Mixing 2

Reverb: Artificial Reverberation Effects

Basic Reverb Settings

Like most effects processors, reverb processors have pre-programmed patches that give you instantly useable settings. There are many settings that can be modified though, and although some of them are quite complicated, the most common adjustable parameters are explained below.

Pre-Delay

The delay time (typically between 30 to 100ms) before the reverb is heard. The longer the predelay, the bigger the room sounds. Longer pre-delays can also be useful in conjunction with vocal reverb treatments to prevent the reverb detracting from the clarity and impact of the vocals.

Decay Time

This is the length of the reverb 'tail', the beit you hear dying away. A long overall reverb decay time can be suggestive of large environments, but much depends on the early reflections that preceded them. For example, a very reflective, small tiled room may have almost as long a decay time as a large hall, but the nature of the early reflections and the brightness of the following reverb tail are what give us the clues as to the room's actual size.

Reverb Types

An any respectable reverb processor you will find reverb patches that generate the reverb properties of the following broad categories: hall, chamber, plate, room, reverse and gated.

Hall Reverb

A 'concert hall' sound. These are the smoothest and richest of the reverb settings.

Chamber Reverb

Simulates the sound of a reverberation chamber or echo chamber, which were used to create reverb in the days before digital reverb technology was invented. The sound of a chamber reverb is smooth, like a hall (see above), but with more 'mids' and 'highs'.

Plate reverb

These are the brightest sounding reverbs. These days they are imitations of genuine plate reverb, where sound is played into a large, suspended metal plate. Plate reverbs are very clean and nonintrusive, with lots of 'highs'.

Room Reverb

These can come under lots of different names, for example 'bedroom', 'bathroom', 'garage'. They are 'smaller' than the hall and chamber sounds. Rooms with lots of soft surfaces have little high-frequency content in their reverberation. Rooms with lots of hard surfaces have lots of high-frequency content in their reverberation.

Reverse Reverb

This is simply backwards reverb. After the original sound is heard the reverb swells and stops. 

Gated Reverb

Gated reverb has a sound that is very intense for a period of time, then closes off quickly. It can give an instrument a big sound without overwhelming the mix, because the gate keeps closing it off. 

Delay Effects

Delay is a very simple but useful effect with a wide variety of applications and uses. At the simplest level it can be used to create a simple slapback effect to double a part or to give the impression of added ambience. At the more creative level it can be used to create very complex rhythmic interest to a part.
Chorus, Phasing and Flanging effects are also types of delays: they are modulated delays, meaning that the delayed part of the sound is itself modulated in some way and fed back into the delay machine creating a continuously evolving and changing sound.

DELAY EXAMPLES

Echo
250ms Slapback delay (no feedback)

This is the simplest form of delay with just one repeat of the original sound. They are very common and effective for producing big guitar or vocal sounds.
50ms Slapback delay (no feedback)
Very short delays like this are good for thickening a vocal or instrumental sound
Repeating Delays
11ms Doubling Delay (no feedback)
This is an extremely short delay and creates the illusion of two people (or instruments). It can be used to create a simple 'double-tracking' effect, thickening or widening a sound.

PHASER EXAMPLE

Phaser (Phase shifter)
The original signal is combined with the delayed signal, which itself is continually varied in its delay times. Phasing is similar to both chorus and flanging, but uses much shorter delay times. Feedback may be added to strengthen the swept filter effect it creates. Phasing is far more subtle than flanging and is often used on guitar parts, producing a sweeping EQ effect. 

FLANGING EXAMPLES

Flanging - example 1
Flanging - example 2
Uses the same principle as a phase shifter, but with longer delay times that are continually varied. Flanging is the strongest of the standard modulation effects. The feedback control increases the depth of the 'comb filtering' . Because it is such a distinctive effect, it is best used sparingly. Flangers work very well on guitars and Rhodes type keyboards.

CHORUS EXAMPLES

Chorus - example 1
Chorus - example 2
Again, chorus uses longer delay times of around 15 to 35ms. Chorus is useful for 'softening' rhythm guitar or synth pad sounds, but it does tend to push sounds further back into the mix, so it should be used with care.

When phasing is bad

Phasing results when a signal is added to itself slightly out of phase and the two audio signals interfere and cancel out certain frequencies. This is what the phaser effect does under the modulation effects in Cubase. However it can happen when using more than one microphone to capture your recording e.g. an overhead stereo pair on a kit so remember the 3:1 rule (mics 3 times further from each other than they are from the sound source).

Can you hear the vocal losing its characteristics when the second mic on the guitar is added to the mix?
Voc only audio
Voc and guitar audio