Reverb Controls

Reverse Reverb

Reverse reverb works in the opposite fashion from normal reverb. Whereas a normal reverb has the loudest series of reflections heard first that then become quieter over time, the Reverse reverb has the softest reflections (essentially the tail of the reverb) heard first, and then grows louder over time until they abruptly cut off.

Ambience Reverb

Ambience is used to simulate the effect of a small or medium sized room without noticeable decay. It is often used for voice, guitar or percussion.

Studio Reverb

Much like Room reverb, Studio produces an excellent simulation of smaller, well controlled acoustic spaces, characteristic of the main performance areas in recording studios. Studio is also useful with dialog and voiceover applications as well as individual instrument and electric guitar tracks.

Arena Reverb

Arena reverb emulates a huge physical space such as an indoor sports venue or stadium. The characteristics of Arena reverb are long secondary reflection times and a reduced amount of high frequency content. Arena is a mostly mid- and low frequency dominant reverb, and is an ideal selection for “special effect” type applications that require extremely long reverb times. It is not a good choice for a very busy mix, since it can reduce intelligibility.

Spring Reverb

A Spring reverb is created by a pair of piezoelectric crystals—one acting as a speaker and the other acting as a microphone— connected by a simple set of springs. The characteristic ‘boing’ of a spring is an important component of many classic rock and rockabilly guitar sounds.

Pre Delay

Creates an additional time delay between the source signal and the onset of reverberation. This control is not intended to precisely mimic the time delays in natural spaces, as the build-up of reverberation is gradual, and the initial time gap is usually relatively short. For the most natural effect, the Pre Delay values should be set in the range of 10-25 milliseconds. However, if a mix is very busy or overly cluttered, increasing the Pre Delay time may help clarify it, and set each instrument apart from each other.

Decay

Controls the amount of time the reverb can be heard. Higher settings increase reverberation times which are usually associated with larger acoustical environments, but can decrease intelligibility. Lower settings shorten reverb times and should be used when a smaller apparent space or a more subtle effect is desired.

Liveliness

Adjusts the amount of high frequency content in the reverberation tails. Higher settings increase high fre- quency response, creating brighter reverbs; lower settings create darker reverbs with more bass frequency emphasis.

Diffusion

Controls the initial echo density. High settings of Diffusion result in high initial echo density, and low settings cause low initial density. In a real-world situation, irregular walls cause high diffusion, while large flat walls cause low diffusion. For drums and percussion, try using higher Diffusion settings.