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    Get That Pro Sound -The Ultimate Guide to ReverbFirst Edition

    Publication date: August 2012Published by George RobinsonGetthatprosound.com

    Copyright George Robinson, All rights reserved.

    No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any formor by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and

    recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, withoutprior written permission from the publisher.

    While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in thispublication, the Author does not assumes any responsibility for errors,omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Ofcourse, please let me know if you nd any errors and Ill correct them!

    The Purchaser or Reader of this publication assumes responsibility for

    the use of these materials and information.

    Neither the Author nor its dealers or distributors, will be held liablefor any damages caused either directly or indirectly by the instructionscontained in this book, or by the software or hardware products describedherein.

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    Contents

    1. Introduction........................................................................................ 4 What Is Reverb, & Why Is It Useful?2. Types of Reverb.................................................................................. 6 Algorithmic Convolution Modelled3. Anatomy of a Reverb Plugin............................................................. 7 Key Reverb Parameters Other Common Parameters Plugin Preset Categories4. Selecting, Setting Up & Tweaking A Reverb Plugin...................... 11 Nine Steps5. Reverb Strategies: Assigning Reverbs to Instruments................ 15 No Reverb! The Two-Reverb Approach Three-Reverb Approach #1: Vocals, Drums & Instruments Three-Reverb Approach #2: Fore/Mid/Background..................... 17 Foreground Middleground Background Cathedral Reverb6. 25 Reverb Pro Tips............................................................................197. Conclusion......................................................................................... 26

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    IntroductionWhat Is Reverb, & Why Is It Useful?

    Reverbera on occurs naturally, and is the e ect of sound waves re ec ng o the surfacesthey come into contact with the walls and ceiling in a typical room, for example and mix -ing or overlapping to varying degrees with the original sound. If you were in that room andclapped your hands, you would hear a combina on of the original, direct sound, very closelyfollowed by the re ected sound bouncing back o the walls around you.

    Di erent surfaces re ect the sound in di erent ways bouncing some frequencies back andabsorbing others, for example. Whats more, the further away the surfaces are from each otherand the listener, the longer it will take for the re ec ons to be heard a er the ini al sound.Our brains use this informa on how long it takes for re ec ons to reach us a er the original

    sound, the frequency content of those re ec ons, and how many of them there are to deter-

    mine what sort of space we are in. This is why a huge stone cathedral sounds, and signi cantlyfor us, feels, completely di erent to standing in the middle of a quiet forest. Even if you wereblindfolded, you could tell where you are just by clapping your hands and listening to the re ec -

    ons (or lack thereof).

    As music producers, this psycho-acous ce ect of reverb is one of our most pow -erful allies in crea ng the most emo veand e ec ve sense of space and placein the mind of the listener. Manipula ng

    the spa al informa on that is part ofeach sound is a fundamental componentof any track, enabling us to glue, blendor separate individual parts from eachother, and adding a par cular vibe tothe track as a whole.

    Figure 1: Room re ec ons. Becauseroom surfaces re ect sound, wehear not only the direct sound fromthe speaker but also the indirect,re ected sound, slightly later. Thishappens both as discrete, earlyre ec ons, and also as washes ofsmoother reverb.

    Speaker

    Early reection

    Listener

    Reverb waves

    Early reection

    Direct sound

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    Now reverb is not the most obvious e ect most typical listeners are not going to be con -sciously aware of the e ects of reverb and what it is contribu ng to your mixes, or how theyare unconsciously drawing spa al informa on from how youve treated your sounds. But farfrom being less exci ng than compression or some of the more obvious in-your-face e ects and

    processes, the way that reverb works mostly on a subtle, psycho-acous c level makes it some-

    thing of a secret weapon. When youve mastered the key tricks and techniques, youll be ableto manipulate the apparent size, tone and overall atmosphere of your tracks like a magicianplaying with his audience: You can convince your listeners that the music you make, on eventhe most basic setup, in the smallest rooms, comes across like a huge, stadium- lling jugger -naut. Or just as easily, you can simply create a a ering, cohesive environment in which toplant your track, bringing a sense of it being rooted in a tangible space.

    As we use panning to posi on individual parts le or right, we can use reverb to locate ele -ments of the music on the front to back axis.Generally, the more reverb you add to an instrument, the further away it will sound, which can

    really help to place it in context with other sounds in the track. Your mixes can take on a hyper-real depth with good use of reverb especially when used in conjunc on with EQ and com -pression, which well cover in the ps sec on later in the book.

    Photo: Pat Ong

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    Types of ReverbAlgorithmic, Convolution, & Modelling

    There are di erent types of reverb units and plugins to choose from because of the di erentapproaches that have been created to ar cially simulate natural reverb. Before electronic unitsand computer plugins, electro-mechanical spring and plate reverbs and echo chambers werethe only ways to introduce reverb to recordings. Fortunately things have moved on considerablysince then, but these older mechanical reverbs had a charm and sound of their own that is s llsought a er in the digital domain. This is where emula ons and vintage modelling plugins comein.

    Algorithmic reverbs use calcula ons based on hypothe cal rooms and other spaces togenerate their reverb sounds. Generally this gives a sharper, more ar cial sound, typi ed by

    most hardware digital reverbs of the last 30 years. This is not necessarily a bad thing though musically were not always a er the most natural sound, but the one that has the right char -acter for the track. In fact, algorithmic reverb can be easier to place in a mix because it isnt asrealis c as convolu on reverb! Algorithmic reverbs also tend to be the lightest on the compu -ters CPU, a signi cant considera on when youre using several instances in a busy mix.

    Convolution reverbs use pre-recorded samples of real rooms and spaces to build ImpulseResponse (IR) les of those spaces. The impulse response is then convolved with the incomingaudio signal you want to process, hence the name.Convolu on reverbs then, are generally far be er at simula ng real spaces than algorithmic

    reverbs the only major downside is that they also require signi cantly more CPU processingpower.Generally then youll want to use convolu on reverb where a lifelike quality is important forexample, you can simulate the e ect of a set of ambient room mics (more on how to this on thefollowing pages). Convolu on reverb can take a bit more work to sit in the mix than a good algo -rithmic reverb it can easily be a bit heavy in the low mids and lack high-end sparkle, as this ishow real reverb tends to sound.

    Modelling reverbs are designed to replicate the characteris cs of par cular vintage hard -ware reverb units, such as the Universal Audio EMT 140 modelled on a real mechanical EMTplate reverb, or the spring reverb emula ons found in many guitar amp plugins. These vintagereverbs can provide a fantas c contrast to the rela vely soulless digital perfec on of algorithmicor convolu on reverbs, bringing addi onal character and nice tonal shaping to whatever yourun through them.

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    Anatomy Of A Reverb PluginMain Controls, Terminology & Programs

    Even if you understand the principles of reverb, it can be a bit in mida ng when youre rstconfronted with so many individual knobs and controls on a plugin interface in your DAW.Where do you start, and how can you use each control to give you just the right sound for yourparts and mixes? Lets start by dissec ng a typical plugin and demys fy all the controls andparameters once you get your head around these essen al components of every reverb, youllbe able to quickly get to grips with any reverb plugin you like:

    Key Reverb ParametersThe important reverb parameters generally placed under user control are: early re ec on pat

    -tern, pre-delay me, overall decay me and high-frequency damping.

    Pre-delay refers to the me between when the original sound starts and when you hear therst of the reverbs early re ec ons. The greater the pre-delay me, the larger the perceived

    room size: imagine how in a large space such as a hall or a cathedral it will take longer for thesound to re ect back as it has more distance to travel.Increase the pre-delay me to put a bit of separa on between the original sound and thereverb this way you get the spa al bene ts of reverb without it clu ering or masking the mix(par cularly useful for vocals and lead lines).

    Early reections are the rst dis nct echoes heard at the onset of the reverb.No early re ec ons are heard un l the sound has reached the nearest wall or obstacle andre ected back to the listener. This ini al delay between the direct sound and the rst re ectedsound provides what is perhaps the strongest clue as to the room size: if the re ec on returnsas a dis nct echo, it suggests that the re ec ve surface is both solid and at. A more di useecho (one with less pronounced individual re ec ons) suggests irregular surfaces.The greater the spacing of the early re ec ons, the larger the space sounds.

    Reverb time or decay me refers to the me it takes for the reverb tail to dissipate intosilence. Its not actually very easy to say when a reverberant signal nally disappears, so theresa standard measurement of reverb decay known as RT60: this sounds like a component of somecomplex equa on, but it simply means the me taken for the level of the reverb to decay by60dB. Simple!Long decay mes work well on sustained sounds but. When you rst start playing with reverb itseems obvious that a long overall reverb decay me is the best way to create the impression of

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    a large environment but this is also the quickest way of lling up all the gaps in your track andcrea ng a big mush. In fact, as already men oned above, as much depends here on the earlyre ec ons to tell us how big a space seems to be. For example, a small led bathroom will bevery re ec ve and so may have almost as long a decay me as a large hall but the nature of

    the early re ec ons and the brightness of the following reverb tail are what give us the clues asto the rooms actual size. Speaking of brightness

    High-frequency damping allows the high frequency decay me of the reverb tail to bemade shorter than the overall decay me. This emulates the way the surfaces and materials inreal rooms absorb certain frequencies. Adjust this parameter for more or less realism, and alsoto colour the reverb as bright or dark to t it into the mix (more on this shortly). It is basicallya high-shelf EQ built into the reverb, but you could certainly use a separate EQ plugin for thisa er the reverb for greater control if needed.

    Low-frequency damping o en appears next to the high-frequency damping control.This can be very useful for shelving o some muddying lows and mids and help you shape thereverb to t the part and the track overall.

    Mix or Wet/Drycontrols are simply where you choose the propor ons of the originalsound and the reverbed sound. If you have your reverb plugin set up as a send e ect, the Mixknob should be set to 100% / Wet, as youll be controlling the propor ons based on how muchlevel you send from each individual track.

    Other Common ParametersThe Size control actually changes a few parameters simulataneously behind the scenes, butits most audible e ect can be the way it spaces out the early re ec ons: as we already men -

    oned, the greater the spacing of these discrete echoes, the larger the room will sound.

    Related to the above Size control, Reverb Density refers to the density of the re ec onsmaking up the reverb component of the sound. The more ghtly packed the individual re ec -

    ons, the higher the reverb density. Lower densi es can produce coarse-sounding reverbs onpercussive sounds but are o en a ering to vocals and other non-percussive sounds. High-den -sity reverbs tend to sound more natural on drums and percussion.

    Related to Density is Diffusion, which determines the rate at which the re ec ons increase indensity a er the original sound. A large, square room with at surfaces might have a rela velylow di usion rate compared to a room of similar size covered in irregularly shaped surfaces

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    this is why concert halls typically feature lots of pillars and intricate alcoves, and also highlightswhy acous c foam in irregular shapes is used so much in studios (including yours, hopefully!).

    On some reverb plugins you might have the op on of controlling the Shape of the reverbdecay curve. This is ge ng into the realms of details that might not be that useful for musicians,but acous cians would argue that decay shapes are signi cant to great, natural-sounding reverb(apparently many of the best-sounding spaces exhibit a double decay characteris c separatedby a short plateaux). If you have the op on, play around with this control and see what it can dofor you.

    Plugin Preset CategoriesNow that weve introduced the main parameters used to create and control reverb, it will makefar more sense to look at each of the typical preset categories and begin to understand preciselyhow and why a Hall sounds di erent to a small room or a vintage plate reverb unit.

    Room / Hall / Chamber: The rst reverb e ects used for recorded music were createdwith echo chambers - a loudspeaker would play the sound back in the chamber, and a micro -phone would pick it up again, including the echo of the room itself. The same principle s llapplies for simulated room and hall reverbs -youre capturing the ambience of a par cularlysized and shaped space.

    For example, for a typical hall reverb that simulates the acous cs of large spaces such as concerthalls, the reverb density would tend to build up over me and there will be a long reverb tail.A hall reverb can make sounds seem further away, so its of great use in pu ng some front-to-back perspec ve into a mix. A room reverb, on the other hand, generally simulates a smallerspace than a hall and is a good all-round reverb for instruments. Chamber reverb can be goodfor pu ng some air around synths, sampled drums and DId instruments.

    Plate: A er echo chambers came plate reverb, used a lot in the 60s and 70s. Plate reverbsuse a transducer to create vibra ons across a large plate of sheet metal. A pickup capturesthe vibra ons as they bounce across the plate, and the result is output again as an audio signal.Plate reverb tends to be bright and clean-sounding good for vocals and drums and is makingsomething of a revival recently.

    Spring: Uses a similar principle to that of plate reverb, but with a metal spring instead of aplate. A transducer at one end and a pickup at the other are used to create and then capturevibra ons within the spring. Being compact and rela vely cheap to manufacture, many guitaramp designs ended up incorpora ng a spring reverb unit. Spring reverb adds a dis nc ve metal -

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    lic coloura on to the sound, and in the days of classic rock n roll it was known that you couldshake the reverb cabinet while recording so that the springs clashed together for a properlyunhinged sound. I wouldnt recommend a emp ng this with a plugin version thoughGated reverb: This e ect was originally created by taking the reverb in an actual room, heavily

    compressing it, and using a noise gate to cut it abruptly rather than let the sound decay overme. Now it can easily be created with a reverb plugin too, with precise control over the exactlength of the reverb. Gated reverb can be quite aggressive and sound very reminiscent of the80s if youre not careful but it can s ll work wonders powering up snare drums or for givingguitars an extra edge.

    Non-Linear and Reverse reverb: Refers to par cularly unnatural but cool-soundingreverb presets that can be used for unusual e ects, such as reverse reverb that seems to buildup in level rather than decay a er the original sound. Reverse reverb is actually a varia on ongated reverb, where a reverse-type envelope (slow a ack, fast decay) is applied to the early re -

    ec ons cluster. Like gated reverb, the main parameter is the me taken for the reverb to buildup and cut o . The e ect gives the sound being processed a cool backwards feel, even thoughnothing is actually being reversed.By the way, real reverse reverb (that actually starts before the dry sound) can easily be createdin your DAW by rst reversing your source material; then applying the reverb and bouncing/reimpor ng the le onto a new track; and then ipping this new le so its facing the right wayagain, and bringing it up underneath the original material to taste.

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    Selecting, Setting Up &

    Tweaking A Reverb PluginOK, so now we know exactly what does what, and by looking at the presets we can see howvarying the combina ons of se ngs gives us a whole range of spa al op ons. But what is theprocess we should go through in order to construct the perfect reverb se ng for our ownunique applica ons?

    As you begin se ng up a reverb, stop and think for a moment: what kind of space are youimagining? What kind of characteris cs would a real space like this have? Approaching reverbin this way can save you a lot of me and safeguard against falling into unstructured preset-sur ng, hoping to stumble across the right sound by accident. Believe me, in the long run its alot quicker to spend some me learning the few essen al steps and approaching your reverbse ngs in a strategic way.

    1. Choose the Reverb Type & Congure It In Your DAWFrom the descrip ons above and having even a very quick play with di erent reverb plugins,youll soon get a feel for what type of reverb algorithmic, convolu on or modelled will suityour needs for par cular sounds.So, having asked yourself what you actually want the size and space to sound like, whether youwant it add brightness or body to the part being processed or to set it back in the mix a lit -tle; whether you want it to sound very natural, sparkly or otherwise par cularly characterful,

    choose a plugin and set it up as a send or e ect channel (the terms will be di erent dependingon your DAW). Reverb is almost always best applied via a send-return e ect con gura on likethis, so that a single plugin can be accessed from mul ple channels in your mix. Also check twoimportant things before going on:A) The reverb plug-in should be set to 100% Wet so its only outpu ng processed e ect oth -erwise youll end up inadvertently boos ng the channels overall level too. Turn all the waydown or switch o Dry signal in the reverb GUI (again, di erent plugins will have slightly di er -ent controls and terminology).B) Make sure the individual channels sending to the reverb are set to post-fader. This meansthat the balance of wet and dry sound will remain constant if you adjust the send channelsmain fader, and you wont have any ghostly reverb shadows remaining in the mix if you fade outthe channel completely at any point. (Pre-fader can be good when turning the send channel allthe way down for disembodied pad e ects).

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    2. Select A Preset To Start WithThis is an op onal step bepending on how con dent and in-depth you want to go with yourown programming here. Dont be afraid of using presets to get you in the ballpark of the sound

    youre aiming for quickly just dont use presets as an excuse not to tweak the reverb to makeit t as well as it possibly can.Also, dont interpret preset names too rigidly: just because a se ng is called Small Room orDrum Plate doesnt mean it cant be almost exactly what you had in mind for your synth lead.

    When selec ng a star ng sound, whats most important is the overall acous c signature and theamount of reverb being applied. If the frequency balance seems a li le o , you can correct and

    dy things up with EQ later. Keep things as large brushstrokes at this point, its all too easy toget bogged down in minor parameter adjustments!

    3. Set The Early ReectionsThe part of a reverb that is primarily responsible for its blending e ect is roughly its rst half-second. So whenever you try a new preset, reduce its length straight away to home in on theblending characteris cs. If you have independent level controls for Early Re ec ons and ReverbTail, pulling down the la er should help too. It doesnt ma er exactly how short you make thereverb for the momentjust shorten it enough to make it into a brief, well-de ned burst ofre ec ons rather than an echoey decay tail.

    4. Set The Predelay And Early ReectionsRemember, if you want the impression of a longer/larger reverb, try playing with the pre-delaybefore extending the reverb decay me. This slight sepera on of the reverb tail from the directsound makes a huge di erence in reducing mix clu er and improving clarity.If you want the reverb to act more as a subtle blending/thickening agent, at this stage you mightalso want to try boos ng the early re ec ons and signi cantly reducing the tail to check it hasthe necessary tonal character.

    Another signi cant thing to be aware of is that you can link the pre-delay me to the track tem -po this can be par cularly important for EDM produc ons, where everything possible should

    enhance and work within the groove.If your bpm is 120, you have one quarter note every 500ms. You have one eighth note every 250ms. You have one sixteenth note every 125ms, you have one 32nd note every 63ms. 64th notesat 32ms. In order to have the predelay trigger the reverb in a rhythmic fashion, it needs to be atone of these measures. Id go with 32 or 63ms, because we want the reverb to s ll feel a ached

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    to its source sound. Also, you no ce how Irounded up? Thats to put the reverb behindthe beat. This helps create a rhythmic pocket.I might even suggest moving the predelay

    higher a couple ms, just to make that pocketa bit more open, and so that the reverb isntsounding at exactly the same me as the nextbeat in the music.

    If you do actually want to push sounds back inthe mix, the less pre-delay the reverb has, themore the it will appear to pull the sound backin the mix. With no pre-delay at all, the soundwill appear to be right up against the rear wallof your room

    Try star ng o with 10 to 20ms of prede -lay, aiming on the shorter side for a morein mate-sounding space and on the longerside for a more spacious virtual acous c, andthen to re ne the se ng up to a few millisec -onds either side of that ini al se ng for tonalreasons.

    5. Set Reverb Decay TimeIts quite normal to tweak this se ng by earat this point but you can also, again, applysome mathema cal logic as we did for thepre-delay. If we want our reverb to rhythmical -ly help pull us into the next beat, we want thereverb decay / tail length to t into the correctamount of me between the notes. Goingback to our 120 bpm example, you know thatthere will be a 250ms gap between each 1/8note. So, taking 250ms and of course subtract -ing the pre-delay (lets say 34ms) gives us arhythmically-related decay me of 216ms. At

    rst the di erence between this and anotherless precise amount may sound negligable,but once youve poten ally compressed thereverb, the send channel, the group it s routed

    to, and the master buss, you will no ce thedi erence! >>

    >> In many other instances though youll want

    to use a reverb with a longer decay than this -less of a ght rhythmic room slap and more ofa bigger resonance. In our 120bpm example,try dialling in a 2-second decay that is, four500ms quarter notes, or one beat of a bar.Remember that whether you use calcula onslike this or just nd the se ngs by ear is pure -ly a ma er of what works best for you. Eitherway, once youve set a star ng decay me, its

    me to do some quick A/B comparisons withthe dry sound mute and unmute the reverb,

    fade it up and down, generally get a feel forwhether its contribu ng to the original sound.Finally, if you feel its working, leave it fadedup at a comfortably level underneath the drysound.

    6. Set The SizeThe size control will a ect the ghtness andtone of the reverb sound. Its mostly a ma erof taste, but you can try dividing the reverb

    me by ten, and using this as a ballpark sizein feet for your room. Then adjust the size upfor a more spacey sound; down for more of a

    ghter echo.

    7. Set Density & DiffusionThese parameters essen ally control whetherthe reverb is heard either as a series of dis -crete echoes or a denser, smoother tail ofreverb how sca ered the sound waves are.This is useful for further matching the reverbpresence and tone to the dry instrument,and also again for helping push sounds fur -ther back in the mix (greater di usion) with -out lengthening the reverb itself. Typically,smooth, dense reverbs tend to suit percussive

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    sounds, while grainier, less di use reverb se ngs will work be er on less percussive instru -ments like vocals and guitars. That said, the rela vely dense sound of vintage plate reverb alsosounds great on vocals, so its worth experimen ng to see which works best.

    8. Stereo Width AdjustmentRemember that you have the op on to pan the reverb seperately from the original dry sound,which opens up quite a few possibili es. For example, if you want your reverb to help glue themix together, panning the reverb quite wide gives the impression of the whole mix being en -compassed and surrounded by it, in the same acous c space.Or, you might want to keep the reverb rela vely narrow and focused to stop things ge ng tooclu ered in a busier mix. Experiment with panning the reverb to the same stereo posi on asthe dry sound and then moving it away and around the stereo eld: hear how, in the context ofthe mix you can use the reverb element of a sound like a highlighter or di user, depending onwhat works best.

    9. Set Damping And Insert An EQ Generally youll want to remove any frequencies below about 300Hz from the reverb return these will just add mud to the mix and clu er the valuable lower region, which should be keptclear for the bass and kick drum (that both work best with no reverb almost all the me).You might also want to cut away some of the very highest frequencies, which will help sit thereverb be er in the mix and stop it drawing too much a en on to itself.

    Beyond these basic adjustments, consider how much of the frequency spectrum you want thereverb to take up, and whether you want the reverb to be bright (synthe c, gli ery, cool) ordark (natural, rich, warm). As already men oned, bright-sounding reverb will push its way to the

    front of the mix and make its presence felt which can be good for EDM lead synths, for example.But place a bright acous c guitar through that same reverb and it just wont sound right. Darkreverb, on the other hand, tends to have a more natural, receding quality to it, si ng behindthe instrument and not clu ering the high end of the mix in the same way.

    Of course theres nothing to stop you using a reverb thats both warm and bright. The onlyproblem is that if the reverb lls the whole frequency spectrum there will be less space le foryour actual instruments. Youll generally get much more professional-sounding results by limit -ing the reverb sound to a speci c frequency region, as you would any other musical part, andle ng the complete mix work in combina on to ll the spectral landscape. Remember that youmight also need to bring up the overall level of the reverb return once youve cut out some ofits frequency content like this.

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    Reverb StrategiesAssigning Reverbs to Instruments How Many Reverbs?

    So, Im sure you know by now that reverb can be a powerful part of your mixing arsenal. But,how do we best use it in the context of a complete mix?Its easy to nd yourself applying a reverb to one part and it sounding great but then, send -ing another instrument to the same reverb sounds awful, and you end up wan ng to changethe reverb se ngs, undoing the good sound you originally achieved.

    How do we get enough blend on some in -struments while avoiding muddying the mixoverall, or increase the perceived sustainof one part while not making the rest of

    the track sound like boomy mush? Clearly,a one-size- ts-all, single reverb approachdoesnt work for long. At the same me,you dont want to have a separate reverbfor every single track in your mix: thatwould just become unmanageable (andextremely CPU-intensive!) very quickly.It is for these reasons that the best ap -proach is usually to set up several di erentreverb e ects on one song this way, youcan have each of them doing subtley dif -

    ferent jobs, and you wont get stuck tryingto make a single reverb plugin achieve allof the enhancements you want. Once youhave some reverbs set up for specializedtasks, its more straigh orward to applythem in just the right combina ons toachieve the best overall reverb sound foryour mixes.As ever, there are no rules: use reverbacross your mix however you feel soundsbest. But probably the most common over -all approach to reverb for a typical track (oras a star ng point) is to set up two, three orfour di erent reverbs on di erent sends/ef -fect channels, thinking of them in ers thatgraduate from short/dry to wet/long.

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    Use Your Reference Tracks!When deciding which con gura on of reverbs will suit your music best, try going back to yourreference tracks and listen carefully, making a note of which type of reverb you think is used on

    which instruments or sec ons, and how many there might be overall. Learn by example. See mypost on How To E ec vely Analyze Your Reference Tracks In 6 Steps for more ps on this.

    Reverb Strategy #1: No Reverb!Your rst ques on should always be, Does it even need reverb? Dont re up your plugins with -out thinking about it rst. Lots of commercial tracks have next to no reverb at all, because theyalready have enough blend, size and atmosphere as it is. If youve recorded parts live with fairlyloose, ambient miking (as opposed to close-miking which would minimise the natural soundre ec ons of the recording space), you might not need reverb to achieve the desired e ect.Similarly, you might nd the ghter, more dis nct echoes of a delay e ect work be er in some

    instances than reverb.

    The Two-Reverb ApproachThis setup is streamlined and rela vely straigh orward, but s ll exible enough for many mixingsitua ons. One reverb would normally be set for a short, bright sound (probably a plate sound)for drums and percussive sounds, whilst the other would be longer and warmer, providing anice rich quality for vocals and solo instruments. Plus theres nothing stopping you sendingsome instruments to both reverbs (percussive one rst) for a bonus third spa al e ect.

    Three-Reverb Approach #1: Vocals, Drums & Instruments

    Another popular strategy is to set up one reverb for vocals, another for drums and one more forthe rest of the instruments. Again, it can work to use more than one reverb on the same sound:for instance a lead vocal might bene t from being treated with two reverbs layered up, one witha short decay, one with a longer decay. The main thing to look out for as you do this is to makesure the reverbs used dont clash with each other and confuse the overall picture.

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    Three-Reverb Approach #2:Fore/Mid/BackgroundThis is my preferred approach in most cases set up three reverbs, but rather than assigningsounds to them based on instrument groupings, you essen ally send sounds to them based onwhere you want them to appear on the front-to-back, depth axis. Using a strategy like this canreally enhance the sense of space and depth in your tracks, whilst minimizing clu er and otherproblems that can arise as you balance the mix. Lets take a look at the uses of each of the threereverbs in more detail:

    Foreground ReverbOur rst, foreground reverb will be ght, being made up of a short burst of early re ec onsand a very short tail, to the point where it might be almost indis nguishable from the main

    sound. This is ne though, as this reverb is for adding only a very discrete sense of space toparts that otherwise we want to be quite upfront and unclu ered. In fact, short ambiencereverbs like this actually give sounds a sense of extra body and density, and are a favourite toolof many pros for a pleasing thickening e ect of guitars, synths and drums.

    Short reverbs have a number of dis nct uses and musical advantages. Primarily, short reverbsnegate the clu er that longer reverb tails tend to bring. This is immediately no ceable on rhyth -mic elements (like drums, for example, or rhythm guitar) when you need the reverb tail to tbetween the notes rather than smear itself across the en rety of the bar. Using a short reverb,therefore, will retain all the punch of the rhythm sec on, but s ll provide some sense of acous -

    c space to sit your instruments in. Its a bit like bringing up overhead mics on a live drum kitrecording: you get a subtle but important sense of the sounds being in a real acous c environ -ment.

    Find some good small room or ambience presets on your chosen reverb plugin as a goodstar ng point. Tweak the wet/dry ra o and youll probably nd that you only need rela velysmall amounts of reverb to deliver the required real space e ect without it becoming too obvi -ous. Also try tweaking the rela ve balance between the early re ec ons and the reverb tail,so that you get more or less of the ini al u er of bright early re ec ons rather than the moredi use reverb tail.

    Well also look at the middle ground, where reverb becomes a more no ceable e ect, and howner details like the colour and type of reverb become so essen al to the success of the results.Finally, well also explore some long cathedral-like reverbs and see how the extremi es of thee ect can become a crea ve springboard for new sonic explora on.

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    Middleground ReverbMiddleground reverbs begin where the e ect can be iden ed as a speci c sound itself. Agood place to start is to select a preset with a dis nct reverb tail of perhaps 1-2 seconds. Withthis second of our three reverbs, the type and par cular characteris cs of the reverb become

    far more audible, and therefore youll want to spend a li le more me selec ng just the rightsound to match your source material than you needed to for your shorter foreground e ect.This is where the character of your reverb strategy is expressed: try playing with the high andlow frequency damping controls to adjust how bright or dark the mid reverb will sound.

    Background Cathedral ReverbThe part weve all been wai ng for: the sort of reverb that makes things sound truly huge. Thiskind of reverb becomes a special e ect, a feature of the mix in its own right. The thing to re -member here is that used sparingly on a few select instruments or e ect hits, massive reverbwill give a great sense of depth and contrast; but plaster it over too many elements in your mixand were back to mush city.Pushing reverb mes beyond six seconds or more takes the e ect into far more spacious anddrama c territory, arguably making it perfect for sounds that need to sit at the rear of the mixor for deliberate shock treatments (such as large trailer hits, when reverb is used as a sounde ect in its own right).

    Where your short reverb will be discrete and subtle, and your midground reverb quite disci -plined as it needs to relate strongly to the source material, you can let your proverbial hairdown and be a bit more extreme with the wet return on your big background reverb.In fact, one of my favourite ways for crea ng unique and atmospheric pads is to put sounds orinstrument notes through a massive reverb 20-30 secs! make the reverb send pre-fader and

    turn the channel fader right down; now you have just the reverb return, crea ng an incrediblyghostly and haun ng wash that o en sounds nothing like your original source sound. Listen toJon Hopkins album Insides or his soundtrack for the movie Monsters to hear masterful examplesof this e ect in ac on. It also works really well on backing vocals and synth pads.

    As with midground reverb, the mbral/textural quali es of your massive reverb will be evenmore pronounced, so try a few di erent hall, cathedral and custom se ngs to start with.A convolu on reverb plugin such as Al verb (a favourite of many pro studios) is the obviousini al choice for long, natural reverb tails there are many great IR les sourced from massivecathedrals and suchlike. But dont overlook trying an algorithmic or modelled reverb if you haveone, like the awesome Lexicon PCM plugin, whose super-long reverb seems to oat with in nitesustain.

    Any super-long reverb will tend to work best if its rela vely dark, with more pronounced highand low frequency damping so that you dont swamp the en re mix!

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    25 Reverb

    Pro Tips1. When Is Reverb Not Reverb?When Its AmbienceModern music tends not to use a lot of veryobvious reverb but instead relies a lot on so-called ambience algorithms. These recreatethe early re ec ons of a natural room but addli le or no reverb tail (certainly less than a sec -ond), enabling them to create a sense of space

    and solidarity without smothering the soundin reverb. Ambience can be used to makeclose-miked or synthesized sounds sit moreconvincingly in a mix. Because the extra re ec -

    ons add to the original sounds, percussiveparts treated with ambience o en sound morepowerful. A dry sound, for example, will favourshort transients, but add in some reverb andthe kit will sound louder, with the reverbadding body and sustain to each drum hit. Itcan sound a bit like simulated overhead drummics. Vocals can also bene t from this form ofbody-enhancing treatment, without the clu erof a long reverb tail that also tends to push thevocal to the back of the mix.Because most ofthe work is done by the early re ec ons, theremay be fewer parameters to adjust than witha normal reverb algorithm, pre-delay, dura onand brightness being the most important.

    2. Compression & Reverb:Provide Space Without SacricingUpfrontnessCompression can be used to thicken, sustainand otherwise make the reverb more punchy.

    Compression can be a great solu on to theconundrum of wan ng to push a sound fur -ther back in the mix with a bit of reverb, butwithout robbing it completely of its power and

    presence in the mix (as reverb can also tend todo). Compress the reverb tail and you get thepsycho-acous c depth-crea ng e ect of thereverb while also keeping the sound presentand as upfront as you want.

    3. Use Pre-delay To KeepSounds With Large ReverbUpfrontThis is worth repea ng: In situa ons

    where you want to use a large reverbbut keep the sound towards the frontof the mix, consider increasing thereverbs pre-delay me to around70150ms. Long pre-delay se ngswill detach the reverb tail from itssource, allowing the original source tosound up-front but s ll have a senseof ambience oa ng behind it.

    4. Worldising: Using YourOwn Chamber ReverbsLong before plugins and hardwareunits, the only way to add reverb totracks was literally to play them backin specially constructed chambers,rooms lined with les or other re -

    ec ve materials. The room wouldcontain a single speaker and and amicrophone: youd play back your drysound on the speaker and record thenewly reverbed version to be rein -serted back into the mix. The reverbtone and me could be adjusted byliterally moving the speaker and/orthe microphone.

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    In the 70s, legendary lm sound designerWalter Murch (THX 1138, American Gra ,The Conversa on, Apocalypse Now) helpeddevelop the idea of reverb chambers further,

    by going out into real-world spaces and re-recording his sound designs in them. He didnthave the facili es or technology to make hiswork ar cially match the atmosphere of afuturis c underground highway, in the case ofTHX 1138 for example, so what did he do? Hewent to an actual subway terminal and re-recorded his designed tracks there.

    Worldizing is s ll used all the me by lmsound designers and recordists. Its a lot of

    fun miking up speakers in all kinds of weirdse ngs, from bathrooms to car interiors,stairwells, li sha s and wheelie bins (justremember to take your gear out of the bin atthe end!). You can learn a lot both about theacous cs of di erent spaces in general, andyour own tracks in par cular, and ul matelyyoull come up with 100% unique sounds andinstrument treatments. Try it with synth linesand DId guitars: both of these usually start olacking any sense of place, so worldizing canwork wonders for slipping them comfortablyinto a track.

    A related trick is to set up an ambient mic inthe room where youre making your originalrecordings of live instruments. If you like thesound of the room, you can use these ambientrecordings of the same performance (as cap -tured by a cleaner, close mic) in the same wayas you would for drum overheads: bring them

    up underneath the main tracks for instant,natural room power.

    5. Applying Other Effects To TheReverb ReturnEQ isnt the only e ect to use in combina onwith your reverb try se ng up chains ofe ects on your reverb send channels, such asdistor on, phasing, or any type of lter modu -la on, and you can give stock sounds a charac -ter all their own. To create a subtly shimmer -ing reverb sound, try adding chorus, angingor pitch shi to the reverb.A great sound for synths and keys can beachieved by trea ng the reverb with chorus this sounds completely di erent to simplyapplying the chorus directly to the synth part,adding a nice subtle swirling quality.You can also do the reverse of this: addingreverb to the return of other insert or sende ects. This works par cularly well with delayfor a really classy and subtle overall e ect.

    6. Sometimes Its Best To Get AsFar Away As Possible From PoliteBlendingListen to your reference tracks and youll no -

    ce that many modern produc ons apply re -verb only selec vely a lot of pop, urban, andelectronic tracks bene t from some elementsbeing poorly blended, so that theyre right inyour face at the front of the mix.

    7. How To Overcome The TooMuch Reverb SyndromeA classic mistake that inexperienced produc -ers make is to add too much reverb. When

    you rst get into using reverb, you will makemistakes and add what seems like appropriateamounts of reverb, only to listen back a coupleof days and wonder what you were thinking.Its easy to do. Some mes, the more you listen

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    for it, the harder it is to hear it.You get control of the reverb (and other e ects) in your tracks only when you learn to listen con -

    dently. Relaxed, youll hear everything you need to hear, and, with experience youll know howto adjust the controls accordingly. Give yourself the chance to learn by making some fat, juicy

    mistakes rst!

    8. Find Your Favourite Reverb Sounds And Stick With ThemAll reverbs o er unique and subtle sonic contribu ons to your audio that defy measurement.Take two di erent reverbs and set them to the same patch, dialling in the same values for alltheir adjustable parameters, and theyll s ll sound di erent. No symphony hall sounds exactlythe same as any other. No plate sounds exactly like any other. Always listen for what you like;ul mately its just the end sound produced that ma ers, not the reverb me, not the algorithm,and certainly not the reverb make and model number.Then, add these reverb presets/sends to your DAW template, ready for your next track.

    9. Gated Reverb: Chunk Up Limp SnaresDespite being associated forever with the 80s and Phil Collins drum lls, gated reverb can be just the thing for adding power to your EDM or rock snare drum. Send the snare drum to an ag -gressively compressed, very long reverb patch (try a plate preset with a modi ed reverb me of

    ve seconds) to create a bed of noise that will take ages to decay. Then add a noise gate to getrid of most of the crazy reverb tail. The result is a punchy gated reverb. Its also common to setthe gated reverb to a musical note value so it works in sync with the overall groove try givingthe decay on the snare a do ed eighth note feel, for example.

    10. Using Reverb When Making & Slicing SamplesWhen taking samples, we o en have to truncate the end to get rid of any unwanted sound, butrun the risk of abruptly cu ng short any ambience in doing so. This ambience can be replacedusing a digital reverb. A er shaping the envelope of the tail end of the sample run it throughthe reverb unit and resample the whole sound with its new reverb tail.

    11. Reverb: Mono Or Stereo?A great bene t of reverb, apart from its ability to impart depth to your mixes, is the way it canbe used to spread your instruments further across the stereo eld.If you want to enhance the sense of spaciousness s ll further, set the reverb to a di erentpan posi on than the original sound. Alterna vely, pan the reverb to the same posi on as thesource part, and youll have a more ghtly focused sound overall. O en the best strategy is touse a combina on of more targeted and focused mono reverb sends with more lush stereo

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    reverbs for an impressively wide, deep andfocused mix.

    Also remember that extreme panning has

    signi cant e ects on the compa bility be-

    tween stereo and mono versions of your mix,as the amount of reverb heard in mono maybe substan ally less than that in the stereobalance. If mono listeners are likely to be animportant part of your music audience, alwayscheck for mono compa bility. One strategyto improve mono compa bility is to simplyreduce the stereo width of the reverb; alterna -

    vely, you can mix in a small amount of reverbfrom another reverb plugin which you then

    pan centrally.

    12. Subtle Non-Linear ReverbEffect on Sharp PercussionApart from special e ects, you might be won -dering when youd ever use non-linear reverbse ngs. One useful applica on is on short,shapr percussion sounds such as congas,triangles and claves, whose transients can lastmere milliseconds and therefore disappear

    easily into a busy mix. Try adding a subtle non-linear reverb to lengthen the perceived dura -

    on of such percussion sounds slightly, makingthem easier to hear and therefore easier toslide into the mix.

    13. Alternatives To Reverb:Blending With Delay Or Background NoiseReverb isnt the only tool for blending sounds,adding depth to the mix or for bringing partstogether into a cohesive whole. Short delayswill also work very well, and some producersalways prefer delay over reverb for the factthat it doesnt threaten to muddy and clu er

    the mix so easily.Many modula on e ects, such as chorus, willalso provide a distancing e ect on instru -ments by making them more di use sounding.

    Double-tracking can help blend an instru-

    ment or voice be er too, even if you keep thedouble-track at such a low level that its notreally audible in its own right.Adding very subtle, room-level backgroundnoise to your mix may sound scary, but it willo en improve the overall sense of blend. Itssomething thats always done in lm soundedi ng, as a soundtrack full of speci c noiseswithout a unifying ambience behind themfeels very disconcer ng: the same is true of

    most electronic/sample-based music too. Ifyou dont have the equipment for recordingyour own noise recordings, then get hold of amedia sound-e ects library and look for whatare usually called room tone or room ambi -ence les. Room tone is the sound of nothinghappening in a roomnot the most interest -ing thing to listen to, but in a background roleit can really help make all the tracks in yourmix feel as if they belong together. Tape hissand vinyl noise have similar blending e ects,especially when theyre in stereo. Introducingnoise doesnt mean your music will sound lo-either: Listen to any of Jon Hopkins fantas -cally-produced albums for great uses of noise,hiss and room tone, that add signi cantly tothe evoca ve atmospheres of the tracks.

    14. Pre or Post Fader Reverb-Only Washy PadsNormally, reverb sends are taken post-fader,so that direct signal level adjustments arere ected in their reverb returns. However, tryse ng your reverb send channel to pre-fadersend, and then mu ng the original sound soyoure le only with the reverb itself. This is

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    a great source of pads and sound design atmosphere beds and e ects, and the reverb can betreated further with addi onal e ects to make something really ghostly and unusual.

    15. Use Automation To Modulate Reverb Times And LevelsYou dont have to set your e ects and then leave them like that for the en re dura on of yourtrack. Use automa on to ride the di erent reverb parameters for di erent sec ons of the track,or even set up one reverb for verses and another to add extra li in the chorus. If youre produc -ing electronic/dance music of of any subgenre, its perfectly normal to be constantly shi ing andchanging the e ects throughout to bring life and movement to the repe ve groove.

    16. When To Apply ReverbConsider when in the extended process of recording, arranging, producing and mixing you planto treat each element in your mix with reverb. Generally its not a good idea to record withreverb, as you cant then adjust it later In the context of the full mix. On the other hand, givingyourself the ul mate exibility a orded by plugins and mixing completely In The Box has it sown drawbacks: its just very hard to stop con nually tweaking and actually commit to a par c -ular sound or e ect when you know you can change it any me you want. Again, this is why itsimportant to have a strategy: it can be a good idea to set up your reverb send channels beforeyou start, complete with speci c predetermined se ngs, and not really tweak them unless youreally have to. If youve set up a good selec on of reverbs, youll be covered, and you mighteven nish the track!Anyway, the point in the crea ve process at which you begin applying reverb to your sounds

    might make a signi cant impact on your percep on of that sound, and therefore on whichdirec on you take the track in. On a more technical level too, if youre using reverb primarily asmix glue or to give the impression of size, it might be best to get your mix balancing done rst;whereas reverb used for one-shot e ects, for tonal coloura on or to be the main component ofa sound (such as a washy pad) will clearly need to be e ected earlier on.Strategically, it can also help to decide if you want a par cular reverb to be almost like an inde -pendent instrument in its own right, as though the dry and wet signals were individual parts, orif you want to treat it more as an integral part of the instruments nal sound.

    17. Combine Different Reverbs On The Same SoundA simple but classy trick for introducing complexity and movement to sounds is to treat themwith two di erent reverb plugins simultaneously, panned le and right and balanced with theoriginal sound. Alterna vely, you could pan them together, using the two di erent reverbs as asubtle blend rather than keeping them separate.This can be taken to a micro level: for example, to create the ul mate snare drum sound, chop

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    the transient and the tail of the snare into twoseparate events each on their own channels,and apply a very short ambience reverb to thetransient, and a longer, bright plate reverb on

    the snare tail. Bounce them down again intoone super-snare sample.

    18. Dont use reverb!As ever, experiment with not using reverb atall, or at least not on every sound. Always tryand make sure that you keep at least some -thing in the mix completely dry this willmaintain the front-to-back contrast that youwant in your mix.

    19. Be Wary Of Reverb On BassSoundsI wouldnt say never use reverb on bass or kickdrums its an integral part of booming basshits in electronic music and movie trailers but things will get very muddy very quicklydown there, so use cau on. If you do want toadd reverb to lower frequency elements, in -sert an EQ a er it as usual but roll o just theextreme lows from the reverb return.

    20. Before Setting Up & ApplyingReverb, Ask yourself what role you want it to fullAre you aiming to enhance the character ofthe sounds to be treated, or is it more a caseof helping the sounds sit be er in the mix asa whole? Of course, you may want to do both(and the best solu ons will probably do so),

    but even considering the ques on as a star ngpoint can be very useful in ge ng on the righttrack quickly.

    21. Get That Dub Sound

    If you chain together a spring reverb, a tapeecho-style delay and an analogue-style phaser,you have all the components of a completeDub studio. Playing with the order of these

    e ects, and literally playing the e ects in realme, is one of the best ways to get under theskin of your reverb or any e ect for that mat -ter and understand how to manipulate yoursounds in me and space. Whoa

    22. Use Reverb As Part Of ASignature SoundEvery track has one or two lead or signatureinstruments that sum up the style and tone of

    the whole piece, o en playing the main hookor melody. Reverb can be an integral part ofse ng the best sound and tone of these partsthat makes them stand apart: think of usinga really characterful gated reverb on guitars,a shiny and bright space-age reverb on leadsynths, or a vintage Space Echo treatment onthe snare, for example.

    23. Reverb As A Tonal EffectApplying reverb can alter the tonal quality ofan instrument drama cally, as the echoes thatmake up the reverb body have the capacityto phase-cancel with the original sound oncethey are added into the mix side-by-side. Thisis something to be careful of avoiding if youwant to keep the tone of the dry part as it is but it also means you can use reverb purelyfor its tonal shaping capabili es alongside EQ,applying enough reverb to bed the soundinto the mix more smoothly.

    24. Matching The Reverb To TheSource SoundCertain sounds respond be er or worse tocertain reverb types, so although there are no

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    rules and you should experiment a lot, try to match the nature of each di erent reverb spaceto the sonic character and ar s c intent of the target parts. For example, a smooth concert hallse ng would sound wrong on an aggressive Dubstep snare, whereas a rougher, garage roomor vintage plate sound would probably work well. Similarly, a string sec on or a choir deserve a

    cathedral sound to put them in their best light a spring reverb here would sound o . Havingsaid this, if youre a er some more unusal treatments for certain sounds that dont completelymangle them, using an unusual reverb con gura on could be just the thing.

    25. Dynamics Processing The Reverb ReturnSome mes no ma er how much EQ you apply or how many parameters you tweak, a reverb just wont do what you want it to. For example, its fairly common for the transients of a soundto produce distrac ng ams or stereo ricochets when reverb is applied to them. In this case,you can try inser ng a transient processor on the return channel immediately before the reverbitself, to tame the sound being treated with reverb but keeping the original intact.Its also quite usual to put a de-esser before the reverb on a vocal track (if the vocal hasnt al -ready been de-essed), so that you dont emphasize any sibilance with a wash of bright reverb!Finally, dont forget you can side-chain compress reverb sends just as you would pads, synthsand bass in electronic and dance tracks. This can help both for tying smaller reverbs into themain groove and avoiding clu er, but it can also be used on a much more obvious scale to cre -ate a cool rhythmic sucking e ect on your cavernous trance and techno reverbed hits.

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    Conclusion

    Now you should have all the skills and know-how to select the rightreverb plugins, set them up correctly for each given task, and plot anoverall reverb strategy for each of your mixes.

    Of course theres more to using reverb like a pro than could t into this ebook - reading about

    the parameters and techniques is valuable, but the only way to get really competent in anything is to prac ce and gain as much experience mixing and applying the tools and techniques as youpossibly can.So with that in mind, keep this ebook handy, print it out and have it with you as you prac ce -then as tricky scenarios come up (as they always do) youll be able to quickly refer to the rel -evant p or parameter se ng and move forward e ciently and with minimal wasted e ort.

    Take the next step... and of course decide whether the step is made of stone or wood, whetherits in a small dry room or an echoey church etc. etc... ;)

    I hope this ebook will be helpful in your next sonic adventures - let me know how you get on atgeorge@ge hatprosound.com , and dont forget to check out the GetThatProSound blogregularly for new posts, more ps and a couple more ebooks coming soon..

    Best of luck, George RobinsonGet That Pro Sound

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