm sorry if it seemed like I left you alone in the thread… I always try to read all messages 🙄

I recently got back on VMS+BASSMIDI with another user, so I'd like to further investigate on this issue too.

Reading back all of the messages, I see that a “breaking change” was added in BASSMIDI 2.4.13 (included in VMS v.2.10.2):

2.4.13 - 16/9/2020
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* Reverb level modification
  BASS_ATTRIB_MIDI_REVERB (BASS_ChannelSetAttribute option)    

This thread on Un4seen forum confirmed the change in Reverb volume: https://www.un4seen.com/forum/?topic=20464.0

The new BASS_ATTRIB_MIDI_REVERB parameter can be used to change the “Overall” reverb level:

• 0 means no reverb at all
• 1 means default reverb level (that seems to be lower than it was before BASSMIDI v2.4.13)
• >2 increase the reverb volume (I've tested up to 5)

So I've added a new “Master reverb level” option just after the existing reverb/chorus ones.
The new option sets the BASS_ATTRIB_MIDI_REVERB (in percentage, where 100% means 1, 500% means 5).

Things to check:

• if setting a proper value could lead to the same result as before BASSMIDI 2.4.13 (VMS 2.10.2)
• decide a proper name for this new option (is "Master reverb level" misleading or confusing? I'm all ears for suggestions…)

Please test the attached version and let me know if it works.

It took longer than expected but I finally got around to testing the reverb in the beta. I'd recently started to adjust my own soundfont reverb settings and I thought I'd finalise that and be more familiar with it first before trying this.

Like you my initial thought is that the default value of 100% seemed lower than before, overall. So you'd want to increase the level, and/or larger room size, less damping? But the problem I found is that, even with low reverb level settings, fine detail or instrument texture in samples is already missing like when the level is increased, already too obscured. I tried increasing the percentage in smaller values at first, but I don't think there was any change in sound until I entered 200%, so perhaps this input field should only accept increase or decrease in increments of 100? Perhaps only using the up and down arrows to simplify, if that is the case? (Master Reverb Multiplier, maybe?). So now, at 200% reverb, there's a huge and obvious difference, already over the top for what I'm trying to achieve. So naturally I tried smaller room size, hard damping in the soundfont synth settings. But even with damp set to max, reverb was over the top. It seemed impossible to even get anywhere near the sound I'd managed to create with the original reverb. So I didn't try anything over 200%.

It's a completely different approach to the reverb, as it stands I wouldn't say there was any value you could say is the equivalent to how it used to be. I might even say it is not fit for purpose (at least not for me). But, having said that, I can hear there is a huge potential for an improvement over the old way. And, having searched through the un4seen forums for mentions of reverb, I can see much work has gone into it, and there was talk of other parameters being added sometime ago to change the reverb type, like Room or Hall, Room 2… perhaps there is someone more in the know that can shed some light on that for us here, and any more options to change the reverb?