When you’re first starting out, audio reverb and delay can be really confusing.
Reverb is confusing in its own right because there are so many options. But when you combine reverb and delay, it can start to sound messy really quickly—especially when you add too much.
To make your life a bit easier (and help your mixes sound a bit better) we’ve got Fabio from Noize to show you how to set up audio reverbs and delays properly and share some tips for making sure everything stays clean.
We’ll even throw in some bonus tips at the end of the video on how to set up your sends to make things sound wider.
Vocal Analysis
For this tutorial, we’ve got three different effects changing the vocals on the track in Logic Pro. Here’s what we’re using for each one:
- Keeping it very dry
- Just reverb
- A collection of other effects that some performance value
If you listen to the effects, they’ll probably sound a little exaggerated. We’ve done that on purpose for the sake of this tutorial. But these effects also work really well with the track, and we’ll analyze everything in context so it’s easy to understand how we’re working.
We started by adding compression, EQ, de-essing, and a little extra to get the vocals were they are now.
Room Reverb
Now that we know what we’re working with, we need to set up a send. We’re looking for an empty send without any effects. Every digital audio workstation (DAW) will be different, but in Logic, you do this on the left.
On this new channel, we’re going to add our first reverb, ChromaVerb by Logic. We’re going to keep everything default, except the decay, which we’ll bring down to .8 seconds. The dry is at zero, and the wet is at 100%.
This is especially important when using sends because we’re creating one dry channel (which we already heard) and then we’re sending to a new channel, which just has the effect on it.
If we increase the dry on this channel, it’ll double up with our original channel, and we don’t want that.
To increase the amount of audio reverb that we want, all we have to do is increase the send. This gives us a lot more control, and stops up from compromising the dry signal, which we already like.
(You can apply this structure to anything, by the way. We’re just applying it to vocals, because that’s what most people affect with reverb and delay.)
For this example, we’ve set up a room reverb, which emulates a studio room,i.e., somewhere you might record drums or vocals that are a little bit larger as short reflections to add a bit of vibe.
We choose this reverb because it adds sustain and brings the dry recording back to life a little bit. We’re also using an EQ in this reverb. We’re taking out some of the low and high frequencies to make the audio reverb feel a little cleaner.
If you have too many low frequencies, it’ll make everything sound muddy. Too many high frequencies will add too much sibilance.
Chamber Reverb
Back in the day before digital audio reverbs existed, they had chambers—like actual tiled rooms—in the basement of studios. They would get a speaker, send out the signal from the control room, and then record it with two microphones in the chamber. This picked up the reflections.
You’ll notice this kind of reverb is longer (1.2 seconds) and adds more sustain to the vocal signal. Again, we’re keeping the dry at zero, the wet at 100, and we’re also using an EQ.
By blending shorter reverbs, we can start to get a more professional and polished sound.
Vocal Hall Reverb
Finally, we have a vocal hall reverb set up, which emulates a concert hall. These spaces are designed with a combination of wood and soft furnishing material. This makes the sound reflect and gives every listener an incredible song experience.
With this reverb, we’re essentially placing our signal (the vocalist) in this hall and capturing some of that effect.
Notice that the decay is over double what the chamber reverb was, which adds a lot more sustain. This creates a beautiful atmospheric effect, but if we add too much it starts to get messy.
Keeping Your Audio Reverb Clean
When we add too much reverb, we lose focus on the vocals. We can control it by adding side chain compression on the sending channel. To set this up, we’re feeding our lead vocal through the compressor.
Whenever the dry signal (lead vocals in this case) plays, the compressor is going to react and bring down the volume of the long reverb.
To finish this send off, we’ve always added another EQ with some more low-end rolloffs, some more high-end rolloffs to get rid of those S’s, and we’ve done a dip at 1k where the vocal is also very present.
By blending these three audio reverbs, we have an almost perfect combination.
Adding Rhythm
If you’re using reverb, you’re probably going to use delay. But there’s no need to use them together, and you can always choose one or the other if you like.
If you’re not familiar with delay, it takes the signal and repeats it at a pattern of your choosing. In this example, we have it at a quarter note, which means it’s repeating every beat. The feedback dictates how long those repeats go on for.
For this tutorial, we’re using Baby Comeback delay, which is a free plugin in Logic Pro. We like this delay because it has a built-in ducker, which is doing the exact same thing our compressor was doing on the long reverb—except we don’t have to set it up.
Here’s a hot tip for delay: add a reverb afterwards. We set this reverb at dry 76% and wet 27%. Why? Because we don’t want the full effect of the reverb. We already have the full effect of the echo, so we just want a sprinkle of some audio reverb here.
Adding reverb here diffuses those repeats ever so slightly by making them feel more atmospheric and ambient. Otherwise, the echos can be too dry and upfront.
BONUS: Make Your Signal Wider Using Sends
First of all, you could do something as simple as setting up a chorus. Here, we’re using the stock chorus from Logic.
Another method for widening is to use a tape slap delay with different timings on the left and right signal. Using the Logic Stereo Delay, we set the wet signal at 100% and turn the Tempo sync off. We set Left Delay at 96 seconds and the right at a slightly longer 106 seconds.
Now, if you add too much of this, you’re going to start sounding like Elvis Presley, but just the right amount can add the width that you need.
***
There you have it. That’s our secret sauce for fixing messy audio reverb and adding some killer delay.
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to sign up for Boombox today and claim your four free gigs of storage space.