Reverb is one of the oldest tools we have as engineers to enhance our recordings. Buthow do we use it?What type should we use? Can YOU hear the difference?
In this puremix.net Exclusive, Grammy Award Winning Engineer, Fab Dupont teaches you:
How to hear the difference between plate, spring, hall, and chamber reverbs
How to use short ambience to add size to your vocals
How to add a sense of height to your mixes with hall reverbs.
Plus, if you have ever been curious about how popular reverb plugins compare to their real-life counterparts, you will be able to listen to:
A realEMT 140 plate reverb next to the UAD EMT 140
A Spring Reverb plugin next to a real AKG BX10
A classic Hardware PCM 70 Chamber next to a plug-in Chamber.
Learn how to hear the characteristics of these classic sounds, from Fab Dupont. Only on pureMix.net.
00:00:00 Good morning, children!
Welcome to the third installment
to the How To Listen series;
How To Listen: Reverb Edition.
00:00:07 Let's go!
Reverbs are hard
because you really can't tell
what a mixer used by listening to
a finished record. It's difficult.
00:00:20 Sometimes, you know, there's a break,
and there's a long tail,
and you can kind of identify
the tail of it,
but most of the time
it's really guesswork.
00:00:28 So what I propose we do
is listen to a bunch
of different kinds of reverbs
and I'm going to point out to you
the important things
so you can learn to recognize
the different colors,
and then we'll apply that to a vocal,
you know, in the context of a song,
and look at the differences
of vibes and blending that they do,
and then you can go from there.
00:00:45 The first step is to listen to
the different kinds of reverb.
00:00:48 I have here a TMBOY song
called "The Light."
I'm going to solo the vocal on the verse,
and this is the vocal super-dry.
00:01:11 It sounds great.
00:01:11 You can hear the bleed of the bass drum
from the headphones.
00:01:14 It's pretty bananas.
00:01:15 I want to turn on a Plate,
and I'm using an EMT Plate.
00:01:38 Do you hear that tail?
You can hear the slightly
metallic quality of it.
00:01:41 Not metallic as in annoying metallic,
but metallic as in kind of like
a lush, big piece of matter
just vibrating.
00:01:48 I'll play it again.
00:01:49 Listen also to the early reflections;
basically what happens
just as the vocal gets into the reverb,
the blooming at the beginning.
00:01:59 Do you hear that "On" part?
So, do you hear that?
That sounds great.
00:02:12 I'm choosing reverb B
on the EMT Plate
by Universal Audio because...
00:02:16 I don't know why.
That's the one I usually like.
00:02:18 Let me compare it with the real Plate.
00:02:20 I have a real Plate.
00:02:21 So this is the EMT.
00:02:43 The tail is a little longer,
maybe I'll make this one a little longer.
00:02:46 And also, it's a little fatter, so I'll
remove the high-pass on the plug-in.
00:02:50 Again, this is the real Plate.
00:03:11 The UA Plate is pretty badass, eh?
You just heard it against the real thing.
00:03:16 So, either way, real or plug-in,
you can hear that it basically gives you
a really nice bloom right after the vocal,
and then a bit of a tail
that thins out and is very smooth.
00:03:26 Now, let's listen to a Spring.
00:03:30 In this case I have the PSP Nexcellence.
00:03:32 It is indeed excellent.
00:03:33 Listen very carefully to what's going on
at the beginning of the blooming
of the reverb.
00:03:46 Did you hear that? Again.
00:03:56 Very nice! So you get a thin bloom,
but a denser bloom.
00:04:00 Check it out. This is the Plate.
00:04:08 This is the Spring.
00:04:13 It's a little shorter,
but what's important is the density of it.
00:04:16 In the sauce,
the differences between
the different types of reverb
will be, you know, fading out rapidly,
but the early reflection type of it
is what really matters,
so check out the early reflection again
of this PSP Spring.
00:04:38 Hear "On that..."
Let's listen to that.
00:04:48 I'll compare it with a real BX10.
00:05:00 A little denser
but a little fuzzier. Check out the tail.
00:05:08 Do you hear that?
That is very characteristic of a Spring.
00:05:15 Plug-in.
00:05:20 Smoother. This smoothed it out,
so this actually could be useful.
00:05:23 So if you want something dirtier
maybe you want to find yourself a BX10,
and if you want something
that blends better,
the Nexcellence is great.
00:05:29 So that was a Spring reverb.
00:05:31 Let's listen to a Hall.
00:05:33 I'm using the Space Hall
and I'm using this really good IR.
00:05:37 I thought it was really nice.
Check it out.
00:05:52 That really sounds like a Hall.
It's a really good IR.
00:06:03 What's interesting with Halls
is instead of being just tail,
like, there's a little bit
of a height quality to it, right?
I'll compare the Hall with the Plate.
00:06:10 This is the Hall.
00:06:28 So the early reflection of the Hall
actually gives you
a certain height feeling.
00:06:32 They're not surrounding the vocal,
they're more kind of airy
above the vocal, which is great.
00:06:37 You can remember that.
00:06:38 Let's compare
this IR of the Hall
with an algorithmic Hall
by these lovely people at Valhalla.
00:06:57 You'll notice that it doesn't really sound
as natural a Hall as an IR.
00:07:05 But, it's nice and airy and useful.
00:07:08 This is the IR.
00:07:13 The tail is a little shorter.
00:07:15 Let's shorten this down a little further
and see what happens.
00:07:24 A little further.
00:07:32 Let's compare again.
00:07:34 We have our IR.
00:07:40 And the algorithmic one.
00:07:46 Let's listen to this in the track
with a little more Returns,
because as you noticed,
when we play the track,
the reverb kind of gets sponged-up
by the rest of the track.
00:07:55 So,
this is why you should always
set up your reverbs in the track,
but that's not the discussion here,
we're just listening.
00:08:02 The Hall as an IR.
00:08:23 Right now I like the IR better, right?
You hear the fact that the algorithmic one
sounds a little thicker and everything,
and this is where the can of worms opens
because you can change that.
00:08:36 Say, I could high-pass the Return here,
I'll use the Low Cut,
and now it sounds like this.
00:08:43 A little more.
00:09:01 They are now a lot closer to each other.
00:09:02 Let's listen in solo again.
00:09:05 IR.
00:09:14 Algorithm.
00:09:23 One tweak and they get a lot closer,
and now, with five minutes of tweaking
I can make one sound like the other
or close enough for jazz
considering it's going to be in the sauce
and nobody will hear the difference,
and that is the key here.
00:09:35 There's a lot of talk about,
"Oh, man! This reverb plug-in is bananas,
and that reverb plug-in is special,
and you got to buy a Bricasti, and you..."
They all have their value,
they all do something great,
but if you know what you're listening for
you should be able to create
the sound you want.
00:09:49 What I'm hearing here is,
when I compare, for example,
the Hall with the Plate...
00:10:04 That's what makes a difference,
meaning, I have a Hall
that's kind of airy, like this
— not hairy, airy —
and then I have a Plate
that gives me kind of a tail
and a surrounding place around the vocal.
00:10:17 That's what you have to listen for.
00:10:19 Listening between two different Halls...
00:10:21 If the plug-in is of quality
or your hardware is of quality,
you will get a pretty good idea
of what you're doing
and it will not make
a world of a difference
unless you're making a wide open record
with just, say,
David Crosby in the middle,
who sings very quietly and everything...
00:10:35 you know, you can hear a fly fart
from the other side of the room,
but apart from that situation,
when you're making a record
that has a lot of density,
it doesn't really matter
what the plug-in is
as long as it's good quality.
00:10:45 And these days, most plug-ins
are really, really good quality,
so what matters is that you
learn the different types
so that when you put the reverb on
you're already putting the reverb
that you think you're going to need
to create the space that you want.
00:10:57 The idea here is to learn
the different colors.
00:11:00 So we've seen a Plate,
we've seen a Spring,
which has the biggest sonic imprint,
and we've seen the Hall.
00:11:06 Now let's look at what people call
Chambers, or also, Rooms.
00:11:09 A Room or a Chamber is the same thing.
00:11:11 What made Chambers really popular
is partly Capitol's Studio A in LA
where all those Chambers were used
for all those classic records,
and also the fact that Lexicon
came up with a really good
Chamber algorithm on their 480s
and then all the subsequent ones
like the PCM 70, for example.
00:11:27 So let's listen to what a Chamber
sounds like, or what a Room sounds like.
00:11:31 Here I'm using the Softube reverb,
this small one.
00:11:35 I like it, it's great,
and it's very nimble on DSP.
00:11:38 Check it out.
00:11:47 Let's not forget that a Hall
is a big room,
so the reason why they are
different algorithms
is because of the early reflections.
00:11:54 The early reflections in a small room
are very different from the
early reflections in a big room,
and that's what those plug-ins
are trying to recreate
or those IRs are trying to capture.
00:12:02 Listen to the early reflection
— what's right after the vocal —
on this algorithm.
00:12:14 Let's compare it with the Hall.
00:12:23 Same family,
just a lot closer on the Room,
and brighter too, right?
More early reflections.
00:12:36 By the way, for comparison,
I have here a PCM 70
with the classic Lexicon Chamber.
00:12:42 It's in the loop, so you can hear
the actual PCM 70.
00:12:52 So listen to just the tail.
00:12:59 That's nice and smooth.
00:13:00 Listen to the Softube.
00:13:05 Also nice and smooth.
00:13:06 Slightly different, but not that far away.
00:13:08 If I play it in the track,
you won't be able to tell
the difference between the two.
00:13:11 That is a Room,
so let's compare a Room to,
for example, a Plate.
00:13:24 Obviously, the length gives it away.
00:13:27 And versus the Spring.
00:13:29 Here is the Room, or Chamber.
00:13:41 Chamber.
00:13:45 Close cousins, right?
Those early reflections.
00:13:47 The tail is the difference here
and the slightly more
ringy quality of the Spring,
but it's not a night and day thing.
00:13:54 Obviously, the designers who came up
with the Spring reverbs
or the Plate reverbs
were trying to recreate the real thing
so you didn't have to have a chamber
or you didn't have to have a hall
if you wanted to work in post.
00:14:04 So clearly, the Spring reverb,
for example,
is trying to recreate the feeling
of the Room in this case,
and it's pretty close.
00:14:10 It's not perfect because you have
physical limitations,
but it's pretty close.
00:14:14 Is it night and day? No.
00:14:16 Now, if we're talking about
a Spring reverb on a Fender amp,
that's a whole different thing.
That's an effect.
00:14:20 That's cool too,
but here we are talking about
reverbs that are trying to be
"room-like," or natural.
00:14:27 One more.
00:14:29 Let's listen to the Ambience.
00:14:39 Let me remind you what it sounds like dry.
00:14:58 Pretty awesome, right?
I use this a lot. I use it...
00:15:01 Sometimes it's called the 'Office',
sometimes I use very short delays.
00:15:04 It's basically almost all
early reflections
blending into each other
to create a space.
00:15:09 Kind of like a very short Room,
but a certain intimacy on the vocal.
00:15:13 Again, dry.
00:15:30 It removes that rough edge
of having nothing in between the notes,
but it doesn't give you
any garbage or any tail.
00:15:35 That Ambience algorithm
is really practical
to be able to fill the holes
in between two notes on an instrument,
a vocal, or whatever,
but not add any tail garbage
or any heavy stuff
that you have to pull on
and try an EQ or do things.
00:15:49 It's just very discrete,
which is why when it showed up
on the Lexicon reverbs
in the '80s, I think,
early '80s,
it became very popular.
00:15:59 It's also available on the AMS.
00:16:02 In my taste, the one on the AMS
is a little bright.
00:16:04 I will show you. It's a little bright
and a little digital.
00:16:07 However, it is the sound of 1983.
00:16:09 So, this is the ReVibe II.
00:16:18 It really sounds like a Lexicon to me.
00:16:20 I really like that sound.
00:16:21 Let me get the AMS.
00:16:23 And UA did a badass job
at making it sound
exactly the same as my AMS.
00:16:28 It's just, I am not a fan
of that algorithm for myself
unless I'm trying to do,
you know, a Thomas Dolby-style record.
00:16:36 Let's see.
00:16:41 It's a little longer.
00:16:42 Let me shorten it.
00:16:47 Close enough for rock 'n' roll.
00:16:49 Let's try 1.3.
00:16:53 Yeah.
00:16:54 ReVibe II.
00:17:01 You know what? I think the plug-in sounds
better than my actual hardware reverb.
00:17:04 Let's listen to it in the context.
00:17:14 In the context, I miss the bloom
of the ReVibe II.
00:17:24 Check it out in the track.
00:17:32 A reminder. This is dry.
00:17:38 "On that day..." Listen to that.
00:17:44 With the Ambience.
00:17:50 Much smoother.
And if I switch to the AMS...
00:17:56 It doesn't have the same sugar
to go around the vocal.
00:17:59 I'll play it again.
First, the ReVibe II.
00:18:09 AMS.
00:18:17 That doesn't feel the same.
00:18:19 The ReVibe II, which is a really good
emulation of the Lexicon,
to me, that's more
what the Ambience algorithm
became very famous for.
00:18:26 Now, let's recap.
I'm only going to use the first choices.
00:18:29 I'm not going to use the alternates
— those were for entertainment.
00:19:09 Quiz time!
I'm going to play all five reverbs.
00:19:12 I will not trick you. I promise!
You'll have to figure out which is which.
00:19:16 There's a number over every example.
00:19:20 Associate a number with the reverb.
00:19:23 Have fun!
Here we go!
Got it? Are you sure?
Ready for the answer?
We're not putting the answer in the video
so that you keep listening
until you're 100% sure that you got it
and internalized the sound
of all those different reverbs.
00:20:36 Let's talk about pre-delay for a second.
00:20:38 A lot of reverb plug-ins
and some hardware rackmount reverbs
have a pre-delay setting.
00:20:43 What is the pre-delay?
Back in the day, before the boxes
had enough processing power
to recreate real early reflections,
or at least real-sounding
early reflections,
what the designers did
is they included a pre-delay,
meaning you could delay the reverb.
00:20:57 Instead of the reverb starting to bloom
right when you send signal to it,
you could delay that bloom
and thus creating
the illusion of size, right?
Because if you're in a hall, a big room,
it's going to take longer for the
early reflections to get to your ears
than if you're in a small room.
00:21:12 That actually creates
the sound of the room.
00:21:14 Not the tail, the early reflections.
00:21:16 So the idea was,
"Well, if we have a digital reverb,
and it takes a while
for the reverb to happen,
then it would feel
like the room is bigger
and you'll get more
of an illusion of space."
Did it work?
[High-pitched mumbling]
For debate.
00:21:31 However, it is nice
to be able to push the reverb back.
00:21:34 Sometimes you can feel that the reverb
crowds the vocal a little bit.
00:21:37 Check it out with the Plate.
00:21:49 Do you hear how it's very tight?
It's pretty.
00:21:51 What happens if I push it back,
like, 70, or 100 milliseconds?
Do you notice how "On that day"
it doesn't slap against the vocal
the same way?
Check it out.
00:22:10 I went a little too far. Here.
00:22:31 It's useful, especially
if you have a lot of reverb,
like if you're making
a new Enya record or something.
00:22:36 And it's nice to be able to push
the reverb back a little bit
so there is not so much on it.
00:22:41 I don't use pre-delays a lot,
but I hear it a lot in records
because of mixers
being used to the old boxes.
00:22:49 With plug-ins like, for example,
the Oxford plug-in,
or a lot of the modern reverb plug-ins
that are not trying to imitate an old box
— the modern, clean reverb plug-ins —
they have early reflections,
so the pre-delay
is really kind of irrelevant
unless you're trying to
recreate the effect
of the designer not having
early reflections
and trying to recreate the early
reflections with the pre-delay,
but that gets a little deep.
00:23:10 So let's listen to the Plate
with very short pre-delay
and long pre-delay in the sauce.
00:23:15 Check it out!
Listen to the word "In that eve..."
So when she leans into that "In" word,
the reverb comes really quickly
and bunches up a little bit.
00:24:12 So, in this particular case,
if this reverb was only used
for this vocal,
it would be kind of elegant
to push it back a little bit
and not have that crowding,
and not have the vocal feel dry
because if the vocal is dry,
it sounds like this.
00:24:32 Very different vibe.
00:24:33 And that is the fun part
because
with reverbs you can really, really decide
the vibe and the tone of the track
and the direction,
and even the style of the track
based on the reverb.
00:24:45 Will there be a big difference
between a Plate and a Hall?
It depends how much of it you use.
00:24:50 If I use a lot of Hall,
like this, check it out.
00:25:02 Versus a lot of Plate.
00:25:13 We're entering the realm of taste,
which is a beautiful thing.
00:25:16 That's why we do what we do.
00:25:18 What would I do for this particular track?
Well, I don't remember
what I did for the record,
and I know this is us
listening on the video,
but, you know what?
It's here, and the song is awesome,
and she sounds great.
00:25:27 What I would do is I would probably
have a little bit of the tail,
but not this fat.
I would probably high-pass it.
00:25:33 See if you can hear the difference.
00:25:35 And then I would have
a little bit of Hall for height,
and then I would add some Ambience,
and try and blend those three things.
00:25:56 A bit much for me. Hear this.
00:26:07 We might even high-pass
further on the Plate
so you don't hear it as much.
00:26:21 I'm happy with this right now.
00:26:23 It may change depending on the mood,
and if the artist comes in and says,
"You know? I want it to sound
more like..."
— I don't know. With this bass... —
"...New Order," then I would have to go
with something very cold
and kind of long
and very obviously reverbery.
00:26:37 Or if they say, "We want it bone-dry
with just a little bit of ambience,"
which I kind of like,
check this out! This is awesome.
00:26:52 For this, this has a lot of attitude.
00:26:55 Maybe this with a little bit
of a reverb throw on some...
00:26:58 EMT, or maybe a dynamic EMT
coming in from time to time, or something.
00:27:01 I don't know, but I like the attitude
of the dry thing.
00:27:04 But it doesn't matter what I think.
00:27:06 What matters now
is you know the difference
between a Hall and a Plate
and a Chamber/Room
and an Ambience
and a Spring,
and you can tell with your eyes closed
without looking at the plug-in,
and that is awesome!
Et voilà!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Fab Dupont is a award-winning NYC based record producer, mixing/mastering engineer and co-founder of pureMix.net.
Fab has been playing, writing, producing and mixing music both live and in studios all over the world. He's worked in cities like Paris, Boston, Brussels, Stockholm, London and New York just to name a few.
He has his own studio called FLUX Studios in the East Village of New York City.
Fab has received many accolades around the world, including wins at the Victoires de la Musique, South African Music awards, Pan African Music Awards, US independent music awards. He also has received Latin Grammy nominations and has worked on many Latin Grammy and Grammy-nominated albums.
"How To Listen has been my favorite series here on PureMix! Thank you Fab. Also how do you even mention hearing a fly's fart with such seriousness? Love it!
JorgeZM
2020 Apr 26
Thanks
alexfont
2020 Mar 16
Really nice and practical tutorial about reverbs. Definitely a topic for go deeper "I wish more on that, also with delays" but FAT did it straight to the point and very fun to go thorugh. Also very happy I've got 10/10 in the quiz reverb.
Amazing and very informative this How to listen episode.
adam.fay
2019 Sep 06
please cut that high frequency...it drive me crazy...amazing tutorial thou..as the usual!yhis series is amazing
amu
2019 Jun 22
really dope
tal
2019 May 07
"You can hear a fly fart from the other side of the room". Laughing loud :) Seriously though, it was just the gravy on a super-important point for someone like me to hear. Great!
beschornermusic
2019 Apr 04
Yes! Now I know the difference and I can chose the right one. Thanks Fab!
ariomester.n
2018 Nov 16
The best reverb lesson I took so far! Thank you Fab!!Cheers from Brasil!
Nanfer
2018 Sep 23
This tutorial helped me so much that my numbers coincide with the numbers on the description. Thank you fab.
Regards.
genais.simon@gmail.com
2018 Sep 13
french subtitle please
Alex94120
2018 Sep 04
I love the "How to listen" Series, that's what makes me progress the most, un grand merci a toi Fab !
moridja
2018 Aug 14
Merci!
jccampos
2018 Aug 08
Español por favor!!!
exe.cutor
2018 Aug 02
Video is brilliant and the quiz is a great approach
RemyAnnDavid
2018 Aug 01
I don't know Fab? I'm so spoiled by actual plates. There is a density, I hear, from a plate. That is unparalleled with that of anything digital. Most of these reverbs, you're demonstrating, sound like mud. Hi pass filtered mud. Is still, mud.
And hey. We heard the AKG BX-10. What the hell happened to my, BX-20 E? What? Not good enough for you? Maybe too good? Maybe right or left channel still funky? I mean you rebuilt my Neve, console. You didn't fix the BX-20 E? Damn! Well... that's muddy, also. In comparison in any plate.
Yeah that pre-delay on your fake EMT, most definitely works better.
stuart.ch
2018 Aug 01
Absolutely amazing, what I’ve been looking for, thank you Fab du pont, you are a legend, love sent your way from Scotland.
DRocksRecords
2018 Jul 30
Thanks thats great to stop and force ourselves to listen to the reverb types. I would have loved to see in more depth when you started to give your own taste on what could be nice in this track. Its great to see other people choose how they create space for vocals or other elements in the mix. Maybe a part II where you mainly focus on giving examples and point common mistakes etc. :)
thombleasdale
2018 Jul 30
Excellent tutorial as always Fab, great stuff! Thank you!
jordanne
2018 Jul 29
The jingle is very good ! At the end of the vide, with so much informations, i feel like Goku, like Saiyan, full of energy and knowledge.
Thank you very much Fab.
LOVE
Ming
2018 Jul 29
Thanks, Fab.The best video of audio teaching.
jazz3520
2018 Jul 29
Thanks, Fab to create a series of "How to listen" very useful!
rickdrumss
2018 Jul 28
great lesson, just straight to the point!!
muharishkumar
2018 Jul 28
Awesome ! Super helpful .
whitealbum
2018 Jul 28
Really helpful, great explanation.
Chapter Quiz is great as well, because i guess right my reverb favorites chamber, plate and ambience ;)
Please don't forget german subtitles, would be fine !
ArmedNDaverous
2018 Jul 27
This is a great video, very helpful. Thank you!
filipwil
2018 Jul 27
These videos are super helpful, thanks Fab!
maxuponla
2018 Jul 27
Thank you for this great video. What about FabFilter Pro R where they don't care about giving us the type of reverb (mostly) ? Why ? Also there is no reveal button on the page right now. Cheers.
