A.Fundamental use
1.to position instruments relative to each other
2.to create sence of location
3.to create special sound effects
B.Setting up your reverb
-Use one reverb as "send fx" for as many instruments (channels) as possible
-Set the output of the reverb to 100 % wet. All send-fx should be setup that way.
(If not 100 % wet it will increase the overall level in the mix when increasing the send level.)
-Basic Presets to be created :
- Short ambience
- Medium Hall
- Rear Wall
- Spatial reverb
C.Short Ambience (SA)
-So short that it doesn't sound like reverb, only gives air around the instruments and a sence of stereo-width
-Play a snare sound as a test sound into your reverb plugin, and
1.start with high density
2.Time and HF damping to minimum
3.Try reducing low frequencies with EQ, if nesessary
4.set Size-controll to smooth sound
5.Readjust HF damping to reduce "fizzle"
6.Adjust early reflections to make it enclosed (bot claustrofobic), ie not to much early reflections.
7.Readjust Time to livingroom impression.
8.Narrow stereo width slightly to keep consistence between mono and stereo.
-Use of Short Ambience.
1.Send-controll gives front-back pannig.
2.Drums use SA a lot:
-little,short SA on Bass Drum
-a little more SA on Toms and Cymbals
-generous amount on Snare
-Amount of SA on Hi-Hat cotrolls the trashiness of the drum kit
3.Often on Vocals
4.It's normal to increas the SA when adding instruments to the mix
D.Medium Hall (MH)
-Simulation of space size like a good venue of a live gig. Realisme is crucial. Not too large.
1.Medium dencity.
2.Good stereo spread
3.Start without early reflections
4.Back off High and Low frequencies, helping clarity
5.Diffusion medium stereo effect
6.Adjust HF-damping
7.LF-damping to stop muddiness in the LF\'s tail
8.Time set to suit the track
-too long will make reverb interfear with sounds coming afterwards
-too short will deaden the sound/track
-Use of Medium Hall
1.Don\'t use too much of it, and just to some sounds.
2.Use some dry, some wet and some medium to create light and contrast to the mix
3.Use just a little on Toms and Snare
4.To lengthen Cymbals if they\'rre too short. Watch out for destabilisation of the stereo image.
5.Etnic instruments ? Personal taste!
6.Percussive sounds should be kept dry.
7.MH on acoustical instruments gives them life.
8.MH on small song vocals (sophisticated songs should get special designed reverb effects)
E.Rear Wall (RW)
-This is just a trick
1.Set up a Medium Hall (MH)
2.Calculate the lenght of one half beat of your song in ms (=milli seconds)
3.Place a delay of exactly this value on a pre-fader fx-send
4.Feed the delay output dirctly to the MH
5.Use a combination of direct and delayed MH
6.Use HF-filter on the delay to simulate Low-frquency absorption.
-Use of Rear Wall
1.To highlight important notes, top notes in phrases of Vocals, solos etc
2.Use automation to the actions of RW.
F.Spatial Reverb (SP)
-Designed primarily for one instrument, to create a kind of "fairy dust" onto the mix
-Characteristics
a) Long, very high density
b) Little high frequency damping
c) Some HP-filtering
d) Embedded repeating stereo delay in time with the music
1.Start with a Snare Drum track and high, long density reverb
2.Add some embedded repeats
3.Set HF-damping to low
4.Stereo width medium, to keep mono partials
5.Roll off low frequencies. Don\'t loose midrange freq.
6.Watch out for feedback on embedded repeats, may cause metallic side-effects
-Use Spatial Reverb
1.Don\'t use it on more than 2 - 3 parts
2.Don\'t overuse it.
G. General notes on reverb
1.Reverb is CPU-power consuming
2.Remember that musicians play together. Be carefull with many different reverbs
3.Have a clear idea of what you want to achieve
4.Make sure it hasn\'t allrady been applied
5.Special reverbs should be prominent
6.Try a mixture of unique and standard reverb to keep the part in the mix
7.Consider using EQ to make the reverb stand out more
8.GOLDEN RULE : Nver use too much
9.You can feed the output through EQ and other fx.
H.Testing your reverb plugin.
-Test the reverb with a Snare- and Bass-drum sound
-Colouration test
1.Listen to Snare wtih 50 % reverb
-Does the reverb change the tone of the sound? (not wanted)
-Does the reverb make it bigger or echoed
2.Listen to the reverb-tail
-Does the snare-sound decay evenly
-Does the snare-sound become ringy and metallic? (not wanted)
-Desity test
1.Listen to a clean Bass-drum sample
-High density will produce huge explotions in the distance
-Low density will sound powdery, fluttery and grainy
Neither one of these is "correct" or "wrong", they\'re only use for different purposes.
L.The Reverb Controls
1.Wet/Dry
-Send fx should allways be set to 100% Wet
-Insert fx may be set to a mix of wet & dry
2.Size -Setting for roomsize
3.Time -Reverb lenght, rough controll
4.Damping -Soaking up high frequencies
5.HP/LP filter -filter out frequencies
6.Density -Thickness = amount of late reflections
7.Diffusion -How much of the sound scatters within the room
8.Pre-delay -Time (in ms) before the reverb-tail starts
9.With/Spread -Stereo. Will loose level in mono
10.Shape -make the reverb-tail behave in non-linear fashion
11.ER -early reflections
JonBuer©2007
