Audio Foundations: Reverb

Course details

This installment of Foundations of Audio explains one of the most essential ingredients in audio mixing, reverb—the time it takes for sound to bounce, echo, and decay during a live performance or recording. Reverb gives a natural richness to your recordings, which is possible to reproduce. Producer and audio engineer Alex U. Case covers the acoustic, mechanical, and digital means for creating reverb, and charts the parameters (room size, density, etc.) you'll need to know to take advantage of the original recording space and enhance it in post. He then shows how to simulate reverb digitally with effects, adding timbre, texture, and contrast, and improve the sound of your mixes with a sense of space and depth.

These techniques can be practiced with the free Get in the Mix sessions, currently available for Pro Tools and Logic Pro.

Learning objectives
What is reverb?
Understanding how acoustic reverb works in rooms
Working with the signal flow, effects loops, and available CPU resources
Understanding core parameters, like reverb time and pre-delay
Simulating space
Creating nonlinear reverb
Building pre-delay effects
Using reverse reverb
Using convolution correctly

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome
02 - What you need to know before watching this course
03 - Songs you should listen to while watching this course
04 - Using the exercise files
05 - Using the Get in the Mix session files

1. Understanding Reverberation

06 - What is reverb
07 - Why do we use reverb

2. Technologies for Creating Reverb

08 - Capturing reverb acoustically through room tracks
09 - Creating reverb acoustically through a reverb chamber
10 - Creating reverb mechanically using springs and plates
11 - Creating reverb digitally via algorithms and convolution
12 - Optimizing signal flow, effects loops, and CPU resources

3. Key Parameters and Reference Values

13 - The anatomy of reverberation
14 - Mastering reverb time, predelay, and wet dry mix parameters
15 - Understanding the frequency dependence of reverberation
16 - Tapping into advanced parameters such as diffusion, density, and more
17 - Reference values from the best orchestra halls
18 - Hearing beyond the basic parameters
19 - Touring the interfaces for six reverb plugins

4. Reverb Techniques

20 - Choosing the right reverb for each of your tracks
21 - Simulating space with reverb
22 - Hearing space in the mix
23 - Timbre and texture
24 - Shaping tone and timbre with reverb
25 - Creating contrasting sounds for your tracks
26 - Using nonlinear reverb to help a track cut through
27 - Emphasizing the reverb using predelay
28 - Strategically blurring and obscuring tracks
29 - Get in the Mix - Changing the scene by changing reverb
30 - Get in the Mix - Gating reverb to emphasize any track in your production
31 - Reversing reverb to highlight musical moments
32 - Synthesizing new sounds through reverb
33 - Get in the Mix - Supporting a track with regenerative reverb
34 - Getting the most out of room tracks

5. Advanced Reverb Topics

35 - Setting up your own reverb chamber - The architecture
36 - Setting up your own reverb chamber - The audio
37 - Using convolution correctly
38 - Getting great impluse response

Conclusion

39 - Next steps