Reverberation is the persistence of sound after the sound source has been stopped. It results from a large number of reflected waves which can be perceived by the brain as a continuous sound. On the other hand, an echo occurs when a pulse of sound can be heard twice.

Reverberation can be reduced by using some kind of material on the walls or ceiling of the room that absorbs the sound waves rather than reflecting it. Plastics, fibreboards, or curtains are some of the substances that are used to reduce the reverberation of sound.

Effects units that are specialized in the generation of the reverberation effect are commonly called reverbs. Whereas reverberation normally adds to the naturalness of recorded sound by adding a sense of space, reverberation can reduce speech intelligibility, especially when noise is also present.

During concert, several sound waves are released from the source (speaker). However, if the concert takes place in a gym, reverberation will occur. This will result in noise as the same sound will be heard repeatedly and will further lead to imbalance and confusion.

Reverberation time is a measure of the time required for reflecting sound to “fade away” in an enclosed area after the source of the sound has stopped. Reverberation time is important in defining how a room will respond to acoustic sound.

The only way to improve the speech intelligibility of a room is to eliminate any echo problems by shortening the reverberation in the room. Rooms with short reverberation times are often described as being “Acoustically Dead” and these rooms are an excellent environments for learning and teaching.

Reverberation is the accumulation of soundwaves in a space. Because reverberated sounds stack up, they can make direct communication difficult because there is so much ambient sound and the direct sound can get lost.

Persistence of sound (after the source stops producing sound) due to the repeated reflection is called reverberation. Reverberation can be reduced by absorbing the sound using some materials as it reaches the wall and ceiling of the room and thus prevent the sound from getting reflected.

Reverb occurs when a sound hits any hard surface and reflects back to the listener at varying times and amplitudes to create a complex echo, which carries information about that physical space. Reverb pedals or effects simulate or exaggerate natural reverberations.

You don’t NEED reverb. A small amount will just take the flatness (not sharp/flat, “lift”, if you like) out of your playing.

Reverb will fill the sound of the vocals out nicely. It will give them more fullness and sustain, and will have a more “natural” sound to them. BUT reverb will also push the vocals back in the mix. It can cause them to lose energy and cohesion, because it overlaps the words and washes them out.

Why do you need a delay pedal? It can help your chorus, phaser and own sounds become clean. A delay can make a bland part interesting, make a solo sound huge, and add depth to rhythm parts that wouldn’t be there otherwise, and make everything brilliant. They can make a simple part sound more complicated.

Routing a delay into a reverb is a great recipe for producing a subjectively ‘big’ sound without having to use too much reverb. Both give the effect of ambiance to your sound, but in a mix this may be overwhelming. This is often why you hear people recommend delay over reverb, especially in a band setting.

One really cool thing you can do with a delay is to turn a mono sound into a stereo one. This works by pulling up a mono sound on two channels, panning one hard left, one hard right, and putting a delay on one side. Turn the wet/dry ratio to 100% wet, set the feedback to zero, and time the delay between 5 to 20ms.

Is reverb and delay the same? Reverb is designed to give the sonic characteristics of a space to an element in a mix, like a Room. A delay simply repeats the original signal after a couple milliseconds, and the number of times it repeats it is called “feedback”.

Delay is one or more distinct sound images. Stand in a huge room and yell “hello.” The very first sound you hear reflected off the walls is an echo. That echo quickly turns into reverb as the sound is reflected off a second, third, and fourth surface. Think of delay as a single copy of the sound at a later time.

As you can hear in the sample below, the delay swells in and thickens up the vocal throughout the phrase. If you want the delay to blend in better you can add an EQ after the delay and filter out the high frequencies. It will give you the same thickness effect, but the vocal delay will sound darker and blend in better.

Now that the dynamics and tone of the vocal are in a good place, it’s time to add some space. Stereo reverb and delay effects are great for adding width, while mono effects work well for creating a sense of depth. Typically, reverbs and delays are timed to the tempo of the track.

Once you apply these ten techniques, your mixes as a whole will improve.

1. Top-End Boost.
2. Use a De’Esser.
3. Remove Resonances.
4. Control the Dynamics with Automation.
5. Catch the Peaks with a Limiter.
6. Use Multiband Compression.
7. Enhance the Highs with Saturation.
8. Use Delays Instead of Reverb.

synthetic reverbs

The Basic Reverb Mixing Techniques

1. Your Kick Drum and Bass Guitar should be 100% dry.
2. Use more reverb on the toms and cymbals than the snare.
3. Use enough to push guitars and keyboard behind the vocals and near the snare in depth.