Hence, only the first phase was reversed in the following example.Īfterwards, load an instance of smart:reverb onto the duplicated track and choose a long reverb time. You don’t have to select the entire track since only the first syllable is relevant for this effect.
How to use reverb on vocals how to#
Finally, I show you how to effectively duck a reverb effect using the vocals as the trigger for the side-chain of the compressor on the effects channel.The reverb effect is a powerful tool for establishing depth in songs and armed with the right technique, you’ll be able to get more out of it. I follow this with a detailed journey into the workings of a compressor and specifically how to structure its side-chain for ducking processes. In the Using Side-Chaining to Duck Reverbs on Vocals video, I show you how to first clean the vocal take by using corrective techniques. In other words, we can actually select a frequency range of the vocals to trigger the ducking process. You can take this process a step further and use the side-chain filtering on the compressor to turn it into a frequency conscious trigger. Every time the vocals start to play the reverb is attenuated or ducked and when the pauses in the vocals appear the reverb jumps back up in gain and we can hear it. We set the compressor to compress the effect but not to gain compensate too heavily as this negates the whole ducking process. We then send the vocal line to the side-chain.
![how to use reverb on vocals how to use reverb on vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pOR6Lzg3np8/maxresdefault.jpg)
We use a compressor on the reverb channel (auxiliary) and activate the side-chain. BUT there is an Old School technique that can help to alleviate this problem and maintain vocal clarity even with such high reverb use. This tends to happen more on vocal channels than anywhere else because we instinctively go for the reverb effect when processing vocals. We end up losing clarity for the sake of a big reverb sound. It is easy to get your mixes to exhibit that horrible ‘wash’ effect whereby too many instances of reverb start to conflict with each other and smear frequencies. The more instances of reverb we use the more we eat into the headroom and dull the mix. In today’s high track count mixes reverb shows up across multiple sounds and as you already know effects sum just like audio.
![how to use reverb on vocals how to use reverb on vocals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7RR_rHRyhU4/maxresdefault.jpg)
We use reverb more than any other effect and when it comes to vocal treatment we love to splash it all over the place because we believe that the more reverb we apply the more natural space we create for the vocals to sit in. The most important effect used in music production is reverb. Every time the broadcaster speaks the background music lowers in volume. I am sure you have heard this effect before. Traditionally ducking is used to manage the volume between the broadcaster and the background music. The common processor used for ducking is a compressor.ĭucking has been around since the advent of broadcasting. Using Side-Chaining to Duck Reverbs on Vocals is a video tutorial that explains how to duck effects using the vocal track as a trigger.ĭucking is the term we give to the process that entails one sound or event being used to attenuate (lower in gain/volume) of another sound.