Reverb

Functionality

A reverb effect simulates reverberation caused by propagation of sound in an enclosed space. It can be used to add a feeling of space to sounds that have been synthesized or recorded without significant ambience (analog synthesizers, close miked drums, DI guitars etc.). It can also be used to enhance an existing ambience in a recording.

Tips

All good-quality reverb plug-ins will consume significant amount of CPU power.

Use reverb sparingly. Modern recordings tend to use small amount of short reverb. Too much reverb may make a recording sound muddy. In rare cases, a plain delay may actually sound better.

On the other hand, liberal use of long reverb is great for 80's style vocals or drums. Even then, more is not always better.

Reverb is usually applied as a global (aux) effect. Different tracks usually require different amount of reverb, or none at all. Some projects may need two reverb plug-ins on different busses - a short one for the short, percussive sounds and a longer one for pads and some lead instruments and vocals. Some tracks may even need both types at the same time, with different levels of each.

Controls

• Pre Delay: Additional delay - corresponds to a distance between sound source and the nearest wall
• Decay time: Time it takes for reverberation to fade out
• Room size: Size of the space that simulated reverberation occurs in - determines times between reflections
• High Frq Damp: Cutoff frequency of the reflections - causes higher frequencies to decay faster
• Diffusion Increase for less uniform reverberation
• Bass Cut Removes low frequencies from the reverberation
• Treble Cut Removes high frequencies from the reverberation
• Dry Amount Amount of unprocessed signal in the output
• Wet Amount Amount of processed signal (reverberation) in the output