intermusic.

com Page 1 of 4

Future websites

To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu.
Click here to return to intermusic.com

Studio sessions part2 Reverb

Reverb is all around us, any sound we hear in nature always comes
complete with reverb. Trevor Curwen explains...

Out of all the effects that you can apply to your music, reverb is probably the most commonly used one, which
may be because it is the sound that's heard everywhere (and we mean everywhere apart from those anechoic
chambers) in nature.

Reverberation is the sound that our brain recognises and uses to tell us what environment we are in. Each
environment or space affects the sound of any noise made in that environment, bathing that sound in an
ambience or reverb that reflects the size and type of space. Each different space has its own natural reverb, which
acts like an acoustic signature. That is why the Albert Hall sounds different from the back room of your local pub
and why you always sound better singing in the bathroom than in any other room in the house. (Unless your other
rooms are very small and very tiled, obviously.)

Natural reverb, from a particular space, is often used on recordings. In classical orchestra recordings, for instance,
the hall's natural acoustic is an essential and integral part of the overall sound picture. In any recording studio
when recording a live drumkit a couple of channels may be used to record room mics which are set up at a
distance from the kit to record the specific sound of the kit in the room.

In the case of a drum kit recorded over multiple tracks, including a couple of tracks of room mics, you have the
choice, when mixing, of adding the room sound to the close mic'd sound to add ambience to the kit. Generally,
however, when recording instruments on one track if you record the room sound along with the instrument as an
integral part of the sound you are pretty much stuck with it, making you committed to using that room sound in the
mix, which limits the creative options considerably.

Bearing this in mind, in the majority of studio situations, instruments and voices are recorded with close mics
capturing the direct sound and excluding just about all the ambience. This keeps the creative options open so that
the ambience can be added later with artificial reverb. Rather than have the natural sounds of several different
rooms competing with each other in the mix, recording instruments dry allows you to choose the right sort of
reverb to enhance the sound and apply it coherently when mixing the track later. It enables sounds that were not
recorded in the same room at the same time to sound like they were - if that is the desired effect - blending
together into a cohesive overall sound.

Functions

In the mix, reverb helps to create the overall three dimensional sound picture both in terms of stereo width and
front to back perspective. Roughly speaking, the more reverb added to a voice or instrument, the further away it
will sound, which can help to place it in context with other sounds in the track. This is, however, not solely the
province of reverb as EQ and compression are also used in the same context, but reverb plays a large part in

http://www.intermusic.com/print.asp?ReviewId=5165&ArticleTable=Features&FeatureT... 11/15/2002
intermusic.com Page 2 of 4

placing a sound in a particular space.

Reverb is also used to make sounds more natural. Instruments that have been recorded using close miking and
especially instruments that have been DI'ed exhibit a lack of ambience that can sound unpleasant and quite
unnatural. Reverb can help to smooth out these sounds and let them exist together in the mix by giving them a
sense of space and effectively blurring their edges.

Not always used in a subtle fashion, reverb also has its use as a special effect in its own right to enhance
particular sounds and effects.

Historical perspective

Artificial reverb has a history that stretches back way before our modern digital reverbs. One early method of
creating reverb was the chamber. This was a small room housing a speaker and microphone and lined with tiles
or other reflective surfaces. The sound to have reverb added to it was sent to the speaker, the resulting sound in
the chamber being captured by the mic and brought back to the mixing desk. The relative positions of microphone
and speaker could be changed for variations in the sound.

The idea of sending sound to a speaker in a room and miking up the room is still relevant today if circumstances
allow, with tiled bathrooms, stairwells and lift shafts all providing the type of spaces that could produce an
interesting reverb sound. And studios have been known to go to extraordinary lengths to get 'that' sound. One
famous New York studio reputedly used to sit a speaker on the roof of the lift and send it down to different floors
for loads of variations in the reverb sound. That's dedication for you...

Still in use in many pro studios (where space allows) are reverb plates. These take an electro-mechanical
approach to creating reverb. A plate is a large sheet of metal that is suspended under tension with transducers
attached to it. Reverb is produced by vibration of the plate and damping is applied to vary the sound.

The plate reverb sound is quite distinct from a natural room reverb and has become a staple sound in music
production to the extent that all digital reverb units contain simulations of plates. Another approach to creating
reverb is the spring reverb, the sound of surf guitar. Originally invented by the Hammond organ company and
popularised in guitar amplifiers, the spring reverb works on a similar principle to the plate but uses a long spring
instead of a more cumbersome metal sheet.

There have been stand-alone spring reverbs commercially available for studio use but with a distinct, perhaps lo-
fi, sound, their use is by no means widespread. Digital reverb is now ubiquitous, whether it be found in a top of the
range Lexicon, a budget multi FX unit or a plug-in. Using algorithms to create the sound of any space, digital
reverb is compact and versatile with absolute control over the sound and is the main source of artificial reverb for
most. Recent developments have involved sampling the reverb of real spaces such as respected concert halls
and making it available for use in a sampling reverb unit such as the Sony 777.

These units are currently expensive but prices should become more accessible as the use of the technology
becomes more widespread.

Reverb programs

Digital reverb units usually have programs designed to create the illusion of any acoustic environment plus some
that have little or no basis in reality but can be used for special effects. The main reverbs in digital units are
defined by a small number of categories, namely Hall, Room, Plate, Chamber, Ambience, Gated and Reverse.
Here's a quick run down of the main ones...

Hall reverbs simulate the acoustics found in large spaces such as the typical concert hall. The reverb density
tends to build up over time and there will be a long reverb tail. A hall reverb can make sounds seem further away
so is of use in putting some front-to-back perspective into a mix.

A room reverb generally simulates a smaller space than a hall (hence the name, of course!) and is a good all-
round reverb for instruments.

Plate reverb, as found in a digital unit, simulates the sound of the classic electro-mechanical reverb plates. The
plate sound, with a higher initial density and a coloured sound, has been a familiar choice in music over the last
few decades and is a very good option to use on vocals and drums.

http://www.intermusic.com/print.asp?ReviewId=5165&ArticleTable=Features&FeatureT... 11/15/2002
intermusic.com Page 3 of 4

Chamber reverbs simply emulate the sound of the previously mentioned reverb chamber.

Ambience programs are generally intended to give sounds a sense of space without any obvious colouration
and can be used to put some 'air' around close-mic'd or DI'd sounds.

Gated reverb was originally created by taking the reverb in an actual room and using a noise gate to cut it
abruptly rather than let the sound decay over time. In a digital reverb unit this effect can easily be created
electronically with precise control over the exact length of the reverb. Gated reverb can be quite aggressive and
tends to be used mostly on percussive sounds, and is particularly effective on snares.

Reverse reverb is reverb with a reversed envelope applied to it so that it builds up in level, rather than decays,
after the original sound. A different type of reverse reverb, one that actually starts before the dry sound, can be
created by recording the reverb and cutting and pasting it using digital editing methods, or by flipping the tape on
an analogue multitrack machine and recording the reverb applied to the backwards sounds before playing the
tape back normally.

Practical reverb tweaks

When it comes to using reverb in the mix, one reverb could be used on all the instruments to give them the sense
of all being in the same space - emulating a live band for example - or, alternatively, different reverbs could be
used on different instruments or instrument groups, but be careful...

One popular approach is to use one reverb on vocals, another on drums and one more for the rest of the
instruments. It is also possible to use more than one reverb on the same sound, for instance a lead vocal might
benefit from being treated with two reverbs layered up, one with a short decay, one with a longer decay. The
important thing is to ensure that the reverbs used don't clash with each other and confuse the overall picture. It's a
common beginners' mistake to pile on too much reverb which can fill up all the space in the track, effectively
swamping it and diminishing the definition of individual instruments. One of the biggest problems we have with
demos sent to FM is too much reverb. It's a great effect but it's all too easy to immerse your music in too much of
it...

Finding the right sounding reverb for the track is worth doing, but once bedded in a track one reverb can sound
remarkably similar to the next, so don't lose sight of the big picture and get bogged down spending ages editing a
myriad of minor parameters. The most crucial factor is the amount of reverb you use in a track rather than the
minutiae of its sound. When selecting reverb times, the song's tempo should be taken into account. Shorter times
might be more appropriate for up-tempo tunes whereas something like a ballad vocal could be enhanced by
longer times.

EQ adjustments like rolling off the top or bottom end of the reverb can help to sit the reverb in the mix. Mixing
desk channel EQ on the reverb returns allows fine adjustments, and many reverb units will have some onboard
adjustment of overall EQ parameters available. Less top end on the reverb can still give a sound a sense of space
while making it appear less obviously reverbed, the added bonus of rolling off the top end is that it helps to subdue
any hiss or noise emanating from the reverb unit itself. Rolling off bottom end will help to clean up any muddiness
in a track leaving more room for the kick drum and bass, which are instruments that work well with little or no
reverb.

Sibilance can be easily exaggerated by using a bright sounding reverb on a naturally sibilant voice. If you have
this problem but don't want to change the sound of the dry vocal by de-essing it, try de-essing the send to the
reverb unit.

The contrasts between different reverbs can be used for dramatic effect in a song and applying a different reverb
to particular sections can build interest. As an example, one reverb could be used for the verses while another is
brought in to give the choruses a lift. Most digital reverbs are equipped with MIDI, allowing you to use a sequencer
to flip programs or change parameter settings mid-track.

Using just reverb without the dry sound can create an ethereal, ghostly sound to add atmosphere to a track.
Simply take the dry sound out of the L/R routing to create this effect which works nicely on backing vocals and
keyboard pads. To create a more unusual reverb sound or one with a bit of movement in it try adding chorus,
flanging or pitch shift to the reverb.

jargonbuster

http://www.intermusic.com/print.asp?ReviewId=5165&ArticleTable=Features&FeatureT... 11/15/2002
intermusic.com Page 4 of 4

Predelay is effectively the time between the direct sound and the first of the reverb reflections and can be
adjusted to put a bit of separation between the dry sound and the main body of the reverb. This can have the
effect of adding more space to a vocal without swamping it in reverb or making it sound further away than it
actually is.

Reverb time or decay time refers to the time it takes for the reverb tail to dissipate into silence. Long decay times
work well on sustained sounds but can easily fill all the gaps in a track with reverb. High frequency damping
adjusts the rate of decay of the high frequencies relative to the rest.

Early reflections are the first distinct echoes heard at the onset of the reverb, the level of these can usually be
adjusted in digital.

Copyright Future Publishing 2002.

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium
without express written permission from Future Publishing is prohibited
Privacy Policy

http://www.intermusic.com/print.asp?ReviewId=5165&ArticleTable=Features&FeatureT... 11/15/2002