31 sounding dry where the reverbed sounds are no longer playing .
January 17
Send that EQ
Remember you can always EQ the send . Most large consoles offer you a choice of high and low EQ on the auxsends . On small desks , route the instrument / voice to another channel via a group or aux send , float this from the mix and send this to the reverb effect . Now you can add EQ to the send and even automate it as it ’ s now trail leads up into the sample , instead of trailing away from it .
Reverb over your mix
Pick out key instruments or sounds and highlight them with reverb while using reverb sparingly , if not at all , on the remaining mix . You may have to adjust reverb send levels as the track progresses so you ’ re not left with the track on a fader . This is commonly used for those delays and reverbs that you want to move easily during the mix , such as wetter vocal in the chorus .
Old tricks
Reverse reverb is an old trick , where you can hear a vocal before a singer comes in , or a snare before it plays , easily using tape as you simply turn the tape over and record it backward . You can do it using a computer , but you will have to move the audio to the right place after recording it .
Use combinations
A combination of reverbs on things can be good . A short setting for the snap sound with a longer bright plate can turn a biscuitsounding snare into a more live sound .
Old school plate
In the old days , it used to be called delay to the plate . You sent the signal to a loop of tape then sent that to the reverb .
The speed of the tape would adjust the delay as the time it took to get frC om the recording
head to the playback head .
This gives , say , a voice a dry sound before the reverb comes in , giving a more upfront sound while keeping the wetness , which would usually take it to the back of a hall somewhere ! Some people still use the tape method today for that old school sound .
Experiment
A nice gated verb on guitars to old spring verbs on snares or even the mighty space echo can sound unique when balanced in the mix . That will give you more distance and room for placing things in a mix , while adding that extra sparkle to the sound .
More reverse
Reverse your sample , add reverb , then reverse your sample complete with reverb back around the right way again . This way , the reverb
31 sounding dry where the reverbed sounds are no longer playing .
Reverb and bass
Usually , bass and reverb don ’ t mix too well , unless you ’ re specifically after a warehouse sound . Unfortunately , this effect results in a loss of definition among the bass regions . Run your reverb returns into a couple of spare channels in your mixer and back off the bass EQ , or add a high-pass plug-in EQ .
Go mono !
Don ’ t forget using mono reverbs at times as well . These won ’ t conflict with your rich stereo reverbs .
Pre-delay
This determines the time taken for the initial reflections to return back from room walls . Use a calculator from www . hitsquad . com / smm to get a pre-delay value matched to your tempo .
A common technique is to set the delay to eighth-notes and add the reverb to a straight quarter note kick drum pattern to create an offbeat bouncy feel .