The 7 Best Reverb Techniques for Your Guitars
Reverb, or reverberation, is one of the key architects of space and feeling in any audio project. A lack of reverb will make your audio sound unnatural, and too much can blur and wash out your entire mix. Find the right balance, and you can generate expansive soundscapes and intimate, defined spaces with your guitars.
We’ll go over some of the best reverb uses on guitars, so you can add dynamism, depth, and emotion in line with the objectives of your creative works.
1. Move Your Guitars to the Front or Back
While volume faders are the principal tool for vertical (front to back) spacing, reverbs have an essential spatial role to play. Generally, the stronger a reverb is—e.g. long decay time—the further the affected audio is pushed back in your mix, and vice versa.
This means that you should consider where you want your guitars to sit before you apply reverb. Use a reverb with a short decay time to make your guitar part cut through the mix at the front. You should alsochoose the right type of reverbto match your sonic goals. For example, use a room reverb for an intimate, up-close sound, and a hall reverb for huge, diffuse echoes.
Complement your reverb withthe effective use of EQson your guitar track to help carve out a space for your guitars in your mix. Also,use compression pluginson your backing guitars to more accurately reflect the sonic qualities of distant sounds.
2. Move Your Guitar Reverb to the Sides
Often, guitar parts are panned hard left and right to leave space in the center and give a sense of stereo width. Reverbs can be used to further accentuate this definition of space in two ways.
The first involves panning the reverb of each of the guitar parts left and right to accompany the dry signal—e.g. reverb for the guitar on the left is panned to the left.
While this can work in some instances, it may also clutter up the frequency content on the sides of your stereo image. Here, you should try panning your reverb to the opposite side of its original guitar signal. This provides some nuance and difference from the dry signal in that space
3. Add Reverb Without Losing Clarity
More intensive applications of reverb can cause affected audio to lose its definition. One way to remedy this is to lengthen the predelay parameter in your reverb plugin. By doing so, you are delaying when the reverb sound begins; thus, more of your original clean guitar signal is heard.
4. Add Contrasting Reverbs to Your Guitars
Variation and contrast are among the qualities most sought after in diverse audio projects. While you could always prepare distinct reverb types for different sections of your audio, the best way to vary the size and strength of your reverb is with automation.
Certain sections of your audio will cry out for longer decay times while others will require drier sounds for definition.Learn to use automation, so you can integrate the diverse sonic features reverb offers in your audio.
You can alsouse sidechain compressionto generate a similar contrasting effect. When you place a compressor on your guitar track and set your reverb aux track as the sidechain input, your reverb will only play fully in the breaks of your guitar signal.
5. Add Cohesion to Diverse Guitar Parts
In some works, you may have multiple guitar parts spread across your stereo image—a lead guitar in the center, rhythm guitars panned hard left and right, and even some additional backing guitars further back in the mix.
Before you jump into using a different reverb for each of your guitar parts, you should consider using the same reverb on all of them; only varying the decay time. Here, it can be useful to have one ofthe best VST reverbsto ensure sonic quality and variety.
So, create an aux track and choose the reverb type and parameters you like. Then copy and paste the reverb over to one or two more aux tracks. The first can have a short decay time, and the second and third (if needed) can have longer decay times. Now you can send your lead guitars to the shorter reverb, and your guitars in the middle and back to the longer reverb.
This provides a sense of cohesion to your guitars, as if they belong and were recorded together. This will also add clarity to the spatial aspects of your mix as many different reverbs can create a lack of definition.
6. Use Stereo and Mono Reverb
Stereo reverb can help mono guitar recordings gain width, while mono reverb can work great on guitars hard-panned left and right. A mono reverb down the center with guitars out to the side will help maintain clarity in your mix. Otherwise, you could cause an accumulation of frequencies on the sides that leads to a washed-out sound.
7. Use Effects on Your Reverb
Don’t forget that the best reverb effects have multiple tools, such as EQs, further refining their sound. For example, the mood of your work can be further captured using low- and high-cut filters to make a dark or bright reverb sound.
Try a low-cut filter around 150 Hz and a high-cut filter around 900 Hz for a dark reverb sound. Use a low-cut filter around 500 Hz and no filter on the highs for a brighter sound.
Enrich the Depth and Space of Your Guitars
To better capture the full range of sounds and emotions that guitars can evoke, sculpt the right space and place with reverb. Bring your guitars forwards or back in your mix by adjusting the strength of your reverb. Then, experiment with sending your guitars to the side with reverb panning, stereo reverb, or down the center with mono reverb.
Adjust the predelay of your reverb to let more of your dry guitar signal through. Then, use EQs and other effects to brighten, darken, and mold your reverb sound further. Do so, and the impact and feel of your guitars will improve significantly.
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