How to Use a Reverb Plugin Properly

Introduction

Reverb is an essential audio effect used in music production and audio engineering to add depth, space, and realism to audio recordings. While it's possible to achieve reverb effects using physical spaces, reverb plugins offer a versatile and convenient way to manipulate the reverberation of your audio. In this article, we'll explore how to use a reverb plugin properly, covering the fundamental principles and techniques to help you achieve the desired sound.

1. Understand the Basics

Before diving into the practical aspects of using a reverb plugin, it's crucial to understand the basics of reverb. Reverb, short for reverberation, is the reflection of sound waves off surfaces in an environment. Reverb plugins simulate this effect by adding artificial reflections to audio signals.

2. Choose the Right Reverb Plugin

Selecting the appropriate reverb plugin is the first step. There are various types of reverb plugins available, such as plate, room, hall, and convolution reverbs. The choice depends on the project's needs and the desired sonic characteristics. Experiment with different plugins to find the one that fits your audio best.

3. Set Up Your Signal Chain

To use a reverb plugin effectively, set up your signal chain correctly. Place the reverb plugin on an auxiliary (aux) or bus channel rather than directly on the audio track. This allows you to control the reverb amount individually for multiple tracks and maintain a more coherent mix.

4. Adjust Pre-Delay

Pre-delay is the time between the direct sound and the onset of reverb. It helps create a sense of distance. Short pre-delay values (10-30 milliseconds) make the sound source feel closer, while longer values (100-200 milliseconds) add a sense of space. Adjust pre-delay to suit the desired ambiance of your mix.

5. Control Decay Time

Decay time determines how long the reverb tail lingers. Short decay times work well for tight spaces, while longer decay times suit larger, more open environments. Be mindful not to overdo it, as excessive decay can muddy your mix.

6. Set the Wet/Dry Mix

Balancing the wet (reverb) and dry (original) signals is crucial. Typically, you'll want to add just enough reverb to enhance the audio without overwhelming it. Start with a subtle wet/dry mix and adjust as needed.

7. Use EQ to Shape the Reverb

Most reverb plugins offer EQ controls for shaping the reverb's tonality. Use EQ to remove unwanted frequencies, such as low-end rumble or harsh highs, to achieve a cleaner and more transparent reverb sound.

8. Experiment with Different Reverb Types

Don't limit yourself to a single reverb plugin or type. Experiment with different reverbs on various tracks to create depth and dimension in your mix. For instance, use a short plate reverb on vocals and a longer hall reverb on instruments.

9. Automate Reverb Parameters

Automation can be a powerful tool for adding dynamic movement to your mix. Automate parameters like wet/dry mix, pre-delay, or decay time to create evolving spatial effects throughout the song.

10. Consider the Positioning of Sound Sources

In virtual environments, consider the positioning of sound sources within your mix. Adjust the panning of tracks and apply different reverbs to each channel to mimic the spatial positioning of instruments in a room.

11. Use Sends and Returns

When dealing with multiple tracks that require reverb, use sends and returns to send audio from multiple tracks to a single reverb bus. This conserves CPU resources and ensures a cohesive reverb effect across multiple elements.

12. Listen Critically

Finally, the most important aspect of using a reverb plugin properly is listening critically. Trust your ears and make adjustments based on what sounds best for your project. Use reference tracks to compare your reverb settings and achieve the desired level of professionalism.

Conclusion

Properly using a reverb plugin is a skill that can greatly enhance your music production and audio engineering. By understanding the basics, selecting the right plugin, and applying the techniques mentioned in this article, you can effectively add depth, space, and realism to your audio recordings. Remember to experiment, trust your ears, and strive for a balanced and cohesive mix that suits the artistic vision of your project.

Polyverse Supermodal

Introducing Polyverse Music’s new unique filter ‘Supermodal’, allowing full creativity with its countless possibilities. This powerful Modal filter helps take a track to the next level, lifting and enhancing an incredible range of characteristics throughout the music - for example, using its modulation system will allow the creator to strip and recreate a sound in a whole new way, manipulating every detail into their own style. Single audio signals can be uniquely operated through its wide variety of frequencies to design cinematic soundscapes, pulsating rhythms, pads with harmonic motion, to name a few. 

An excellent selling point for all music producers is how extensive this modal filter allows a sound to be destroyed in the most beautiful refreshing way. Most filters are implemented with many limitations, not enhancing the creative flow as many plug-ins should. With Supermodal, music creators at all stages will find themselves messing around with this filter for hours - the possibilities are endless and discovering new sounds, blends and frequencies will help take the track to a game-changing stage. 

FEATURES

• Modal filter capable of seamless morphing between modes
• 27 Modes ranging from musical to mangled
• 200+ presets and counting
• Drive SVF filter input and Modal filter output
• Modulate any parameter with fast, intuitive modulation sources 
• Cross-modulate between 4 modulation slots
• 24dB per-octave slope state-variable filter
• Blend between SVF and Modal filter
• Self-resonate when resonance is boosted past 100
• Control partials to completely eliminate high or low frequencies
• Shape modal tails with decay and damping controls
• 9 models, each with 3 variations giving you a total of 27 modes to play around with
• You get flangers, phasers, vocal filters, physical, and some unique mathematical m resonators
• You can control its character with various parameters (decay, xform, damping, and partials)
• Blend both filters together to create an interesting mix

Check out our Polyverse range here on Sounds Space.

‘The God Particle’ Plug-In Review

A plugin that is described as the ‘Grammy-winning mix bus chain in a simple package’. The God Particle plug-in comes with no fuss and directly does as it says by being a quick-to-use, very effective all-in-one processor, low-latency and CPU hit, plus it can perfectly help glue a mix. All producers and mixing engineers require software that avoids tedious confusion on how a product works and helps allocate time to simply get the job done, without delay.

The God Particle has been constructed by 15x Grammy-winning producer Jaycen Joshua’s kit and workflow. (known for Nicki Minaj, Kid Ink, Beyoncè, Chris Brown, Nelly, A$AP Rocky, and David Guetta, to name a few). This all-in-one bus compressor has a secret mix of EQ, multiband compression, saturation/excitation and widening, controls for 3-band EQ, effect amount, input/output and a built-in Limiter, plus an intelligent adaptive limiter. All of Joshua’s go-to’s in order to create ideal sounds that had led him to his greatest hits with some of the world’s biggest names - sharing these styles with aspiring engineers is absolutely what we’re looking for to help producers learn and adapt new sounds and styles, thanks to this plug-in. 

More 'The God Particle' Features:

• A multitude of processing algorithms under the hood gives depth, detail, and clarity to your next mix
• You can be certain your dynamics and transients will be preserved while achieving competitive commercial loudness.
• rest assured your mix will be both dynamic and loud with a well-balanced EQ response.
• Particle Of God is an ensemble effect for Native Instruments Reaktor. The idea behind this effect is to create a delay where the delay time is accelerated.
• The single delays are getting faster (or even slower) each time the delay is repeated. To get a “musical” result, the delay time and traction are synchronized in time and tempo.
• Stay focused on your creative process, while Jaycen’s world-class engineering keeps your master channel locked in.
• Several parameters can be changed in real-time and tweaked by the step-sequencers.
• Suitable for use on the mix bus or groups of tracks. Can be used on just about any type of track (vocals, drums, guitars, etc.), creating versatility.

Discover more & BUY ‘The God Particle’ directly through Cradle

Invigorate Plug-In

Introducing Eventide's ‘Invigorate’ Plug-In 

This bus compressor and enhancer from Eventide is a plug-in constructed to boost all limiting and overdrive elements to the extreme. Built to take your creations to the next level and add an explosion of colour to your mix, featuring its mammoth sound all within its uniquely simple radar navigation.

‘Invigorate’ is the buzzing compressor plug-in of 2022/23 and it’s no surprise at all that some of the greatest beatmakers are on the hype, having this beastly product as their go-to. 

Let’s look at the key features and see what’s creating the hype.

Eventide ‘Invigorate’ | Key Features

• Using a combination of expansion features to enlarge a project’s sound; including compression, limiting and overdrive. The intent behind this feature is to help incorporate the details of each technique and implement this into a straightforward tool for all purposes.
• Unique ‘Radar’ control to help navigate a specific sound to the user’s preference. Cruise from the right touch of gain to compression, limiting, and distortion. 
• Operate the track’s finishing touches with its MIX control knob. 
• Emphasis the tone with Invigorate’s SENSITIVITY control. Fine-tune the frequencies of the sidechain signal. 
• INPUT EXCITER tone controls allow you to overdrive the dynamics processor.
• OUTPUT TONE controls allow you to tailor the sound of the wet signal before the mix control.
• Control the gain curve and manage the perfect tone using the SHAPE, SQUASH and GATE controls.
• Use and abuse the powerful level detector to help compression at its strongest versus calmest. 
• Truly understand the performance of controlled volume using the ‘gain compensation algorithm’. 

Artist Presets

• Count (Run the Jewels, New Order, No Doubt, Tycho, DJ Shadow, Gang of Youths, Lady Blackbird).
• Justin Hergett (FINNEAS, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Ashe).
• John O'Mahony (Marina, Coldplay, Sara Bareilles).
• Maor Appelbaum (Faith No More, Yes, Meatloaf, Rob Halford, Sepultura).
• Jacob Shea (Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Inception).
• ROCASound (The Orville, Iron Man 2).
• Matthew Wang (Tiger King, Glow, Reno 911!).
• Scott Gershin (Pacific Rim, American Beauty, Team America).
• David Gnozzi (MixbusTv, MC Solaar).
• APS Mastering (Vampire Weekend, The Shivers, Deer Tick).
• Ronit Kirchman (The Sinner, Evil Eye, Limetown).

This top-tier plugin shows the effort and time throughout its development. Its easy use makes all the difference in a session and allows time-efficient mixing - all available within an affordable budget of $97. An absolute bargain in comparison to comps which sell well into the triple digits! 

Download INVIGORATE here on Sounds Space!