>Step by step
Sound design inspiration with creative reverb tricks
1 In this month’s tutorial, I’ll take a look at how to use reverb in a creative manner. After using compression and sidechaining to add character and movement to drum reverbs, we’ll also work with freeze and decay parameters to create variation and depth to a humble bass stab. 4 Here comes the fun part: I’m add Ableton Live’s Compressor to crush the reverb’s dynamics. I want the compressed reverb to jump out between the drum hits and fill in the gaps in the rhythm. I achieve this by routing the original drum loop into the compressor’s sidechain input. I’ve cranked Ratio up to max for exaggerated pump.
COMPUTER MUSIC
2 To begin, I’ll send a drum loop to a return channel containing a convolution reverb plugin, before squashing the reverb signal with compression. Keying the drum loop signal into the compressor’s sidechain input results in a pumping reverb that neatly fills the spaces between the dry drum hits. Let’s get to it… 5 In this case, the RMS detection mode results in a better pumping movement. I’m setting the Attack to around 45ms to preserve some of the transients. Careful fine-tuning of the Release setting is important – it enables you to fine-tune the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ of the compressor to precisely match the groove of your song. 3 I’ve chosen to go with Ableton Live’s Convolution Reverb Pro. Convolution reverbs tend to sound quite rich, and thus make great fodder for some extreme compression action. I’m matching the Decay Time with the rhythm and groove of the drum loop. This is very important – I do the matching simply by listening and adjusting until I find the sweet spot. 6 It’s a good idea to play around with reverb settings at this stage – try different presets and alter parameters. The Decay Time is crucial for setting the effect’s timing. You can even pull back the reverb’s Mix control to bring some dry signal through. If your reverb has an A/B function, use it to switch between different settings and test out your experiments.
7 Next up, we’ll reshape a percussion track using a chain of four effects. First, plate reverb is compressed, gated, then compressed for a second time. The idea here is to take something that sounds bland in isolation, then add ‘strength’ and character via processing – while maintaining the original sound’s qualities. 10 Next, I’m calling on Live’s Gate to silence the reverb tail. This tightens the percussion in the mix, and exaggerates the rhythmic effect. For ‘hardness’, I call up up another Compressor next in the chain – I’m smashing the peaks with max
Ratio. This pulls everything together for an in-your-face sound. 8 Plate reverbs often sound great on drums and percussion – I’ve gone for ValhallaPlate here. I’m removing a lot of the lows from the reverb while boosting the highs, which adds aggression and removes mud. I want just enough decay
time for the compression to grab things, while keeping the signal’s definition. 11 For the bassline track, I’m using two reverb plugins (Ableton Live’s Reverb) in series. With the first instance, I create variation in the bass stab’s pattern by automating the Freeze function, which holds the reverb signal indefinitely at certain points. I’ll then add deep ambience with another instance of Reverb… 9 The first compressor’s mission is to create a dynamic, pumping percussion signal. Again, I’m using the compressor in RMS mode, with a fairly high Ratio, while adjusting the Release to maximise movement. Live’s Compressor has on-point metering and visualisation, which helps when adjusting the effect. 12 Switching on the Freeze function stops the reverb tail and loops it until turned off again. Automating this to switch on and off rapidly is a great way to add variation to a sound – just experiment to find the right automation points. With this second Reverb, I’m adding cavernous length using a super-long Decay Time. Welcome to outer space!