What is Reverb: A Comprehensive Guide

Reverb is heard throughout nearly all genres of music and is one of the most commonly used effects in music production. It can also be heard in our day-to-day lives, whether it be the slight echo or reverberation from talking in an auditorium or slamming a door in an empty room. In this article, I’ll discuss some critical aspects of reverb, such as its different types & parameters, and some practical applications where reverb could be beneficial.

 

What is Reverb?

Reverb (or reverberation) is the continuation of a sound after it’s occurred within a given space. It isn’t the direct origin of a sound, but rather the sound created from the initial sound resulting from sound waves bouncing off nearby surfaces and back to our ears.

 

Why You Should Use Reverb

Properly using reverb can make an instrument in a mix feel far more present when used correctly,” allowing instruments to fill up more space in significant or subtle ways” compared to its dry version. Adding subtle instances of reverb can enhance an instrument’s overall sound, even if It’s just a slight amount.

The extent to which the reverb is heard depends on the type of space the sound is being played in. Below are the four different types of reverb.

 

What Are The Different Types Of Reverb?

There are various reverb types, the most common being Room, Hall, Plate, Chamber, and Spring. Each reverb type has different characteristics and can be replicated in FL Studio or any other Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Below are five different reverb types explained.

 

 

Room

A room reverb is a highly natural-sounding reverb meant to replicate a sound played in an actual room, such as your living room or bedroom. Room reverbs tend to be tight, with a shorter decay than most other reverb types. Room reverbs are used across numerous genres due to their typical everyday characteristics.

 

Hall

A hall reverb provides a thick and lush effect, similar to if the sounds were played in a concert hall. Hall reverbs have long decay times, making them feel more spacious or airy. It’s meant to replicate a sound bouncing off tall ceilings and reflective surfaces, typically bigger than a room reverb.

Due to their thicker sound, Hall reverbs are more commonly paired with orchestral instruments such as a violin or cello and ballad vocals. This differs from the reverb you’d expect to hear on a jazz record or genre requiring sharp clarity.

 

Plate

Plate reverbs use a metallic plate that’s fed audio, outputting an echo from the vibrating plate to produce a bright natural reverb. These characteristics make plate reverbs perfect for percussive sounds, vocals, and any other melodic instrument that needs some ambience.

 

Spring

A spring reverb is a synthetic reverb created with the use of springs. This works by an instrument signal going into one end of a metal spring, with a transducer on the other end to pick up the echo. This outputs an artificial reverb with a metallic feel and a unique timbre perfect for adding a perceived low end to any sound.

 

Chamber

A chamber reverb has an effect that mimics a medium-sized, closed-off space such as a stairwell or corridor. It’s typically much more transparent sounding, with a shorter tail duration than a hall reverb. They tend to feel less natural than a room or hall reverb but are still effective in adding character and color to a sound due to their dense nature.

 

What Are The Different Reverb Parameters?

 

 

Type

The reverb type is the room the reverb is meant to emulate. This could be a hall, plate room, spring, or chamber reverb. Of these types, room, hall, and chamber reverbs are natural reverbs meant to emulate their respective environment, while plate and spring reverbs are artificially created with distinct sonic characteristics.

 

Room Size

Room Size changes how long it takes for reverb reflections to be heard. The smaller the room size, the faster the sound will reflect. The bigger the room size, the longer it’ll take the sound waves to bounce between surfaces. This comes down to the distance and layout of a given room and the material used to provide it with a specific sound.

Increasing the room size knob will increase the perceived size of the room in which the sound is playing while decreasing it will make it feel smaller.

 

Decay

Decay is the amount of time it takes for the reverb to cease. A lower decay will cause the reverb to die out more quickly, while a higher decay will increase the time it takes to fade out. In most genres, the decay is usually set to a lower value to prevent it from muddying over other frequencies.

A higher decay is more commonly used with orchestral instruments and ambient-based genres such as Chillstep or Downtempo, where a lot of atmosphere tends to be used.

 

Mid-Side

The Mid-Side reverb parameter is the splitting of a waveform into two separate channels: the mid signal and the side signal. The mid or “middle” signal affects the sound in both speakers, while the side signal affects it uniquely in the left and right speakers. Side reverb will give the sound a more spatial atmosphere, as opposed to mid reverb, which feels more centered.

 

Pre-Delay

Pre-Delay is the difference in time between when the initial sound has ended and when you start to hear the reverb. It’s most commonly measured in milliseconds, with higher values increasing the perceived width of a sound similar to room size.

Since pre-delay uses a time measurement, setting a pre-delay value of 0 would cause the reverb to start instantly after the initial sound has ended, as there’s no time separating the initial sound from the reverb. Any value over 0 will increase this length of time, scaling by the measurement value set (usually ms).

 

Damping

Damping dictates the warmness of reverb through the imitation of softer surfaces. Increasing the damping level will produce a warmer sound, cutting some of the higher reverb frequencies. Using too much damping can cause a sound to be muffled with less clarity than the original, so finding a perfect balance is essential.

 

Diffusion

Diffusion is the disbursement of sound waves and controls the distance between reflections after a sound hits a surface. This can be likened to increasing the reverb’s complexity, as expanding the diffusion escalates the scattering of sound waves. In some cases, diffusion may be referred to as “density.”

Lowering the diffusion will make a sound feel empty but distinct with fewer reflections, while increasing the diffusion will make it increasingly cluttered and unintelligible.

 

Dry/Wet

The dry and wet knobs control the balance between the original sound (dry) and the reverberated sound (wet). Increasing the wet knob will make the reverb more present while decreasing it will make it closer to the original, unaltered sound.

 

Width

The width affects the stereo image of the reverberated sound. Increasing the reverb width parameter will cause the sound to be more expansive and spread across the ears. This is often adjusted as a percentage, with 0% being the narrowest and 100% being the widest. In simpler terms, you can alter how “3D” the reverb feels in the mix.

 

Low Cut/High Cut EQ

Reverb Low/High cut EQ allows you to cut the higher and lower frequencies of a reverberated sound and is typically measured in Hz (Hertz). The low-cut EQ adjusts the reverb’s low cutoff frequency, allowing lower frequencies to be removed from the input prior to the reverb being added.

If the low cut EQ is set to 0 Hz, you’re essentially turning off the entire parameter as a sound can’t be cut off below a value of 0. A value of 100 Hz would EQ all frequencies below that range.

On the other hand, setting the high-cut EQ to the maximum range will turn off the high-cut EQ since cutting above such a high frequency isn’t as audibly noticed by the human ear.

The minimum and maximum Hz values may vary by the reverb plugin but still follows the same general rule of thumb.

 

When Should You Use Reverb?

Reverb can be used in just about any instance of music production, regardless of the genre produced.

Beware – Overlapping reverbs of multiple instruments, especially with long decays, can end up hurting your mix instead of helping it due to too many frequencies clashing. Be mindful of how much reverb is being added and to which tracks it’s applied to.

Here are some situations where adding reverb could be beneficial to your mix:

 

Slow and Spacious Tracks

Slow tracks with a lot of open space are perfect for using reverb, especially hall reverbs. This is great for strings and pads or anything that can sound too bland, enabling you to add more dimension and fullness. A track with a slower BPM and tempo usually requires the space to be filled in some way, which reverb and delay are ideal for.

 

Percussion Elements

Percussive sounds such as snares, hi-hats, and crashes are perfect for pairing with reverb, albeit some instruments use it more than others. It’s best to use a short-tail reverb on drums to add to the fullness of the sound but not necessarily completely change it. Too much reverb can lead to clashing frequencies and a muddy mix, which is very easy to do when getting carried away with mixing.

 

 

Vocals

Reverb is almost essential for any vocals on a track or instrumental, whether a lead or background vocal. Without it, the vocal will likely sound too dry and lack presence, sounding like It’s tucked too far in the back of the mix. Adding reverb allows the vocal to cut through the mix easier, making it more prominent with the spatial effect created by the reverb. When it comes down to adding reverb to vocals, It’s not so much about if you should add reverb but how much you should add.