So today let's chat a bit about reverbs. Basically reverbs are the glue to the mix. They place all the sounds/tracks in a sonic space and help blend them together. It's a great way to help add that depth and space, as well as cover up imperfections that may be in place from a natural recording. Reverb is essentially lots and lots of little reflections of sound off walls and other objects. If you clap your hands in a hallway you normally hear a flutter effect, those are reflections you hear back bouncing off the walls. In a larger space those reflections are happening more quickly together, and become more diffuse so you can't really hear each reflection individually like you would in that hallway - this is essentially reverb. Basic Terminologies: Dry/Wet - Dry is the original Signal, Wet is the processed signal. Also referred to as MIX. Initial Delay - how long it takes for the reverb to start sounding, this is place both people and instruments in the room Early Reflecitons (ER) - this is the very, very short initial "slap-backs" or the initial sound that gets reflected first when a sound hits a wall for example - this really helps place (in the stereo field, both left-right and how far the person is a away from you) in the track you are using in a space and can help "color" the reverb. Diffusion - how "fluttery" a reverb is Decay (also sometimes called tail) is the length of how long the reverb will be, usually in milliseconds or seconds. Mod - this helps to blend the sound of the reverb, usually by slightly varying the pitch and then feeding that variance back into the reverb. Dampening - the sound of a reverb is really defined by how quickly groups of frequencies decay. A "dark" hall would have the high frequencies decay a lot faster so there is not much high frequency noises happening in the tail of the reverb, where a "bright" hall has the opposite effect, where the lower frequencies get absorbed faster (or dampened) so the high frequencies really start shimmering around. EQ - not to be confused with Dampening - remember, Dampening is the speed at which the frequencies decay, whereas EQ just boosts or cuts a broad spectrum of frequencies all at once, all of the time. Feedback - this is audio that once processed is processed again and again through the same settings. You can add more feedback to a hall to blur effects or sometime get some cool sound design options happening. BEGINNER MISTAKES: I hear a lot of demos with TOO much reverb applied. This muddies the mix, meaning I don't hear much clarity or space all I hear is a massive amount of reverb. This can get fixed by either adjusting the length of the tail or changing the mix around. Another mistake I hear is if a reverb is put on a "auxiliary" channel and not set 100% to wet, you start doubling the dry signal which can cause either phasing problems or just create balance problems in your mix. Remember unless you are "inserting" a reverb on a track, usually you "bus" the track through an auxiliary group - when you are bussing make sure you mix is set to 100% wet, if you are inserting you will probably want some dry signal to be mixed in (unless you are going for a very washy effect). Here is one of the reverbs you should have in your "starting" out arsenal. It's only $50 usd and really well programmed. https://valhalladsp.com/shop/plugins/valhalla-room/ Questions? Other reverbs you like?
Composing : Plugin Thursday - Valhalla DSP (reverb) by Samuel Estes
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Correct = adjusting the length of the tail is usually the decay - sometimes I also adjust the dampening depending on what I want to do. Second - changing the mix, is the "blend" of the dry to the wet signal. If you are in the "bus" scenario, its usually lowering the volume of the send on the instrument track, or just bringing down the overall volume on the master auxiliary bus track (reverb track). Probably should do a blog on basic routing and mixing next... ;)
Great post Sam. That is correct, I have ruined many great songs with too much reverb and use it sparingly now and sometimes not at all. :)
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For those who want to 'try out' reverb as a VST but are on a budget, consider what I am currently using: Freeverb http://www.nongnu.org/freeverb3/ You don't have to be a techie to use this. There are so many pre-configurations (defined as '.wav' files) and you can additional free ones from Samplicity (the free tab) and Voxengo (http://www.voxengo.com/impulses/) to name a few.
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Brandi: There are many vst's out there that are similar to reverb but slightly different that you can substitue it with, depending on what instruments/tempo/style you are doing at the moment. Lately I've been using the Ronin and Aether vst's and they have the ability to not only add reverb but with Ronin you can do "synchronizations" which is like a very different and cool sounding type that bounces back and forth between your ears while it reverbs if you're listening on headphones and many more options as well. It's usually used in electronica but I found some greats settings for classical as well. Aether is similar it allows you to actually map the physics of the reverb model and determine how big the space and which direction it's coming from and how big the orchestra is, there are so many possible settings in Aether, and that physics model you create is reflected in the headphones like it sounds like it's in a space and coming from a certain direction and reverbing back however far you set it or bouncing around or whatever you want. Also for fast string/piano notes in your songs if you use any reverb at all it could shroud the counterpoints and chord progressions you worked so hard to create. I was exaggerating I usually still use a tiny bit of reverb in those but I modulate it. Most DAWs have this option where you can change the rate of dry/wet Sam was talking about in his post above. Throughout your song you can make it higher reverb in the slow notes and lower in the fast notes so they don't get shrouded. The best thing for you to do is make friends with audio producers and have them show you their vst toys so you can get an idea what things sound like. Good luck :) -Chris
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I think it should also be noted that reverb can often introduce some unwanted bass frequencies which contributes to a "muddy" mix. So, it's sometimes a good idea to add an EQ after the reverb to monitor/correct that.
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Love Valhalla, works and sound great though my fave is still Altiverb!
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Altiverb is a great reverb - I actually am not a big fan of the impulse response reverbs, prefer the synthetic ones - just a bit smoother on the tail and not as "ringy/metallic". But as far as IR verbs go, Altiverb is definitely one of the best. Thanks for sharing Jim!
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IR reverbs have their place. I use them usually for some sort of special effect or when live recording. One can using any short sample as an IR, so the creative flexibility is nice.
I l love pretty much all of the included Reverbs in Ableton 9 live suite and the Aether as well, although it has too many settings for me and I waste too much time fiddling with 500 knobs instead of working on the actual song. Reverb is dangerous too you can ruin a good song with it if you're not careful or make it sound beautiful. I've found that sometimes lowering the dry/wet to 40 or 60% or shortening the delay time can sound great if it's on a perfectly recorded track. Cheers Sam
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reverb is lovely if not over-used (muddy mixes are undesirable). I aim for a near but not close sound. Perfect studio sound is weak with minimal or non-existent character.