Reverb is one of the oldest and most common effects available to the modern producer. Almost every track you listen to will have some kind of reverb effects going on somewhere - whether subtly to give life to a part, or dramatically for a big atmospheric effect. But when should you be using it in your tracks? And how? Read on for the lowdown...
Reverb is such a common digital effect in 2011 that almost everyone has access to a good quality reverb plugin - the Space Designer that comes free with Logic is one such example – and these offer a wide range of effects, from room and hall reverbs to plate and spring sounds. You can even load your own new presets in, by creating or downloading impulse responses. It's often worth looking around online for these, as you can find emulations of classic effects units available (sometimes for free!).
So, what is reverb actually for? Well, ultimately, it is designed to do one thing - to make something sound like it's in a particular space. It is to make the ear think that this vocal or that snare drum was recorded in a cathedral or bathroom. This might sound obvious, but it's important to remember as you go forward - to use reverb as an effect in this way, you should always be thinking of what space you're putting things in.
When putting reverb on your drums for instance, it's a good idea to put the plugin on a buss and send various channels to it. This is useful for two reasons; first, you're guaranteeing that all your drums will be in a similar space, and that gives a coherent feel to the mixdown. Second, if you have a reverb on a buss then you can put effects on the reverb tail without affecting the original signal (not to mention that it's a lot more CPU-efficient to have one reverb on a buss rather than several across your drum channels).
Why would you want to put reverb on your drums? It's usually to do with giving a natural effect. If you program a set of individual hits, they can sound very dry, and like they don't exactly belong together. By putting a subtle reverb on them - for instance, a short room reverb, with a reverb time of 0.5 seconds or so, you can make them feel much more 'live' and more natural. It can also help gel together a set of disparate samples that might all be taken from different loops and drum machines. Try a simple, small room reverb (mixed quietly), and turn the effect on and off - you'll be surprised how much depth even a slight effect can bring.
Effecting the reverb return can be important too - most notably in the form of EQ. You don't need bassy reverb, as it can clutter up a mix but adds little in the way of spatial information. So put an EQ after your reverb and cut any frequencies you don't need, including any unpleasant top end hiss.
With the current surge in interest in the 80s, another trick you might have heard of is the gated snare reverb. It's not subtle and it's not clever, but if you really want the biggest snare in the world then send your snare to a reverb buss with a huge, bright, toppy hall reverb on it. Then put a noise gate after the reverb, that cuts out the reverb tail at about 0.3s. Then compress heavily to make sure there's no shape, and finally EQ to taste (you can leave in plenty of low mids this time, to give more weight to the snare). Voila - instant Phil Collins. But use sparingly!
There are, in fact, several ways of using reverb to evoke an era, rather than a location. You can figure these out by listening to what characterises certain sounds, but for instance you may wish to use a big splashy plate reverb setting to get the sound of those old dub studios of the 1970s, or go back even further and use a spring reverb to mimic the sound of old blues and rock n' roll guitar amp sounds from the 60s.
Other suggestions for effects could be setting the pre-delay of your reverb in time with the track (maybe a half-beat) to give a percussive effect, or the old techno trick of using a big heavy reverb, low-pass filtered, to create a rumbling bass sound, and then side-chaining it off your kick. Or make your epic build-ups even bigger by gradually turning up a send from your synth part to a reverb channel as the build progresses. Or the old classic of putting a long reverb on your synth part, bouncing it, importing the file, and reversing it to create a fade-in/woosh effect. And that's not to mention our classic effect of simply getting a great big reverb and putting a couple of percussion sounds through it, just for a big sci-fi atmosphere, with maybe a phaser after the reverb effect. There really are all sorts of possibilities.
One tip for mixing? Besides EQing out the frequencies that you don't need, that is - turn it down! You always need less reverb than you think you do. And if you're working on headphones, turn it down even further. Headphones usually reveal so much detail that you can really focus in on the interesting depth to your verbs - which is then completely lost when you get the track onto speakers. So be careful not to overdo it.
This should give you a useful overview of what reverb is all about, and how to go about using it to boost your tracks - it's not all about just making a spacey synth part; it can really help you shape your mixdowns. So fire up that plugin and get reverberating!
