7 Types of Reverb Explained

how many times have you tried dialing in the perfect ambience and then your mix just sounds like this [Music] you might be using the wrong reverb hey guys joey here and in today's video i'm going to cover the most common types of reverb reverb is a space emulation and it can be used to make a track field larger it can also glue different sources by putting them in the same environment to get the most out of your reverb you've got to know which one to use to start i'm just going to go over a few terms that apply to all of them reverb is typically made up by a combination of early and late reflections an early reflection is like when the sound bounces off of one surface in a room and arrives at the microphone it sounds like a bunch of tiny delays this is great for getting a short length ambient sound a late reflection happens when the sound bounces between several surfaces before getting recorded these are longer and typically smoother sounding than early reflections and give a sound some space because it takes longer to reach the mic the signal decays more time is how long it takes for a reverb to reach silence a larger time means a longer reverb tail and decay is the shape of the reverb fade out adjusting this parameter can make the tail be quieter or louder over the same amount of time a linear decay will fade out evenly space is the size of the reverb it basically adjusts how long the early or late reflections are a larger space has later reflections lots of reverb processors have pre-delay this controls the time between the initial source and the reverb different plugins are going to have different names for all this stuff so make sure to check out the manual to find out which parameters are which for some of the demonstrations in this video i'm going to use jst skybox which combines time decay and size into one knob this makes it easy to quickly set the reverb tone reverb is used in two ways as an insert and as a send when running through reverb as an insert the track is pushed more into the background it also sounds more authentically like the emulated space sending a track to a reverb bus allows the dry signal to stay out front while the duplicate goes into the reverb this is great because it doesn't take any impact away from the source it also makes it easier to glue tracks together since they can be sent to the same reverb this makes it sound like they're existing in the same space i use both sins and inserts for my reverbs depending on the part experiment and find what you prefer okay now that you know what reverb is and how to set it up let's start classifying different types reverb can be described in a lot of ways for this video i'm going to categorize them into natural mechanical and digital emulations [Music] natural reverbs are emulations of real world spaces the idea is that the track sounds like it was recorded in a specific type of location violins being tracked in a vocal booth can sound like they were recorded in a concert hall drums tracked in a basement can sound like they were recorded in a class a studio they actually used to put rooms into recording studios dedicated to being echo chambers this worked by putting a speaker and a mic inside of the room to capture the reverberated version of the signal rooms usually sound smaller than other natural reverbs they're characterized by earlier reflections and a more intimate sound they sound like this [Music] i like these because they can be subtle pretty much anything can run through a room reverb to add a little size without coloring it too much hall reverb emulates a concert hall where you typically hear an orchestra play they have long decays that can go for multiple seconds and since they're so long there's lots of different complex reflections that can blur the sound this is great for ambience but it can easily make a mix sound muddy check it out [Music] by loading a hall reverb directly on the acoustic track it sounds like it was recorded in a huge room check out how it sounds with ascend instead [Music] using ascend gives the song that epic quality without softening the transients i like using hall reverb on anything that needs to sound epic but doesn't need a ton of definition it has bright early reflections but pretty dark late reflections throwing a hull on a snare's ghost notes defeats the point but sounds awesome for a string section or a guitar solo just make sure you're paying attention to the whole mix when dialing these longer reverbs stuff that sounds awesome in solo can get totally lost in the context of a mix [Music] chamber reverbs marry the intimacy of the room with the lushness of the hall they're bright small rooms with a ton of early reflections even the later reflections have a bright ambience let's open a few examples and you'll hear what i mean [Applause] [Music] i love how a chamber adds some light ambience that puts something in its own space the shorter reverb time and extra brightness makes a part sound more lively this is effective on a snare check it out [Music] the snare has air following the hit that allows it to stand out from the rest of the instruments even though it's a bright reverb you've still got to be careful with that mix knob too much air will soften the transients chambers are useful for bringing specific sections forward but they don't sound as natural as a room or a hall they're better suited to individual tracks or a subtle send rather than the song's main reverb sound okay now that i've covered the natural reverbs let's dive into the mechanical reverbs mechanical reverbs are interesting because they don't really emulate a physical space they're made by running a signal through a physical box this box converts audio into physical energy that turns that energy back into audio they were developed to be more user friendly and portable than installing echo chambers into recording studios spring reverb was first designed for hammond organs and became hugely popular on guitar amps it works by running the audio through a physical spring that reverberates and it sounds like this [Music] i love this sound on guitars but it actually works really well for vocals too i use this when i'm looking for a little extra ambience on a part like this breathing when i'm applying special effects like this i'll often do it on the double rather than the main vocal that makes sure that the main still pops spring reverb works on all kinds of stuff like guitars vocals and snares because of their non-linearity this means they're not as even and smooth as natural reverbs and it gives the sound a lot of character the key to dialing this in is to know what you're going for if you just slap a spring reverb on anything it can make it sound really weird and stick out in the mix too much this is for stuff that needs character plate reverb works a lot like spring reverb the difference is that the signal vibrates through a plate of metal suspended by springs rather than the springs themselves there are tons of tones that you can get by changing the plate material and adding dampening real plates are huge heavy and complicated so most studios use emulation software to get that sound they sound smoother than spring reverb less early reflections and a longer tail let's go back to that guitar [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] instead of a springy bright sound the guitar has a smooth darker sound it's a little more epic but also less exciting you can actually run a spring reverb into a plate reverb to get the excitement of the spring with the smoothing of the plate this is a great example of how knowing the different reverb types can make exactly the sound that you're looking for [Music] plates really shine on vocal groups listen to these dry vocals first [Music] that's definitely an improvement but it's still too subtle for this part i'm gonna switch on the massive mode in skybox's advanced options to really drive this home [Music] awesome that's got a ton of ambience and tone but doesn't distract from the singing that's the advantage of plate reverbs getting epic sounds without a ton of smearing that makes them popular for a ton of different sources but especially vocals and drums digital plugins give us the luxury of using any type of reverb in a mix but there are a few special processors that came out of the digital domain whether they're hardware units or plugins these effects just weren't possible before ambient reverbs are made up of primarily early reflections they're really short and not super audible check it out [Music] these are cool because they can add a little size to a track while still sounding dry it's useful for gluing different instruments together without coloring them i like combining ambience with other reverbs to get a full sound like this [Music] now i've glued all the drums with the same subtle air before adding the more epic layers of reverb try this out if you're having trouble getting different sounds to sit together a convolution reverb is a process that uses an impulse response to recreate ambience very accurately if you need a refresher on impulse responses check out this video we did that explains them these are awesome because any room can be modeled with a lot of precision check out this impulse response [Music] without having to dial a decay or length i have a mix ready reverb sound all i have to do is adjust the mix the downside of using a convolution reverb is that there aren't really a lot of options once the impulse response is loaded a space's ratio of early to late reflections is baked in there are ways around this though adding additional reverbs eq and compression after a convolution reverb can give you more control over the sound i love using these on drums and strings since i can take samples or small room recordings and put them in a giant space [Music] understanding the different types of reverb and their applications will save a ton of time during mixing make sure to practice this stuff in your own sessions so that you know exactly which setting to reach for what's your favorite way to use reverb what do you look for in a reverb plugin let me know in the comments below thanks for watching and if you like this video hit that subscribe button don't forget to check the links in the description below and tap that bell to get notified whenever we upload new videos until next time happy mixing

Channel: Joey Sturgis Tones

Views: 4,282

Keywords: home recording, audio production, mixing tutorials, what is reverb, types of reverb, reverb plugins, JST, Joey Sturgis, Joey Sturgis Tones, JST Sky Box, natural reverb, mechanical reverb, digital reverb, glue a mix together, audio mixing walkthrough, how to add reverb to a mix

Id: rJ94XiLvfvo

Length: 12min 10sec (730 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 17 2021