Welcome to Sage Audio. Today let’s look at the Top 10 Vocal Reverb Tips. But first,
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Where to Insert Vocal Reverb
When you insert a reverb plugin on your vocal, it’s best if used later
in the chain after corrective EQ, compression, saturation, de-essing,
and optional resonance reduction. The reason being, you want your vocal to
be balanced and dynamically controlled prior to adding multiple reflections.
Otherwise, you’ll likely exacerbate any issues your vocal has, as well as make your reverb sound
unnatural. Let’s listen to the reverb inserted at the beginning of the chain, then at the end.
Should Vocal Reverb be Parallel?
Most reverb plugins have a wet/dry or mix dial, meaning almost all reverb is already
being used in parallel since the plugin itself is splitting the signal. That said,
you may want to insert a reverb on an auxiliary track since it lets you process just the reverb.
For example, if I use a reverb plugin on an aux track, I can
insert an EQ after the reverb to shape the reflections. Let’s listen to this example,
and consider how reverb introduced with an aux track offers some unique advantages.
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Pre-Delay and Vocal Reverb
Pre-Delay is a great way to control the timbre of the vocal’s reverb - for example, in most cases,
if I use a very short pre-delay more of the vocal’s transient will be reverberated.
This will cause a more washed-out sound - whereas a longer pre-delay does the opposite.
If you use too long of a pre-delay the effect will sound unnatural - or
if you use a short pre-delay paired with short reverb it’ll also sound unnatural.
Let’s listen to reverb with a longer setting and consider how the pre-delay
affects the intelligibility and transients of the vocal.
Hz.
Specific Vocal Reverb
This trick is definitely more for creative purposes since the effect is unnatural,
but let’s try it out nonetheless. I'm going to set up 3 sends or busses from my vocal - on each
respective auxiliary track I’ll insert a linear phase EQ, and isolate the lows, mids, and highs.
Next, I’ll insert my reverb plugins and use different settings on each one - so maybe
I’ll use room emulation on the lows, chamber on the mids, and a bright plate on the highs.
It’s really up to you what to choose, but this gives you a lot of creative freedom.
Let’s take a listen.
Layering Various Reverb Types
Although layering reverb types doesn’t create a realistic sound, it’s very useful when trying to
create a full and impressive vocal. Usually, I’ll start with some form of room or studio emulation
with subtle settings to thicken the vocal with short reflections and help it blend into the mix.
Then I’ll introduce a longer stylized reverb like plate,
chamber, hall, or something to help the vocal fill out a great amount of space.
Let’s take a listen to it and notice how the vocal becomes more impressive.
Saturation Before Vocal Reverb
Saturation helps control dynamics and make a vocal sound fuller - if you use it before reverb,
the plugin is going to have more to draw from so to speak. In other words,
the increased low-level details of the vocal will be loud enough to cause reverb reflections.
Let’s listen to the reverb alone, and then enable
saturation before the reverb to hear how it increases the reverb’s detail.
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Parallel Compression Vocal Reverb
In chapter 2 we talked about the benefits of using a parallel or
aux track for your vocal reverb - one example is using compression
after reverb on this track. The reverb is going to reflect and reverberate the vocal as you’d expect,
but then the compression controls the reflections’ dynamics.
Furthermore, with the attack and release, we can control the timbre
and ADSR of the reflections. Let’s listen to it while using smoother compression settings
and auto make-up gain to increase the quieter details of the reflections.
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Upward Compression on Vocal Reverb
Let’s do the same thing we did in the last chapter,
but instead of downward compression, we’ll use upward compression. This
uses a unique threshold to measure and capture quieter aspects of the signal,
compresses it, and then uses automatic makeup gain to bring these details forward.
When used on reverb, all of the reflections that were being masked by louder ones
become easier to hear. Let’s take a listen.
How to Duck Vocal Reverb
Let’s go back to using downward compression after the reverb, but this time keep the auto-make-up
gain off. Additionally, let’s sidechain an instrument or signal that we want to attenuate
the reverb - for example, we could cause the vocal reverb to be attenuated whenever the snare hits.
This has both practical and creative applications. Let’s take a listen to
it being used creatively by using a ghost kick to unrealistically attenuate the reflections.
How to Accurately Time Vocal Reverb
This is something I’ve gotten wrong in the past. I’ve said if you want to time your reverb to your
BPM divide 60000 by the BPM to get a quarter note in milliseconds; however, odds are the
reverb tail will drop below our threshold of perception before the end of the note.
With that in mind, let’s still use this equation to find a quarter note, but then
increase the value by about 5% to keep the level of the reflections audible
long enough for us to hear the full note.
Let’s take a listen to the difference and keep in mind it’ll be subtle,
but it adds up when used on multiple instruments.
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