Essential guide for music production newbies: Exploring the Concept of Reverb

In the realm of music production, reverb has long been a crucial tool for creating a sense of space and atmosphere in mixes. The advancements in technology have led to the development of digital reverb plugins, offering solutions to the limitations of natural reverberation and providing greater control over the sonic properties of the ambience.

One such plugin is the Arturia Rev Plate, an accurate recreation of the EMT PLATE-140 reverb module, renowned for its dense yet smooth reverberation. The decay time sets the overall duration of the reverb tail, with longer settings producing a spacier trailing decay that gradually fades into the background. The modulated effect, produced by an LFO, resembles chorus or vibrato on the reverb tail, adding a unique sonic possibility that came with the development of algorithmic reverb.

Another example is the Valhalla Plate, another plugin offering dense yet smooth reverberation. The Valhalla Plate, like the Arturia Rev Plate, allows for control over the decay time and modulation, providing a versatile tool for music production.

The use of reverb in music production is straightforward. To implement reverb, create an aux send and aux return channel, insert the reverb on the aux return channel, and send sources to the reverb channel by increasing their send level. This setup allows for easy control over the amount of reverb applied to each source.

In addition to the Arturia Rev Plate and Valhalla Plate, there are other digital reverb plugins worth mentioning. The Eventide Spring plugin simulates the sound of classic amplifiers and effects units from the 60s and 70s, providing a vintage touch to your mixes. The Strymon Bigsky Plugin is another example of a unique algorithmic reverb, offering a wide range of sonic possibilities.

Convolution reverb plugins, such as Liquidsonics Reverberate 3 and Meldla MConvolutionEZ, use impulse responses to create the most realistic ambience textures. These plugins often come with libraries of impulse responses captured at iconic real locations, providing a wealth of options for creating authentic and immersive reverb effects.

Reverb is not just a tool for creating space and atmosphere in mixes; it also helps sound captured by a microphone feel more natural to the listener. It enhances the blending of different instruments by creating the illusion of a shared acoustic environment. This is particularly important in genres that rely heavily on ambience, such as electronic music and ambient music.

In the world of music production, reverb is a crucial tool alongside compression and EQ. It is a vital component in mixing music, helping to situate a sound within the artificial space of a mix and providing a sense of cohesion and unity. As digital reverb plugins continue to evolve, we can expect even greater control and versatility in creating the perfect reverb effects for any mix.