Mix Technique: Timing Reverb

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Today, we bring you a short and sweet mix technique that is sure to instantly improve your mixes. Let’s take a look at properly timing reverb to a track.

What is Reverb?

Reverb is a naturally occuring audio phenomenon. It is caused by sounds bouncing around within a space. Your ear hears these subtle bounces from all directions and interprets it as an indicator of space and position.

While reverb is natural and is picked up by microphones (this is why the room drums are recorded in is so important), mix engineers often create artificial spaces for their mixes by sculpting reverbs to their tastes.

Why Time a Reverb?

Timing your reverb allows you to add depth to your mix without washing it out. It allows for your reverb to breathe with the beat whilst adding depth and texture to the mix. Reverb can very easily get out of hand and make a mix sound unglued. Timing your reverb does the opposite – it serves to tighten up your mix and better define the artificial space in which it occurs.

How Do I Time My Reverb?

This is a technique I learned reading Bobby Owinski’s book, The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook. It is a wonderful resource that I highly recommend to anyone looking to improve their mixing abilities.

1. Choose your reverb and set it on a return bus.
2. Whack it up so you can hear the reverb tails clearly – specifically, you want to hear when the decay tail dies out completely.
3. Now, solo a sound that regularly occurs once or twice a bar – a snare or a clap work great. Hi-hats are a bad choice because they occur too frequently.
4. Adjust the decay until the tail falls away just as your sound recurs.
5. Once you are satisfied with the timing, lower the reverb until it sits comfortably in the mix.

Now instead of a ‘verby stew churning about below your mix, you have a clean sounding reverb adding dimension and supporting the groove. It’s the type of thing that the average listener will not notice – but they would notice if it was missing.

Note that you can time your reverb to every hit or every other hit. Both will be timed properly, it’s up to you to decide when a track calls for a longer decay. You may even want to set up a pair of reverbs, both timed differently. Often mix engineers use multiple bus reverbs for different reasons.

Conclusion

Reverb is a simple effect that takes years upon years to really understand. Many engineers spend lifetimes experimenting and learning about reverb and its effect on sound, so don’t be discouraged if your reverbs fall flat. Just keep working with it. Eventually, you will come to understand reverb in a way that doesn’t easily translate to text or speech. That’s when you know you’re starting to get it.

Until next time,

-Chris Lazaga
AudioMunk