How much reverb should i add

Reverb is meant to enhance your mixes and songs, not destroy them. These explanations, tips, and tricks will push your reverb game to the next level. Do you ever listen to professional mixes and wonder how in the world they have so many lush reverbs flowing throughout the soundscape, yet everything still sounds crystal clear?

How come you can't achieve the same? The answers are here. Most of the time we jump in, grab a reverb that has a sound we like, dial it in to a certain volume on varying instruments, and then bounce the mix.

There's so much wrong with that process Let's take the time to cover the fundamental basics of what reverb is and the types available and then we'll get right into the methods the pros use to blow minds and set the emotional feel of a song. That's the true power of reverb, but if you aren't doing it right then you're better off not using it.

Fear not, everything you need is right here. Once you're privy to the secrets, your mixes are going to enter an entire new world. Resist the temptation to revisit all of your old mixes! That's how exciting this is We have a lot more mixing tips concerning every type of effect, but for now let's look at mixing with reverb. Of all of the various effects at our disposal, the most misunderstood and dismissed is the reverb effect.

People throw that word out there like it's a piece of jargon that shows they are "in the know" and leave it at that. Okay but How much? Is there a primary goal here? Can we pull it off in a way that makes the song better than it currently is?

These are the questions that will receive answers in this guide. Dig up any old dictionary or do an internet search and you're going to the basic definition and understanding that most people have of reverb:. Reverb Definition - an electronically produced echo effect in recorded music. Short for "reverberation. That gets us nowhere fast. To paraphrase, reverb is an electronic reproduction of an echo The problem with this is that in the music industry, especially for a mixing engineer, there's a huge difference between an echo and reverb.

Echo has a long delay in between repetitions, like calling your name out into the Grand Canyon and waiting to here it bounce back. Reverb is thousands upon thousands of repetitions occurring so fast that you hear it more as a smear of sound based on the original.

We're talking around less than 0. If only reverb was that simple. Before we can use it effectively, we need to understand the three aspects of reverb:. These are three of the main four qualities of reverb that you will be controlling to create the sound you're after.

The other is the size, shape, and material of the virtual room you're creating. You can already imagine the difference in the dimensions of a room having an effect on reverb. Imagine a concert hall versus your tiled bathroom. Imagine a small wooden box versus a large metal box. The size effects the length of the reverb while the material effects the frequency response. Fortunately we don't need to design rooms even in a simple plugin every time we want to use a reverb.

We can run to a certain preset we know has the sound we need and use it as a starting point. This is possible because reverbs typically behave in one of five ways, which represent the five categories of reverb:.

You can dig in and find more styles, sub-categorize them, etc. But those are your main five types. The first three are based on rooms. These are the types of reverb you hear out in the physical world as you walk through buildings. The last two are types that mankind invented based on the vibration of either a spring or metal plate.

I love me a good plate reverb! We could go into a lengthy discussion trying to use words to explain how each one sounds. But really if you aren't aware, you can fire up your DAW and listen to each one or just wait until you're mixing again and run through them. Being able to identify the sound of each type of reverb helps you decide which sound you want to impart onto your mixes. Let's get to the good stuff now and talk about how to make specific decisions about reverb. Before we even talk about the tricks of making reverb sit perfectly within your mixes, it helps if we're making the right choices from the start.

Some reverbs are more appropriate than others to create certain moods. Some aspects of reverb work better with various types of arrangements.

Your main concern is choosing the right emotional quality for your mix. As an example, does the song call for something warm and natural or something metallic and dark? Your secondary concern is to make sure you're emphasizing qualities of the reverb that don't contribute to a harsh, muddy, or spacey mix.

These two concerns are critical to achieving that professional sounding mix. If you screw this up, it's not the end of the world but your'e limiting yourself.

The tips and tricks we're going to introduce later can't hide bad decisions. When choosing a reverb, there's a series of questions that are helpful in guiding your choices What size and kind of room? Or do I want to use reverb more as a noticeable effect and ear candy for the listener? If you want to emulate a specific type of space, such as a smoky bar or concert hall, then obviously you want to choose a room, hall, or chamber based on size first.

Then you want to consider the material of the walls, which is how a lot of plugins will label their presets.

For instance, you might decide to mix a five-piece bluegrass band's song using a "Small Room - Wooden Verb" preset. That might sound like your listeners are gathered around the front porch of a log cabin as the band plays from their rocking chairs.

If you're going for more of an effect then a spring or plate reverb is going to supply you with what you want better than the more natural room-based reverbs. Now that you know which reverb you're going to use, it's time to slap that sucker on the tracks and start tweaking!

Generally, you're going to want to place your reverb on individual instruments versus the master output. This is how it works in reality. Each individual sound being created in a room generates its own reverb. Typically, the louder a reverb is the further back in the soundscape an instrument sounds like it is. This is how you create a sensation of depth. Mentally visualize how you're designing the stereo field and where you want each specific instrument to sit, not only with left-to-right panning but front-to-back depth as designed by volume and reverb.

The first mistake of amateur mixers is to increase the volume of the reverb itself far too high. You must remember that all of your reverbs are going to combine into a louder overall reverb effect.

Always set your reverb volumes with the full song playing, not with each instrument in solo. The golden rule of almost every signal processing effect is to increase the volume to where you want it, and then turn it back down some.

Less is more. Log in Register. Search titles only. Search Advanced search…. New posts. Search forums. Log in. Change style. Contact us. Close Menu. Click Here. Home Forums Instruments Playing and Technique. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. How many of you use reverb when playing live?

Thread starter jmcorey Start date Jan 18, Messages Hey, I've been told that using reverb when playing live is a mistake, makes the sound too muddy, especially when playing in a big group with lots of instruments which I do.

But when I do a sound check, it sounds better with reverb and plain without it. Also, does playing clean or with overdrive influence your choice of reverb?

What do you guys think? JonR Member. Messages 15, This is one of those "it depends" questions. What reverb does is create an artificial sense of a large enclosed space. So if you're already in a large enclosed space But if your space is relatively small eg a bar or club rather than a concert hall , a touch of reverb will make your sound "bigger", which may well be desirable.

What would be rather silly would be to use a "room" reverb setting in a large concert hall It's true that, in a mix of other instruments, reverb will add a degree of mush, making your guitar move into the background somewhat. And if everyone uses reverb, then the mush obviously multiplies, esp if you all use different kinds or levels. But these effects are not necessarily bad things.

Some kinds of rock sound really good as a mushy wall of sound, as if the band is at the far end of a huge cavern.

Naturally distortion contributes to that too, filling all the space with noise. Other kinds of music sound better clean and crisp. And of course, there's a spectrum in between. The less reverb you use, the more exposed you are, and the more in-your-face the sound is for a listener.

Again, those can be either good or bad things - you choose. Personally, I mostly play vintage rock'n'roll and blues, in small bars. I use either the spring reverb on my amp usually set to no more than 3 or 4 , or a slap-back echo setting on a delay pedal for that rockabilly sound. The latter doesn't require reverb as well. For some of the more atmospheric tunes, I might turn the spring reverb way up.

I don't use digital reverb at all, not live. I have nothing against it, and use it for recording; it just doesn't suit what I do live. I don't like playing with no reverb at all.

I think if I was playing fingerstyle acoustic, in an intimate club setting, I might go completely dry assuming I had a good acoustic amp or PA - but even then a slight aura of reverb might be nice. Then again, in that kind of setting, no amplification of any kind can be best - so it really is a totally acoustic experience. The thing is, we hear unnatural sounds all the time in recorded music.

The sense of space in "big"-sounding recordings is totally artificial. In this short reverb guide, we are going to look at why you would want to use reverb , and how to add it properly so you will recognize when to apply proper reverb in your mix. Reverberation or the reverb effect is meant to replicate external acoustics so that we can use them in our mix. In real-life, reverb hits a hard surface and bounces back at the listener at varying amplitudes and times to create complex echoes.

Reverb effects in your DAW simulate natural or unnatural reverberations. The environment informs every sound we hear in real life. The environment a sound is in can give it several different qualities, including large, thin, dark, bright, and more. Reverb provides mixes with a sense of depth, though it also provides listeners with clues as to where the sound exists.

With reverb, you can bring listeners into a cave, a concert hall, a cathedral, a chamber, or a smaller, more intimate room. Using reverb effects on every channel can cut into your CPU very fast. We can then send the sounds that we want to be effected to our reverb bus.

Plus, setting up a send rather than sticking your reverb directly on the track gives you more control of your sound. If the reverb you are using has presets, try testing them out to get a sense of what they sound like. One question you might ask yourself is,. Choose the type of reverb that suits your mix in the best way possible, whether you are using it on multiple instruments or a single source.

The size parameter gives you control over the size of your space. The smaller the size, the shorter your reverbs will be, and vice versa. It is important to note that size can also impact the stereo image. Larger reverbs will give you a longer, fuller sound, while shorter reverbs will provide you with a narrower, more intimate sound. Tip — If you are using longer reverbs, keep them quieter in the mix.

Long reverbs tend to wash out a mix. Shorter reverbs, on the other hand, can be brought up a bit more without adding mud. Pre-Delay provides you with space between your dry signal and reverb signal. A short pre-delay time will give you little to no time between your dry and wet signal, creating the sound of a room. On the downside, no pre-delay can make your reverb sound messy. Larger pre-delays will create a small delay before your reverb kicks in, giving you the sound of a larger environment.

Plus, you get the benefit of maintaining a clear signal while still hearing your reverb. Tip — Always make sure to time your pre-delay to the track you are working on.

Here is a handy delay and reverb calculator that you can use to improve your mixes. Early reflections are categorized by sounds that arrive at the listener after being reflected once or twice off of a surface.

The more early reflections you have in a mix, the more of an echo or doubling effect you get. Diffusion, on the other hand, gives you the ability to add or reduce reverb texture. Setting your diffusion levels high gives you more complex space with obstructive objects. We like to think of a church with a ton of people in it. Setting your diffusion levels low gives you a more basic sound. We like to think of an empty garage with reflective surfaces.

High diffusion levels breed smoother and warmer reverb while low diffusion levels breed bright, less-colored reverb. In Valhalla Vintage Verb , Early and Late Reflections are linked to diffusion, though other types of reverb plug-ins are different.

When you drown all of your tracks in reverb, you miss out on that contrast. Essentially, if all of your tracks have reverb, all of them will sound far away without any of them sounding close. This way, you can add reverb to your other instruments in your mix, such as your guitar, keyboards, synths, etc. Remember, the point of reverb is to create depth.