Reverb

Reverberations are a natural occurrence, they tell us a lot about the space we are in. 

The reverb time can emulate room size, while parameters like high-frequency damping can emulate the texture of the space. 

Live Rooms used to be used to create reverb on tracks before we could use digital models

Anechoic chambers are rooms designed to absorb sound, meaning there is no natural ambience

The first type of artificial reverb. 

The signal is fed through a plate of thin metal suspended in a frame.

Reverb time is adjusted by using felt dampeners on the plate to limit vibration. 

Commonly in use in the 60s and 70s 

Rich, yet tinny sound with a slow decay. 

Invented as a result of the space issue that engineers encountered with hanging a huge sheet of metal on the wall. 

The signal is fed through a metal spring. 

This was cheaper and more practical than plate reverb, however, the sound wasn't as rich as it's predecessor.

Spring reverb is still used in guitar amps. 

Reverb is fed through a noise gate and the tail is abruptly cut off. 

This is commonly used to prevent a muddy mix. Usually on drum mixes as it cleans up the mix.

A lot of 80s rock used this, Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight uses gated reverb on the kit. 

Takes advantage of the way our mind constructs our surroundings based on sound. 

Spaces can be emulated by adjusting different parameters: 

• Pre-delay: the time between the original signal and the first reverberation 
  • Gives the impression of room size
• Early reflections: reflections before the reverberations start to blend together
  
  • Emulates types of reverb i.e. plate or spring
• Decay time: usually called "reverb time", sets how long the reverb tail takes to reach -60dB (RT60)
  
  • Also indicates the size of the space
• High-frequency damping: decreases the frequency range of the reflected signals
  
  • Indicates the furnishings of the room, an empty concrete room will have no high-frequency content. 

Most reverb plug-ins are like this. 

As digital reverb became more and more advanced, sound engineers began to sample the reverb characteristics of specific spaces (i.e. a concert hall or canyon) and worked out how to code the reverb pattern into a digital pre-set. 

A form of virtual modelling.