Intro to Reverb and Delay

Reverb and delay, both powerful weapons in the hands of the musically wise, a disaster in waiting if used poorly.

We all easily understand what delay is, a defined repeat (or echo) of the original sound, and in most cases you can decide how many repeats of that sound you get and set some tonal characteristics as well. What’s less well understood is reverb.

Reverb (or verb) is essentially a lot of seemingly random delays close together and at differing volumes and times, all mushed up together so you can’t hear any individual delays, you hear them as a single thick sound, a sound that decays over time.

Every room has its own sound or ‘reverb’, most of the time we’re not consciously aware of it, but if you stop and pay attention you’ll notice it all over the place. Your bathroom has a particular reverb sound affected by the size of the room, the shiny hard tiles etc. Your lounge-room will have a more subtle reverb as it is usually a larger space, has soft acoustically absorbing things like lounges, and the walls are gyprock, not tiles, but there is still a reverb that gives the room its sound. Empty carparks, train stations, airports all have a distinctive sound, due in a large part to their reverb.

In a mix, reverb can create the audio illusion of an instrument or vocalist being in a room or space. A vocalist can be ‘placed ‘ in a cathedral style setting with a long (2 to 3 sec) verb, or a small room with a short (.6 sec) verb, or anything in between. Too much verb can wash the sound out and make it indistinct, too little and the vocal is so dry it can be harsh. The trick is to get the reverb sitting so that the vocal or instrument is warm and present, not dry and harsh or too ‘wet’ and distant, use your ears and mix to taste.

Delay is most often used in sync with the tempo of the song. Delayed guitars and piano parts thicken the sound, and they don’t make the original sound indistinct in the same way reverb can as there is a definite space between each delay. Apart from tempo sync’d delays there are also delays used to create a specific effect, such as the Elvis Presley vocal “slap” echo or the easily recognised “Surf music” guitar sound.

So next time you’re mixing try using delay in place of reverb for a less dense sound, or try reverbs with different decay times to create spaces within your mix.