Reverb can be broken down into three parts. After you hear the initial sound, the first reflections from nearby surfaces will reach you. Time between those two things is called the pre-delay and it informs your ear as to how far away the walls are. Pre-delay is particularly useful in defining the size of a space because you can “cheat“ a bit by reducing your reverb time and increasing the pre-delay. This buys you more space in your mix.

The first , or early reflections inform a lot about the character of the space itself: it’s construction, materials, shape, etc.

But as the reverb “blooms“ you will begin to hear the ‘tail’. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of tiny discrete echoes make up the longest part of the reverb sound. The decay time or tail may use familiar terminology borrowed from synthesis such as a ADSR, but audio engineers and acousticians refer to this as the RT 60. This is the time it takes for the reflected sound to decrease by 60dB. How much is 60dB? A lot. Cut an orange in half. Cut that piece in half. Then that piece… Do it 10 times.

But the topic of mixing and reverb gets a lot more interesting when we connect the way reverb makes us FEEL. I told my students that it is the most emotional tool in your toolbox. The producer Jack Nietzsche (Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, etc.) used to say “reverb is like garlic; you can never have too much.”

If you’re ready to start cooking beats with us, reach out about our upcoming courses. You won’t need garlic, but we will probably use liberal amounts of verb.