5 Quick Reverb Mixing Tricks
POSTED ON JANUARY 17, 2018 BY MATT MCQUEEN POSTED IN MIXINGTAGGED MIXING, REVERB, REVERB MIXING TRICKS, TRICKS

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OP's Note:
There are several threads here at AudioSex about the use of reverb and all, but Warren Huart has put together this very nice inventory on how to deal with reverb. If you haven't susbscribed, join his YouTube channel and subscribe to his mailing list. He offers great insight and is not very invasive with his promo ads to join his academy, which might be a great idea if you can afford it.
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Hello Lovely people!

Learning how to use reverb is essential in mixing. It can add width and distance between you instruments. Reverb can also make your tracks sound like they were recorded in a completely different space. This is particularly helpful if you are recording in a bedroom or small home studio environment and you want your tracks to have that big studio sound! The biggest mistake that you can make with reverb is going overboard and making a washy muddy sound mix where everything is smeared together in reverb.

If you find yourself struggling to use reverb effectively, here are 5 tips to get you going.

1. EQ your reverb. – Insert an EQ plugin after your reverb and simply roll of a little of the high end and the low end. In the video below you can see me do this on the kick drum and it keeps the low end from sounding muddy, while adding a little space for the drum.
2. Pan Your reverbs – If you want to add width to you mix then use a mono reverb and pan it opposite of the instrument that you are applying it to. This is a great trick for being able to make a left and right guitar part sound wider. Pan the left guitars reverb to the right, and the right guitar’s reverb to the left.
3. Trigger your Snare reverb from the sample – This is a great trick for making your snare reverb sound more consistent from hit to hit and sound cleaner. When you trigger the snare reverb from a sample you don’t have to worry about adding unwanted reverb to the hi-hat or other instruments that were also picked up by you snare mic. You can even use this tick to trigger the reverb, and keep the snare sample muted and out of your mixing, by sending the sample to the reverb send pre-fader and muting the sample. This is great if you want to use you live snare drum, and not blend a sample in to the final mix!
4. Use multiple reverbs on Vocals – Why have one reverb on your vocal when you can have 2, even 3! I commonly blend 2 or 3 reverbs on my vocal, and then automate the output of those reverbs to create the blend that I want at different parts of the songs. Blending multiple reverbs can sound more interesting than just using one, and adding automation to them can keep them from sounding static and stale by the time you get to the end of the mix
5. Compress your reverb – This is a great trick to keep your reverb from sounding too washy while the singer is singing. Insert a compressor after your reverb, and use the vocal in the side chain of the compressor. When the singer is singing the compressor will turn the reverb down for you, and when the vocalist stops, the compressor will let the reverb come up slowly. Adjusting the release time will determine how quickly the reverb swells in after the vocalist finishes a line.

Check out the video below to see me demonstrate all of these tricks. If you have any comments or questions be sure to leave them below!

 

thx mercurysoto for this great tricks!

 

Nice one! It makes me feel a little more accomplished in that I have used these tricks before in my mixes. Haven't played too much with compressing the reverb though I have done it to some drum verbs.

 

Yeah. I agree. That's what I like about Warren Huart. He's the real deal but he doesn't get cocky in endless arguments. He gives no-nonsense advice, right on point. I have to admit I'm not big on reverb. I guess I'm one of those guys who prefer drier mixes in general. Means to an end, right?

 

Thanks for this wonderful share, sir!

 

Absolutely.
I love the sound of reverb, but I'm a guitar player so I suppose this is to be expected, haha.
My usage of them has been two fold. I'm close micing a lot of the sources for my tracks, so I use reverbs to provide a more realistic sense of space using settings like different predelay between different depths. I also use them to add some color to different tracks like vocals. I had to teach myself to make them barely discernible in a mix. The psychoacoustic trick they play on the mind is amazing. It created separation between instruments in my material when I started using them this way (not muddy them up as you'd expect). Others achieve this through the use of delays as well from what I've seen.

 

True. I'm kind of lazy, I guess. I basically lift up the reverbs on Addictive Trigger for recorded drums. That adds bigness to the snare, toms and kick and blend them with the recorded signal to taste or need. I keep the overheads dry. For vocals I love Waves CLA Vocals and CLA unplugged. That's where my reverb textures come from out of my lack of skill to make a reverb send sound good. I'm a believer that guitars must sound right at the source, so if they need verb, the better judge is always the guitar player and I accommodate all other processing to complement them. In constrast, keyboards and other instruments like brass or strings are definitely dry.

 

@mercurysoto good thread my friend
i would also like to add that you can sidechain your reverbs a little or a lot,flavor depends on what kind of music you make & also yes ! do m/s processing on your reverbs to & even flanger them

& don't forget to play with the predelay

 

I wouldn't regard it as lazy if it achieves the sound you're aiming for. I have used the CLA Vocal plugin, and liked it for the immediacy of achieving a great vocal sound. I guess I'm a tweaker. After I followed Marc Mozart's vocal chain tut, I never looked back. The different flavors you can add to a vocal by just changing a compressor (FET, Vari-Mu, etc.) is amazing to me. And I guess I favor reverb on sends because it's so configurable. I do add a bit of that small room on the OH's just to kind of put them in the same space as the snare, kick (triggered as well as mic'd) and Tom's. That's just me, though. I'm aiming for that "the band is in the room with you" kind of sound, I suppose.
Have to agree with your opinion about the guitars. Wrong application of reverb can cause some tonal difference to the original recorded sound. Usually I'm just adding a bit of the room with a different predelay and tail volume from the drums thrown to the opposite side of where the guitar is panned to create some width and depth and to glue it into the room.
Keyboard, brass, and drums? What's that? Lol. I actually haven't worked with those yet in a mix, so don't know what I'd do there. I suppose it would depend on where I wanted them depth wise.
Nice thread, @mercurysoto!

 

Been using these tricks for years they are very pro ! i use a compressor and eq on my reverbs alot keying from vocal and other elements>>>side chain or keying is gods gift to mixing lol >>>the Reverb on the mono left and right is another one >>>i learned to do this wen i had just one guitar in a mix to create some guitar on the other side >>> alot of great tricks from this guy Warren @mercurysoto good post man \m/

 

Oh man, never thought about using the side chain of the compressor.

Compressors never worked out for me on 100% wet reverb signals, maybe this will help

 

Yeah Warren is great guy. His YouTube channel is really awesome. A must follow for every mixing/recording guy. You allways learn 1 or 2 things...

 

Good tricks! The panned reverb on guitars always remind me of some old Van Halen albums hahaha

Do you guys tested de eq before de reverb too?

 

panned reverb also used by dr dre