Tailored reverbs

Reverb is a great tool, but cleverly thinking about its application can really take your mix to the next level. Here’s how to get tailoring…

- Jon Musgrave

Reverb can be a top effect for creating cohesion and helping your mix to gel, but we can also use it for task-specific techniques. In previous mixing masterclasses we’ve looked at how sharing a small number of different-size reverbs can be a reliable starting point to help make your mix cohesive. However, as your mix progresses you’ll often find that specific sounds need their own reverb treatment, and you’ll be looking to expand this core technique with some more tailored spaces.

These reverbs might be featured or they might be more subtle, and as discussed previously, you have an abundance of reverb flavours at your disposal to achieve the desired sounds. Once you’ve found the effect you’re after, you can then choose whether to use it as an auxiliary, which is an easy way to add it to your existing mix balance, or whether you want to incorporate it as an insert as part of a track’s mix chain.

In this mixing masterclass, we’re focusing on a few precision reverb techniques and what they can be used for. Some are pretty obvious, and others a little more leftfield, and they’re only a few examples of many. That said, it should provide some insights and hopefully inspire you to use reverb in a creative and targeted way.

Step by step Reverbs that work for your sound

1 Getting the right backbeat sound can make or break a track, and a tailor-made reverb can work wonders. This allows us to get the decay time bang on and choose a reverb with the required tone. Let's consider a couple of examples. First up, a regular drum kit. Here, the recorded room sound may be too distant.