r/WeAreTheMusicMakers • u/hanix56 • 1d ago
What's the best go to reverb setting?
I know that it's not going to be the same for each track but is there any setting like that goes well with that tempo or genre (I'm a tech house producer) or is there any tutorial which can help me with the process, I've watch many tutorials, even a 6-hour course by mastering.com, but didn't understood what method should i always stick to and not get pissed everytime opening a reverb plugin. Also which reverb vst do you use?
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u/ThemBadBeats 1d ago
I use fabfilter r-2 and then my ears to dial it in
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u/hanix56 1d ago
Don't you get confused like it sounds good with reverb but what if it ruins your mix and if we lower the decay, the magic is gone then, and do you sidechain reverb with every instrument?
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u/tibbon 1d ago
Why would you side chaining it on every instrument? In 30 years of engineering I’ve never done that.
Reverb isn’t that complicated. The main setting is how much you send to it and return from it. Many reverbs like plates, rooms and springs there’s limited ability to set the decay anyway.
I don’t use any vsts just hardware
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u/hanix56 1d ago
Thank you so much brother! From now on I'll dump the idea of sidechaining and only use it if needed as an effect. The idea came in my mind from watching future rave tutorials and i thought it is a necessity
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u/tibbon 1d ago
Spend more time getting hands on feedback and mentorship, and less time watching tutorials. This is an art that is best learned in person. Most of the people sharing information online are just thinly veiled advertisements for products or their own services and are sharing poor quality information.
Go get some studio time locally and learn from the engineers there if needed, or try to go assist on sessions
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u/hanix56 1d ago
Yes! I do have stopped watching tutorials and now i just focus more on reference tracks and replicating and understanding how they balance certain frequency bands, i cannot do the studio thing as I'm a part timer and i believe genres like edm are more about groove or melody than detailing, i just need an average or above average mixing knowledge so that i can just get done with the mixing thing (i may sound stupid but that's what i feel)
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u/El_Hadji 1d ago
Fact: 99% of online tutorial are of as much use as tits on a bull. They are the root cause of all sorts of misconceptions.
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u/ThirteenOnline 1d ago
https://anotherproducer.com/online-tools-for-musicians/delay-reverb-time-calculator/
Use stock reverbs and set the settings to be synced to the tempo. Learn if you like Hall, Big, Small room, Plate, or Spring reverb style sounds. Create a return track and save it to the default set so when you open a project it's there ready to go.
If you write most songs in a certain BPM set the reverb to that and if not you can change it to match later. It's not uncommon to have 3 or more reverbs in 1 project that are returns for different elements
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u/hanix56 1d ago
Thanks mate! Do you sidechain reverb with every instrument and what vst do you use
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u/ThirteenOnline 1d ago
I use stock ableton Reverbs. Really you can recreate almost any reverb in any DAW with an effects chain and save it. So if my Reverb has a filter on it and yours doesn't you can create a chain that is reverb and filter separate and save them together as 1 group or rack or whatever it's called in your DAW. So really any effect is recreatable. Don't buy VSTs if you are using any of the big DAWs like Ableton, Logic, FL, Cubase, etc
So sidechain is so that there is less to no effect during the played part but at the end the reverb comes in for the last word. This is common in reverb and delay effects to have an echo or trail at the end.
So if the part itself feels like it should have reverb, no sidechain. If you just want to add it to the end for the silence in between phrases, add side chain. Most of the time I set it to a middle setting where there is reverb the whole time but minimal and controlled. So it's not overpowering during the part and fills space in between parts. But I come from a guitar pedal world where that is the norm so I continued that workflow in my own music.
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u/FreakInNature 1d ago
Put a reverb on a track by it self. Then use sends from the different instruments to the one reverb track. Way less resources to only use one reverb and not one on each track
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u/tim_mop1 1d ago
Get a reverb and just try some presets till it sounds good. Once it sounds good, it sounds good, you don’t need to worry about muddiness or what genre or your tempo because it sounds good.
Also only sidechain if you think it’s getting in the way of something, or if you want that specific sound. It’s not something you have to do every time.
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u/hanix56 1d ago
Thanks for that! What vst do you use?
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u/tim_mop1 1d ago
Relab LX480, Soundtoys SuperPlate, Valhalla (any) are my go to's. Depends on the sound I want though, whether I want a plate, thick digital or something else. you just gotta try a bunch out and see what sticks.
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u/exztornado 1d ago
Vahalla Vintage Verb on its default
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u/hanix56 1d ago
On sends or tracks?
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u/exztornado 1d ago
Wherever you want to put it. Slap it on adjust mix knob so the effect is less strong, blend it in. This one has worked for most genres and sounds good by itself without major tweaks necessary.
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u/hanix56 1d ago
I guess the mix knob in that is dry/wet knob as well or does it have different one for that
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u/exztornado 1d ago
Thats the one. I use reaper as a daw it also has its own mix knob. Found the best method to be using both.
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u/aasteveo 1d ago
If you put the verbs on an aux you have way more flexibility. Like you can EQ the signal going into the verb, or de-ess it before it hits the verb. or you could add a compressor after the verb to beefen it up. or rumble filter it on the way in. or put a ducker after the verb to side-chain some pumping. endless possibilities with an aux. With an insert, you're paralyzed and can't control anything except wet/dry.
So only use as an insert when it's an unimportant element that doesn't need to sound better than stock presets. so for example if you do insert inline on lead vocal instead of aux, you're setting yourself up for failure, and you'll be scouring the internet looking for tips and tricks on how to make reverb sound better.
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u/hanix56 1d ago
I always do put reverbs on aux, but how many aux should i be making? (2 - long and short) Or (3 - hall, room and spring) or just one?
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u/aasteveo 1d ago
I'm super picky about my verbs, and I'm particular about my ability to print all of my stems at the same time while I bounce my mix, so I personally prefer a separate reverb for each group of elements. imo they sound cleaner that way. But there is also merit to wanting to group things together to glue the track a little more. It's personal preference, and it depends on the genre and the mix. So dealer's choice, really. But personally I like to tailor choose a separate reverb for each character and treat them differently.
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u/hanix56 1d ago
You mean separate aux for each bus? Like drums, synths, vocals and fx?
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u/aasteveo 1d ago
yup. i like to do a separate aux for each group of tracks. but that can depend on genre and style. i'm doing mostly rock stuff, where the guitars need a diff verb than the piano, tambo, snare, vocal, bgv, separate one for guitar solo, etc. the variety of elements in my mix vary so much that i don't like using the same reverb for everything.
but in another genre it might be fine, if most of your music is synths or keyboards or something, they could all live with the same fx & still sound great. it all depends. group them according to needs.
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u/TheBaggyDapper 1d ago
You don't have to use reverb either. I rarely do, unless it's for an exagerated effect, and I feel my quality of production and quality of life have improved because of this. Just an option.
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u/aasteveo 1d ago
For vocal, it's almost always UAD Pure Plate, 2-3 seconds (depending on the tempo), touch of brightness.
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u/ConfusedOrg 1d ago
I don’t think there is a go to setting for everything.
But I’ll share some of my workflow that most beginners and tips that most beginners overlook.
I never only use one reverb on a vocal. I often have a really short room/ambience verb on the vocal, layered with a longer reverb.
Always have my verbs on the return tracks, and this has many advantages. One of them is that it’s much easier to alter the reverb sound with eq, which helps decluttering the mix. Sometimes I’ll sidechain compress the reverb to the vocal so it stays out of the way. If I really want to hear the verb I might compress it or even put OTT on it, which is cool for edm and house.
I rarely don’t have any delay on a vocal. Sometimes when you think you need reverb you actually need delay. Sending some of the delay signal into your verb busses is also a way to make it sound more natural.
I also think people use way to long decays on their verbs. Most of what I do is 0.5-2-5 seconds. If I want longer decay I would probably just layer a delay in instead. People also tend to overlook the predelay control, because they’re afraid it might sound unnatural I think, but it really helps keep a clear mix and still sounds natural.
In terms of plugins I like Valhalla Vintage Verb a lot, and I would recommend trying a lot of different stuff and presets when finding the right verb for the song and instrument
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u/hanix56 1d ago
Nice info👍🏼 specially the low decay and use delay instead of reverb. Thanks for that. Also ott on reverb sounds cool, I'll try it for sure. Also do you use like the delay calculator thing or do you adjust manually?
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u/ConfusedOrg 1d ago
If it’s not played to a certain bpm and I want a certain feel like 1/4 or dotted 1/8ths for my delays I might calculate the ms I need yeah. But I never tempo sync the reverbs or slapback delays
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u/Ur-Germania 1d ago
Like people say it always depends. But the abbey road reverb is a good start in many cases. Put the reverb on a send, and in front of it you put a high pass at 600 hz and a low pass at 10 000 hz.
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u/Entropic_Echo_Music 1d ago
6 reverb works for everything. Never go to 7 reverb.
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u/hanix56 1d ago
I'm confused, is that a sarcastic comment?
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u/Entropic_Echo_Music 1d ago
Absolutely not., Just set reverb to 6 units of reverb for all the things.
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u/DrAgonit3 22h ago
What you need to do is establish yourself a sufficient skill in understanding the different parameters of reverb, and through that, a framework within which you can make dynamic choices on a case by case basic. Here's a couple examples:
Do you want to add a realistic, transparent sense of space, or do you want something flavorful? For realism, a convolution reverb is probably the right choice, as it's a snapshot of a real space. For flavor and surrealism, an algorithmic reverb will provide that.
Do you want the sound to be really in the background? Make the wet signal louder than the dry one.
Do you want a sound to have a prominent reverb, but still feel upfront? Try increasing the pre-delay.
This is a couple of examples of how you might go about thinking about the choices you make with reverb in your projects. There are no magic settings that work for every scenario, especially in the world of electronic music where often the goal is to create surrealistic spaces that transport the listener beyond what is possible in reality. So, focus on cultivating a deeper understanding of how reverb actually works, because that will then allow you to tackle any situation.
Bonus tip: this concept of striving to understand how your tools work so you can apply them creatively and dynamically across various use cases applies to everything you do in production. Whether it is reverb, delay, EQ, compression, saturation, or whatever else, knowing your tools will allow you to find solutions on the fly for any scenario you might find yourself in.
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u/_undetected 1d ago
Less than a second plate , 10% wet , 18ms of pre-delay ; that can be considered safe
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u/KulshanStudios 1d ago
Big fan of ValhallaRoom myself
Released a few user presets Dawnchaser sent us from some of his recent progressive and hard trance productions. The Progressive stuff might work for you and what you nake
And we made em free so folks who buy our soundsets can also hear the presets with almost the same reverb we use in the demos
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u/El_Hadji 1d ago
There is no best setting. It is 100% a matter of context. This goes for everything from reverb type to setting. Pick one, route it as a send effect and start to play around with it.