Now, it might be obvious what a reverb effect will do to a sound but if you're wondering
what all of those parameters control and how they change the sound of the reverb,
you'll wanna watch this video. Stick around!
[Reverb Effect Tutorial]
Hey, everyone, Jake from Transverse Audio here.
There are so many different reverb plugins out there, but in this video,
we're only going to be going over over a few.
One is built into a synth, one is a stock plugin, and the other one is a free plugin
that you can download yourself. If you wanted to follow along.
This kind of effect creates space, depth, position, you name it.
It's all about making an environment around the sound you're trying to effect.
You can make something sound like it's right in front of you, really far away,
and even change how far away the walls or surrounding objects are from the source of audio.
Some reverb effects even come with a visualization of what the parameters are doing to the simulated room.
I personally like ones that do, because it's a great way to learn what different levels
will do to the sound.
It's definitely not essential, and really, you might be able to focus more on your music
or sound design without it.
With that aside, let's just get into the options you might be able to change in a typical reverb.
The size of the reverb changes how big the simulated room will sound.
You can make it sound like a closet...
[Small room reverb example]
A Hallway...
[Hallway reverb example]
And even a huge cathedral...
[Large room reverb example]
Really, the possibilities are..
Infinite...
No, really!
Some plugins allow you to make an infinite reverb...
[Long lasting reverb example]
Aaaaaand you get the point.
The brightness of the reverb can be changed with high damping.
This makes higher frequencies weaker, kind of like how it would be perceived
in real life acoustic treatment.
This determines how fast or slow the high end will decay.
As you'll see, the higher you set the value, the more effective the attenuation will be.
[High damping example]
Predelay is the time it takes before you hear the initial reverb signal.
Increasing this will create a larger gap from when the sound is played
to when the effect is heard.
It can be as subtle as this...
[Subtle Predelay example]
And can be as obvious as this...
[Obvious Predelay example]
Now, that's just for this plugin, each can have their own level of intensity.
In real-world acoustics, this can be compared to how far away the instrument is from a wall
or object.
Some reverb plugins will also give you the ability to sync the delay time to the tempo
of your project.
With this plugin, in particular, you can toggle it using the button below the knob.
Changing the density of reflections can be done through the diffusion parameter.
At a low setting, diffusion can provide a more distinct reverb.
[Low diffusion example]
Using a higher setting will simulate reflections that are played back very close together.
[High diffusion example]
Try not to get the decay confused with PreDelay.
The decay is what happens after and the PreDelay is what happens before.
This will give you control over how long the reverb tail (or release of the reverb)
will go on for.
[Decay example]
Like I said before, some effects allow you to make infinite reverb
so be careful how much decay you use.
Using a lot can destroy the dynamics of whatever you're making and can muddy the low end
(basically just creating a wall of low frequencies).
Many reverb effects come with some form of an EQ, usually in the form of cutoff points.
High and low cuts are the most common form of equalization in reverb plugins.
These will determine what frequencies the reverb will include in its output.
For example, if the high cut is here... and the low cut is here...
Then it will sound like this.
[Filter cutoff example]
If it's the opposite, the sound will change to something like this.
[Filter cutoff example]
I could sit here at dial in different values all day, but really, that should give you
a good understanding of where it can take you.
Different sounds are affected differently by reverb, so these may or may not be used,
depending on what needs to be accounted for.
Now, for the dry and wet controls.
A dry signal is what the effect will process (which is just the raw signal from whatever
instrument you're using), a wet signal is what the effect will produce
(basically the sound will be sent through the reverb, and whatever comes out is the wet signal).
Imagine playing an instrument in a room, and only hearing what bounces off everything around you.
That's the wet signal and would leave you with this kind of effect.
[100% wet example]
The dry signal is what you would hear directly from the instrument itself,
without any sound bouncing back to you, kind of like this.
[100% dry example]
You can either lower the wet all the way down or just turn off the effect,
which would just bypass the plugin.
[Wet vs. Bypass example]
That sums it up for most Reverb effects out there but there is definitely going to be
some differences across all plugins.
Subscribe and don't forget to press the bell button to be notified when we publish new videos
and as always, thanks for watching! [Subscribe for more!]