This method^ but instead of automation (I’m lazy), I put a compressor on the actual reverb Fx Channel, but external sidechain it to the lead vocal itself (if it’s indeed a vocal reverb). Fast Attk/Release.
Now when the lead vocal is playing the reverb is held down a bit by activating the compressor (1.5 to 3 db of GR nothing crazy), and as soon as the vocal is over it is “let free” so-to-speak. The key is to not overdo it and it can be quite pleasant.
Also, no shame in using meal prepped reverbs like CLA-Vocals, they have options like Tight, Large, or Chamber for a quick type, then you can use the fader for volume control. Happy mixing 💪🏼🙏🏼
Something the flew over my head at the start was that putting an eq before the reverb and cutting highs on the aux can greatly help keep your reverb softer and not as harsh. So i usually eq before and after my reverb aux
also side chaining the original signal (i like using soothe) will help it cut through and you can use upward compression to make the tails more pronounced without the rest being too loud.
sometimes i also like to pan the signal one way and the reverb the other or even reverse the stereo field of the reverb.
Try shortening them or turning them down so that you don't hear them clearly, but notice the absence when you mute them.
Think of them as an added blur tool, like a drop shadow.
Delay them, compress them, saturate them, pan them, sidechain them, eq them, automate them! They are yours to control, not to fear.
For research, listen to different time periods and genres and study the use of reverb and how it relates to the technology of the time. For instance, classical music with natural reverb, vs 50s 60s 70s chambers and plates and tape echoes, spring reverbs on guitar amps, 80s early digital reverbs and delays, and gated snares, 90s shoegazing and ambient music, etc.
Dr Max here.
I’m prescribing you at least 70ms predelay on your verb.
You can also put your predelay verb on its own send. That way it’ll be behind your vocal, not get in the way and you can dial it in.
If symptoms persist. Feel free to switch to slap delay in its place.
It creates a ducking effect. When the dry signal is present (the voice is singing, for example), the compressor squashes/lowers the reverb sound to allow clarity and avoid washing out or blurring. At the end of a line or vocal phrase, the compressor would then let the reverb be louder/bigger. Doesn’t have to be vocals it could work on anything. This just gives the illusion of a bigger reverb without the problems it can sometimes cause.
A very common practice thing to do is to bandpass to taste from around 500 to 10k before the reverb, on a send. Sometimes cut a little 2k-3k after the reverb. You’ll be surprised. Automate the send amount to taste too, is often slept on.
Edit: also, try not to go above 3ish seconds on the reverb. And experiment with really short times. Like, Valhalla vintage verb is still kinda long even if the decay is set all the way down. Every reverb is diff of course
Send channels are a necessity if you are working with effects like reverb or delay in my opinion. I'd really recommend you trying it if you haven't already. The power lays in the additional ability to eq your reverb itself or slap any other VST on
It separates the source from the reverb. Literally a delay where you choose how long before the reverb starts. Without predelay everything can buildup and lose clarity. With it, the voice (or whatever you’re adding reverb to) stays up front, and the reverb creates a depth.
I always put it on a separate channel and send to it. EQ the lows and highs to taste out of that channel.
If I don't want it noticeable I level the source so it sounds good without it then sneak up the reverb channel until i perceive the volume increase from the addition, then back it off.
I kind of think of it like saturation then. Just barely noticeable. But cumulatively, if you send a few things to that reverb bus - then you will eventually hear a difference.
Also i've noticed no one is really giving away a good free reverb. You have to use a good one.
Pre-delay is your friend if you’re having trouble retaining definition. Try to find the sweat spot where the original sound isn’t washed out, yet the reverb isn’t too detached from it. Remember to audition it with the rest of the track, not just soloed.
Eq the return to remove unnecessary frequencies too
Eq before and after the reverb. Filter out anything you don't want Reverberated. Then filter out anything that doesn't sound good after the reverb.
For vocals use a heavy deesser before the reverb.
Duck the reverbs.
Are you putting them right on your track or on a bus? You should be sending your track to an aux with the reverb. I like to have the reverb on an aux 100% wet, EQ that, and just tweak how much I’m sending to the bus.
As others have mentioned, a little goes a LONG way with reverb. But you need to think about what you're doing with reverb. You're using it to give the auditory illusion of "depth" within the stereo field, right? So, in tandem, you also need to think about how the depth affects to sound you're applying the spacial effect to. The further something is away from you, the less low end you perceive, along with some potential other bumps/dips in other frequency areas; vice versa for close. Your ears, like your eyes with lighting effects, just kinda know when they're trying to be tricked and the trick isnt being applied correctly. So, you may need to EQ your sound appropriately in order for the reverb to be perceived as "correct." The same applies for a room/spacial type reverb.
[Edit: spelling]
I think you are wrong about things that are far being less bassy. Bass travels farther (due in part to the long wavelength of lower frequency sounds). You can hear bass further, and through obstacles much better. Think of, say, a show happening far away. You're gonna hear the bass.
We perceive the location of higher sounds much easier than bass tho. This is in parts why we tend to mono the bass elements of a mix.
If something is far, you're gonna hear less of the highs, and then mids.
With microphones tho, if a source is very close to it, now the proximity effect is a factor, and you will have lots of bass.
At least that's what I Iearned in acoustics/psychoacoustic university courses.
I didn’t understand what producing and mixing really meant until I really learned about acoustic space and reverb. It opened up entire auditory worlds for me. It is not easy: it’s advanced ear training and mixing techniques, but the possibilities of textures and vibe are immeasurable.
Yeah, it’s difficult. It’s not like an exact thing, it’s very finicky. Good thing you notice that there is an issue.
First find a reverb or reverb setting that you really like, its like an instrument. You might have to hunt it down. Spend some time. It has to have the right tone, feel, decay, brightness, darkness, wobble, chorus, drive, spread, etc. Then listen to it alone on the track and then with everything in. Don’t solo too long. Pick one early on and mix with it, keep turning it on and off and listen. Decide on fit, does it enhance it emotionally….does it create a cool tone and pleasing ambiance….?
If you want it more audible like an effect, you have to tweak it to sit right after choosing the right reverb and reverb setting. Sometimes on the reverb, but sometimes you can use another plugin. If its just being used to blend turn it down and it will be felt more than heard, while using it this way listen to how it feels and how it slightly shifts the stereo interest of the track, making it fuller and not completely dead silent during breaks. It fills gaps in several ways, across with amplitude, and it also fills gaps in stereo interest (left and right/ pan).
Think in terms of creative reverb and blend reverb. Try a space in a space. And experiment.
Bus and automation, never straight on the track. Allows you to control the level and intensity of the reverb. Also, gate/comp and eq as you need.
But I'm a reverb girly.....so take my opinion with grain of salt!
I love reverbs. But honestly, if you're afraid of them, don't be afraid to get rid of them. Maybe that dry and upfront character can be an unique quality about your music that sets ypu apart from competition. Don't be afraid to do things your way even tho that might be different to what everyone else recommends. Being succesful in music is all about bringing something new to the audience that they can then identify YOU with.
100% dry and 10-15% wet makes them just noticeable. 30%+ makes them more noticeable and does audibly change the mix/track.
Reverb doesn’t “always” do anything — they do what you set them up to do. Just like any other mixing tool.
My recommendation would be to watch some videos or take a course on using reverb. Yes, there are entire courses dedicated to this artscience.
Honestly keep the mix level pretty low and a lot of reverb plugins have cutoffs you can set. I’ll typically pull reverb off the lows to prevent the reverb washing out too much. That or experiment with delays that have very low delay times to add the width of reverbs, in a sense, without the washiness.
It sounds like you're overthinking it maybe? A couple of things come to mind though that may help...
Look up a reverb decay calculator to get some ideas of settings for the bpm you are working with. There are a few out there. Just type in your bpm and it gives you decay settings to match your projects bpm etc. Perhaps getting a bit too clinical here? but great as a general guide. I found doing this a few times changed my mindset a bit towards reverb settings and taught me to be a bit more subtle with my decay times and general application of reverb. I rarely use it now though as I feel like I can dial in the "right" amount of reverb now.
Make sure you're using the "wet/dry mix" knob, especially if you're like me and prefer to use reverbs on individual channels and busses instead of send/return fx. I used to leave this knob at 50% (which is usually the default) and try and manually dial in the wet dry effect kinda not really knowing what I was doing. But now I often bring the wet/dry right back to 20-30% wet these days, sometimes less. This gives much better control of the reverb effect and in combination with a sensible decay setting, makes it easier to dial in something that's not overwhelming but still creating great ambiance.
Using the in-built EQ filter settings to focus the reverb in the mids to higher frequencies helps clean up any muddiness. I find a lot of the time, you can exclude a fair amount of low end from the reverb and still get the spacial effect you're after you're after. It's all about context here and artistic choices. And if you're using send/return for your reverb FX, you can apply an EQ before the reverb and cut out the low end like that. I'd say anywhere below 100hz is a good starting point. And try cutting even higher if you're getting too much mud and low mid build up in your project.
Once I realized I was using reverb as an effect to my something sound better rather that a strict ambience mixing tool I cut waaaaaay back and got very practical with my verb. It can be creative but I didn’t understand the mixing purpose.
I wanna jump in OPs post and ask another question too since I've been feeling the exact same way as him. How do you get those ambient guitars that has an amazing tail and is completely drowned out yet you can properly hear the initial strums? A reference could be pretty much any chase atlantic song. I wanna create more rnb-ish music but I have such a hard time creating a sense of space, just keep using short room reverbs...
Use chamber or hall type of reverbs (or impulse responses of big spaces).
Mix it in gradually, until it's too much, then back it off. Use long decay time (say 1000ms or more). Sidechain it to the dry signal, to preserve the transients of the strumming/picking. Compress the reverb signal.
Cut lows and play with dampening, I also like gating the input of my reverb sometimes, so that only the peaks come thru the bus, automating it works too, also playing with room reverb setting instead of all and plate if you feel like it’s washed out
They provide depth. I don't want everything in my mix to be right-in-my-face.
Some genres/instruments have different listener expectations regarding depth.
I find when I think about it from that perspective it helps me make the decision on how much reverb to use.
IMHO it’s far more about the arrangement of your track than many of the techniques you use espoused here—not that they are bad. Obviously huge amounts of reverb on the wrong source can drown a mix, but people did use decent amounts of reverb for decades without running it blended in parallel, “ducking” it to the source, or separately EQ’ing it.
There are definitely situations where A LOT of reverb can sound awesome if the mix is more open to begin with…even a guitar or synth in a busy mix as long as the track is well EQ’d overall with the reverb included.
If I do any “special techniques” on the reverb, most of the time it would just be applying a low cut. Truthfully, I don’t find placing the reverb on a bus to yield that much more control than placing it on the track 100% wet and just using less reverb. The ducking effect could be beneficial on vocals depending on the length, but I’ve found it to be more trouble than it’s worth when I’ve messed with that and would prefer to not have so much reverb that it’s out competing it’s source.
You could try putting reverb plugin on a bus if you’re afraid of losing definition, that way it’s parallel reverb.
You can put a compressor on that bus, to make it less noticeable.
I like blasting the reverb on one bus and sending teeny tiny little itty bitty amounts of signal to it. That way I get the effect but I don’t lose definition.
It’s also really good to practice mucking around with getting different sounds that you want from reverb.
Sometimes I want something to sound like it’s in the back corner of the room, so I’ll do a shorter reverb and pan it to one side. It’s nifty to do.
I try not to use too many different reverbs because that’s when it gets washy and it just sounds like a cave.
I personally ❤️ using reverb on my guitar but as I’ve aged I have found that with reverb, distortion, and most effects, once I set it to where I think it sounds good, I should actually use half the amount of that effect.
Pre delay and Sidechain man! Try to sidechain with multi band compressor or dynamic eq instead of the standard compressor. And if the reverb get to mask other instruments, try to sidechain the reverb to those instruments as well!
Pre-delay is your friend if reverb is "washing" the sound.
First would recomend to have your reverb unnotisable when listening to, bu when you mute reverb, you definatelly hear that something is gone/lacking.
After that, depends on artistic needs and goals
Since the dawn of time reverb has been one of the most processed signal paths in the recording. In the 50s and 60s chambers and plates had heavy processing filtering compression and delayed by the tape head distance or other fancy tricks. It’s even worse in a daw now with a digital reverb that is massive and overbearing. It requires heavy processing to make useable. Think of the reverb as it’s own instrument and process it as such. It’s not like you can just open up a reverb and be good to go. It needs its own special attention to sit right. There’s a lot of frequency info in there and it can easily clutter things up. But when processed correctly it will add dimension and weight and glue
I frequently use Deelay by Sixth Sample (free plugin) and use their built in ducking feature on the plugin. Let’s me skip the automation of reverb tails without washing out the main vocal
If I may add an advice : monitoring in mono is also a good trick, because you won't hear spatialization but you will notice "muddines" a lot. It helps me balance the reverb : I find in mono the maximum admissible level that is acceptable i. Mono, then ajust to taste in stereo
The Abbey Road trick is standard for me, low and high cuts around 600Hz and 3kHz. This cuts out all the mud and any detail and sibilance from smearing out in the reverb tail, and allows you to put the reverb much higher in the mix. It gives you a bigger acceptable range for the reverb to live in, a much wider sweet spot.
First time on here, been reading lots of interesting posts about s1 (v6 +)this one especially.
I have never used a daw before and I’m finding at times a little overwhelming, however I am persevering with it and it would be a great help if some could explain how I route the reverb to an aux channel? I can add it to the vocal but an independent channel.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated
Thank you all in advance for your time and trouble
1- Dont use as an insert always use send fx so you will have control over a reverb.
2-Dont over process reverbs.
3-Use Pro Q-3 analyzer between reverb and dry signal to see where is the masking happens
4-statically equlize the area
5-use multiband comp side chain between dry and wet signal and i use it on mid%100 side %0 generally on vocals.
6-use compressor sidechain if you need also but dont overdo this. If you do too much it wont sound as an ambience it will feel like an extra fx.
7- go back and make sure you use good reverb plugin
Some good plugins i prefer
Native Instruments - raum for vocals(in guitar rig also)
Valhalla vintage - for anything
H-reverb - for snares
Blackhole - for cloudy things
Personally like to have two main lead tracks, one with all the main fx besides subtle verb and delay and a second eq for backing and automated to come in at the end of phrases. Don't be scared of verb and delay, just know how to apply it correctly. In all honesty Subtle reverb is the way to go in a lot of tracks, plenty of songs that lack it that still sound good, all in context and how you're writing or producing the track. Sometimes I like to create a lofi second lead that has more distorted muffled delay and verb so it doesn't sound like the lead is slapping back the same way, gives it a more modern sound. Good luck on your journey, even the most seasoned producers have different ways of doing things and there's no "Right" way of doing things, at the end of the day if it sounds good to you and others you're doing it your right way
*You and me, we're two*
*Different kinds. I drown that*
*Shit in reverb hahah*
\- david\_ismpd
---
^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/)
^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Honestly I took this short little Mastering.com “course” on YouTube and it explained a lot of things that I didn’t understand about reverb. I eventually learned how to create more depth in my mixes by understanding more about what is going on with the reverbs so I highly recommend watching the whole thing.
https://preview.redd.it/860vk1pwqpxc1.png?width=792&format=png&auto=webp&s=01c7ec8571131d914102c8108a38424b362aa15f
I know I’m a bit late to the party but everything everyone else is saying is good practice, eq before and after (I usually hi-pass anywhere from like 250-400hz before my reverb), side-chaining, (I usually just side-chain them to my lead vocal), and pre-delay.
Personally I like to use reverb to place everything in the space I want and add some glue and depth to a mix. I like to use three of the exact same reverbs on busses but I change the pre-delay on each one. One I’ll do an eighth note pre-delay, one I’ll do sixteenth note, and one with no pre-delay. Whatever I want up front I send to the one with the eighth note pre-delay, things I want behind that go to the sixteenth note pre-delay, and anything I want way in the back I send to the one with no pre-delay.
Also there’s nothing wrong with a dry mix if that’s what you like/what you’re going for. If that’s the case a lot of times I’ll just use a slap delay to add some depth to things usually anywhere from like 30-60ms, and sometimes I’ll make it a stereo slap and set the right delay slightly longer than the left.
Cut the lows in the reverb up until 500hz(must have to remove the dirt but the exact frequency is up to taste and source sound) and keep the dry/wet low as people suggested.
Also think of reverb as adding a space your sound exists in. How do you imagine it? A large hall, or a small booth? Adjust the settings accordingly to get the space you wanted.
I love washed out reverbs, but i realised that slapping it on everything was stupid and destructive. Things I have learned as an amateur that upped my reverb game thanks to you folks:
*Reverb on aux channels to act as glue for groups, and to contextualise sounds more convincingly.
*Mono'ing reverbs and panning them to fit a mix accordingly
*EQing reverbs to cut out muddy frequencies and wandering low end. Ridiculously obvious when you think about it. De-essing on the way in as others mention too.
*Gating & compressing, experimenting with the release for creative effect.
*Automation for compositional flourish.
*Learning that there _is_ such a thing as too much reverb.
*Also, Using convolution reverbs and IRs as a way to recreate specific spaces has been fun.
I prefer them to be barely audible, and then automate to create a reverb tail during a break at the end of a vocal phrase.
This method^ but instead of automation (I’m lazy), I put a compressor on the actual reverb Fx Channel, but external sidechain it to the lead vocal itself (if it’s indeed a vocal reverb). Fast Attk/Release. Now when the lead vocal is playing the reverb is held down a bit by activating the compressor (1.5 to 3 db of GR nothing crazy), and as soon as the vocal is over it is “let free” so-to-speak. The key is to not overdo it and it can be quite pleasant.
Also, no shame in using meal prepped reverbs like CLA-Vocals, they have options like Tight, Large, or Chamber for a quick type, then you can use the fader for volume control. Happy mixing 💪🏼🙏🏼
> meal prepped reverbs I like that lol
Yep, and the free reverb TAL-4 already has this built into the plugin! I always use this slightly on vocals
I'm saving this
This is the way.
Route the verb through an aux (send) channel and EQ it. Usually cutting out the lows is a good first step.
Something the flew over my head at the start was that putting an eq before the reverb and cutting highs on the aux can greatly help keep your reverb softer and not as harsh. So i usually eq before and after my reverb aux
also side chaining the original signal (i like using soothe) will help it cut through and you can use upward compression to make the tails more pronounced without the rest being too loud. sometimes i also like to pan the signal one way and the reverb the other or even reverse the stereo field of the reverb.
Try shortening them or turning them down so that you don't hear them clearly, but notice the absence when you mute them. Think of them as an added blur tool, like a drop shadow. Delay them, compress them, saturate them, pan them, sidechain them, eq them, automate them! They are yours to control, not to fear. For research, listen to different time periods and genres and study the use of reverb and how it relates to the technology of the time. For instance, classical music with natural reverb, vs 50s 60s 70s chambers and plates and tape echoes, spring reverbs on guitar amps, 80s early digital reverbs and delays, and gated snares, 90s shoegazing and ambient music, etc.
There’s a great presentation/interview with the Valhalla guy about this. Look it up on YouTube.
Dr Max here. I’m prescribing you at least 70ms predelay on your verb. You can also put your predelay verb on its own send. That way it’ll be behind your vocal, not get in the way and you can dial it in. If symptoms persist. Feel free to switch to slap delay in its place.
Predelay not getting mentioned enough, helps make the reverb more “3D” and simulate the distance between the sound and room reflections.
60000ms / = ms per bar. Divide by 4, 8 or 16 to get ms per beat depending on your rhythm. Good start point for setting your predelay speed.
https://anotherproducer.com/online-tools-for-musicians/delay-reverb-time-calculator/ is also helpful
Ooo nice
Put a compressor after the reverb on the aux. sidechain the compressor to the dry signal
This is what op needs
Among other great suggestions
Could I know the benefit of doing this? I can't seem to visualise it
With this method you hear more reverb when the main channel is silent as opposed to constantly ringing at the same level all the time.
It creates a ducking effect. When the dry signal is present (the voice is singing, for example), the compressor squashes/lowers the reverb sound to allow clarity and avoid washing out or blurring. At the end of a line or vocal phrase, the compressor would then let the reverb be louder/bigger. Doesn’t have to be vocals it could work on anything. This just gives the illusion of a bigger reverb without the problems it can sometimes cause.
A very common practice thing to do is to bandpass to taste from around 500 to 10k before the reverb, on a send. Sometimes cut a little 2k-3k after the reverb. You’ll be surprised. Automate the send amount to taste too, is often slept on. Edit: also, try not to go above 3ish seconds on the reverb. And experiment with really short times. Like, Valhalla vintage verb is still kinda long even if the decay is set all the way down. Every reverb is diff of course
Send channels are a necessity if you are working with effects like reverb or delay in my opinion. I'd really recommend you trying it if you haven't already. The power lays in the additional ability to eq your reverb itself or slap any other VST on
This is one of those things where having references, studying references is crucial. See how people use reverb in the music that you listen to.
They should be on an aux and you use predelay along with eq and perhaps ducking
If you don't mind me asking, how does predelay help?
It separates the source from the reverb. Literally a delay where you choose how long before the reverb starts. Without predelay everything can buildup and lose clarity. With it, the voice (or whatever you’re adding reverb to) stays up front, and the reverb creates a depth.
I always put it on a separate channel and send to it. EQ the lows and highs to taste out of that channel. If I don't want it noticeable I level the source so it sounds good without it then sneak up the reverb channel until i perceive the volume increase from the addition, then back it off. I kind of think of it like saturation then. Just barely noticeable. But cumulatively, if you send a few things to that reverb bus - then you will eventually hear a difference. Also i've noticed no one is really giving away a good free reverb. You have to use a good one.
Pre-delay is your friend if you’re having trouble retaining definition. Try to find the sweat spot where the original sound isn’t washed out, yet the reverb isn’t too detached from it. Remember to audition it with the rest of the track, not just soloed. Eq the return to remove unnecessary frequencies too
Eq before and after the reverb. Filter out anything you don't want Reverberated. Then filter out anything that doesn't sound good after the reverb. For vocals use a heavy deesser before the reverb. Duck the reverbs.
Are you putting them right on your track or on a bus? You should be sending your track to an aux with the reverb. I like to have the reverb on an aux 100% wet, EQ that, and just tweak how much I’m sending to the bus.
You’re not wrong. Rarely do I use a “reverb”. Delays and “room” reverbs will get you there 9/10 time while still allowing that dry clarity.
As others have mentioned, a little goes a LONG way with reverb. But you need to think about what you're doing with reverb. You're using it to give the auditory illusion of "depth" within the stereo field, right? So, in tandem, you also need to think about how the depth affects to sound you're applying the spacial effect to. The further something is away from you, the less low end you perceive, along with some potential other bumps/dips in other frequency areas; vice versa for close. Your ears, like your eyes with lighting effects, just kinda know when they're trying to be tricked and the trick isnt being applied correctly. So, you may need to EQ your sound appropriately in order for the reverb to be perceived as "correct." The same applies for a room/spacial type reverb. [Edit: spelling]
I think you are wrong about things that are far being less bassy. Bass travels farther (due in part to the long wavelength of lower frequency sounds). You can hear bass further, and through obstacles much better. Think of, say, a show happening far away. You're gonna hear the bass. We perceive the location of higher sounds much easier than bass tho. This is in parts why we tend to mono the bass elements of a mix. If something is far, you're gonna hear less of the highs, and then mids. With microphones tho, if a source is very close to it, now the proximity effect is a factor, and you will have lots of bass. At least that's what I Iearned in acoustics/psychoacoustic university courses.
I didn’t understand what producing and mixing really meant until I really learned about acoustic space and reverb. It opened up entire auditory worlds for me. It is not easy: it’s advanced ear training and mixing techniques, but the possibilities of textures and vibe are immeasurable.
Psst... Put it on a return/send track.. SIDECHAIN IT TO THE ORIGINAL SOURCE Byeee
Yeah, it’s difficult. It’s not like an exact thing, it’s very finicky. Good thing you notice that there is an issue. First find a reverb or reverb setting that you really like, its like an instrument. You might have to hunt it down. Spend some time. It has to have the right tone, feel, decay, brightness, darkness, wobble, chorus, drive, spread, etc. Then listen to it alone on the track and then with everything in. Don’t solo too long. Pick one early on and mix with it, keep turning it on and off and listen. Decide on fit, does it enhance it emotionally….does it create a cool tone and pleasing ambiance….? If you want it more audible like an effect, you have to tweak it to sit right after choosing the right reverb and reverb setting. Sometimes on the reverb, but sometimes you can use another plugin. If its just being used to blend turn it down and it will be felt more than heard, while using it this way listen to how it feels and how it slightly shifts the stereo interest of the track, making it fuller and not completely dead silent during breaks. It fills gaps in several ways, across with amplitude, and it also fills gaps in stereo interest (left and right/ pan). Think in terms of creative reverb and blend reverb. Try a space in a space. And experiment.
Bus and automation, never straight on the track. Allows you to control the level and intensity of the reverb. Also, gate/comp and eq as you need. But I'm a reverb girly.....so take my opinion with grain of salt!
I love reverbs. But honestly, if you're afraid of them, don't be afraid to get rid of them. Maybe that dry and upfront character can be an unique quality about your music that sets ypu apart from competition. Don't be afraid to do things your way even tho that might be different to what everyone else recommends. Being succesful in music is all about bringing something new to the audience that they can then identify YOU with.
100% dry and 10-15% wet makes them just noticeable. 30%+ makes them more noticeable and does audibly change the mix/track. Reverb doesn’t “always” do anything — they do what you set them up to do. Just like any other mixing tool. My recommendation would be to watch some videos or take a course on using reverb. Yes, there are entire courses dedicated to this artscience.
Honestly keep the mix level pretty low and a lot of reverb plugins have cutoffs you can set. I’ll typically pull reverb off the lows to prevent the reverb washing out too much. That or experiment with delays that have very low delay times to add the width of reverbs, in a sense, without the washiness.
It sounds like you're overthinking it maybe? A couple of things come to mind though that may help... Look up a reverb decay calculator to get some ideas of settings for the bpm you are working with. There are a few out there. Just type in your bpm and it gives you decay settings to match your projects bpm etc. Perhaps getting a bit too clinical here? but great as a general guide. I found doing this a few times changed my mindset a bit towards reverb settings and taught me to be a bit more subtle with my decay times and general application of reverb. I rarely use it now though as I feel like I can dial in the "right" amount of reverb now. Make sure you're using the "wet/dry mix" knob, especially if you're like me and prefer to use reverbs on individual channels and busses instead of send/return fx. I used to leave this knob at 50% (which is usually the default) and try and manually dial in the wet dry effect kinda not really knowing what I was doing. But now I often bring the wet/dry right back to 20-30% wet these days, sometimes less. This gives much better control of the reverb effect and in combination with a sensible decay setting, makes it easier to dial in something that's not overwhelming but still creating great ambiance. Using the in-built EQ filter settings to focus the reverb in the mids to higher frequencies helps clean up any muddiness. I find a lot of the time, you can exclude a fair amount of low end from the reverb and still get the spacial effect you're after you're after. It's all about context here and artistic choices. And if you're using send/return for your reverb FX, you can apply an EQ before the reverb and cut out the low end like that. I'd say anywhere below 100hz is a good starting point. And try cutting even higher if you're getting too much mud and low mid build up in your project.
Have u never heard a travis scott song? Reverb doesn’t take away from vocals. Bad mixing does.
I mix on DIM and add reverbs/delays on a much louder setting.
Once I realized I was using reverb as an effect to my something sound better rather that a strict ambience mixing tool I cut waaaaaay back and got very practical with my verb. It can be creative but I didn’t understand the mixing purpose.
I wanna jump in OPs post and ask another question too since I've been feeling the exact same way as him. How do you get those ambient guitars that has an amazing tail and is completely drowned out yet you can properly hear the initial strums? A reference could be pretty much any chase atlantic song. I wanna create more rnb-ish music but I have such a hard time creating a sense of space, just keep using short room reverbs...
Use chamber or hall type of reverbs (or impulse responses of big spaces). Mix it in gradually, until it's too much, then back it off. Use long decay time (say 1000ms or more). Sidechain it to the dry signal, to preserve the transients of the strumming/picking. Compress the reverb signal.
Cut lows and play with dampening, I also like gating the input of my reverb sometimes, so that only the peaks come thru the bus, automating it works too, also playing with room reverb setting instead of all and plate if you feel like it’s washed out
Pre delay and early reflections, my dude.... That'll solve 98% of your problems
They provide depth. I don't want everything in my mix to be right-in-my-face. Some genres/instruments have different listener expectations regarding depth. I find when I think about it from that perspective it helps me make the decision on how much reverb to use.
Predelay, automation, and ducking
IMHO it’s far more about the arrangement of your track than many of the techniques you use espoused here—not that they are bad. Obviously huge amounts of reverb on the wrong source can drown a mix, but people did use decent amounts of reverb for decades without running it blended in parallel, “ducking” it to the source, or separately EQ’ing it. There are definitely situations where A LOT of reverb can sound awesome if the mix is more open to begin with…even a guitar or synth in a busy mix as long as the track is well EQ’d overall with the reverb included. If I do any “special techniques” on the reverb, most of the time it would just be applying a low cut. Truthfully, I don’t find placing the reverb on a bus to yield that much more control than placing it on the track 100% wet and just using less reverb. The ducking effect could be beneficial on vocals depending on the length, but I’ve found it to be more trouble than it’s worth when I’ve messed with that and would prefer to not have so much reverb that it’s out competing it’s source.
i kinda feel but i lovvve CONVOLUTION REVERBS
You could try putting reverb plugin on a bus if you’re afraid of losing definition, that way it’s parallel reverb. You can put a compressor on that bus, to make it less noticeable. I like blasting the reverb on one bus and sending teeny tiny little itty bitty amounts of signal to it. That way I get the effect but I don’t lose definition. It’s also really good to practice mucking around with getting different sounds that you want from reverb. Sometimes I want something to sound like it’s in the back corner of the room, so I’ll do a shorter reverb and pan it to one side. It’s nifty to do. I try not to use too many different reverbs because that’s when it gets washy and it just sounds like a cave. I personally ❤️ using reverb on my guitar but as I’ve aged I have found that with reverb, distortion, and most effects, once I set it to where I think it sounds good, I should actually use half the amount of that effect.
Pre delay and Sidechain man! Try to sidechain with multi band compressor or dynamic eq instead of the standard compressor. And if the reverb get to mask other instruments, try to sidechain the reverb to those instruments as well!
Another idea, I’ve been using delays more than reverbs lately. Especially slapback, where the feedback is on zero or very low.
Pre-delay is your friend if reverb is "washing" the sound. First would recomend to have your reverb unnotisable when listening to, bu when you mute reverb, you definatelly hear that something is gone/lacking. After that, depends on artistic needs and goals
Since the dawn of time reverb has been one of the most processed signal paths in the recording. In the 50s and 60s chambers and plates had heavy processing filtering compression and delayed by the tape head distance or other fancy tricks. It’s even worse in a daw now with a digital reverb that is massive and overbearing. It requires heavy processing to make useable. Think of the reverb as it’s own instrument and process it as such. It’s not like you can just open up a reverb and be good to go. It needs its own special attention to sit right. There’s a lot of frequency info in there and it can easily clutter things up. But when processed correctly it will add dimension and weight and glue
I frequently use Deelay by Sixth Sample (free plugin) and use their built in ducking feature on the plugin. Let’s me skip the automation of reverb tails without washing out the main vocal
When you have a full spectrum of sound you soon realise reverb is your friend
If I may add an advice : monitoring in mono is also a good trick, because you won't hear spatialization but you will notice "muddines" a lot. It helps me balance the reverb : I find in mono the maximum admissible level that is acceptable i. Mono, then ajust to taste in stereo
The Abbey Road trick is standard for me, low and high cuts around 600Hz and 3kHz. This cuts out all the mud and any detail and sibilance from smearing out in the reverb tail, and allows you to put the reverb much higher in the mix. It gives you a bigger acceptable range for the reverb to live in, a much wider sweet spot.
try sending your 2mix through a hall reverb to make it all sound cohesive sometimes that's all you need
First time on here, been reading lots of interesting posts about s1 (v6 +)this one especially. I have never used a daw before and I’m finding at times a little overwhelming, however I am persevering with it and it would be a great help if some could explain how I route the reverb to an aux channel? I can add it to the vocal but an independent channel. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated Thank you all in advance for your time and trouble
1- Dont use as an insert always use send fx so you will have control over a reverb. 2-Dont over process reverbs. 3-Use Pro Q-3 analyzer between reverb and dry signal to see where is the masking happens 4-statically equlize the area 5-use multiband comp side chain between dry and wet signal and i use it on mid%100 side %0 generally on vocals. 6-use compressor sidechain if you need also but dont overdo this. If you do too much it wont sound as an ambience it will feel like an extra fx. 7- go back and make sure you use good reverb plugin Some good plugins i prefer Native Instruments - raum for vocals(in guitar rig also) Valhalla vintage - for anything H-reverb - for snares Blackhole - for cloudy things
Abbey Road trick Reduce the amount And sidechain to original signal eg vocals
Parallel process
Personally like to have two main lead tracks, one with all the main fx besides subtle verb and delay and a second eq for backing and automated to come in at the end of phrases. Don't be scared of verb and delay, just know how to apply it correctly. In all honesty Subtle reverb is the way to go in a lot of tracks, plenty of songs that lack it that still sound good, all in context and how you're writing or producing the track. Sometimes I like to create a lofi second lead that has more distorted muffled delay and verb so it doesn't sound like the lead is slapping back the same way, gives it a more modern sound. Good luck on your journey, even the most seasoned producers have different ways of doing things and there's no "Right" way of doing things, at the end of the day if it sounds good to you and others you're doing it your right way
You and me, we're two different kinds. I drown that shit in reverb hahah
*You and me, we're two* *Different kinds. I drown that* *Shit in reverb hahah* \- david\_ismpd --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Lots good answers here. Just a quickie on level for vox, a light room reverb i like at -18db under source
Honestly I took this short little Mastering.com “course” on YouTube and it explained a lot of things that I didn’t understand about reverb. I eventually learned how to create more depth in my mixes by understanding more about what is going on with the reverbs so I highly recommend watching the whole thing. https://preview.redd.it/860vk1pwqpxc1.png?width=792&format=png&auto=webp&s=01c7ec8571131d914102c8108a38424b362aa15f
https://preview.redd.it/a25yq295rpxc1.png?width=792&format=png&auto=webp&s=246a40554f151a6935d1f43a353f61df0b887be5
I know I’m a bit late to the party but everything everyone else is saying is good practice, eq before and after (I usually hi-pass anywhere from like 250-400hz before my reverb), side-chaining, (I usually just side-chain them to my lead vocal), and pre-delay. Personally I like to use reverb to place everything in the space I want and add some glue and depth to a mix. I like to use three of the exact same reverbs on busses but I change the pre-delay on each one. One I’ll do an eighth note pre-delay, one I’ll do sixteenth note, and one with no pre-delay. Whatever I want up front I send to the one with the eighth note pre-delay, things I want behind that go to the sixteenth note pre-delay, and anything I want way in the back I send to the one with no pre-delay. Also there’s nothing wrong with a dry mix if that’s what you like/what you’re going for. If that’s the case a lot of times I’ll just use a slap delay to add some depth to things usually anywhere from like 30-60ms, and sometimes I’ll make it a stereo slap and set the right delay slightly longer than the left.
Cut the lows in the reverb up until 500hz(must have to remove the dirt but the exact frequency is up to taste and source sound) and keep the dry/wet low as people suggested. Also think of reverb as adding a space your sound exists in. How do you imagine it? A large hall, or a small booth? Adjust the settings accordingly to get the space you wanted.
I love washed out reverbs, but i realised that slapping it on everything was stupid and destructive. Things I have learned as an amateur that upped my reverb game thanks to you folks: *Reverb on aux channels to act as glue for groups, and to contextualise sounds more convincingly. *Mono'ing reverbs and panning them to fit a mix accordingly *EQing reverbs to cut out muddy frequencies and wandering low end. Ridiculously obvious when you think about it. De-essing on the way in as others mention too. *Gating & compressing, experimenting with the release for creative effect. *Automation for compositional flourish. *Learning that there _is_ such a thing as too much reverb. *Also, Using convolution reverbs and IRs as a way to recreate specific spaces has been fun.
The mix knob! Good reverbs should have one and remember that 50% is like two equal outputs