Valhalla shimmer predelay how to#
Valhalla shimmer predelay professional#

For more on compressing and EQing reverb, check out this Waves blog article. Depending on how you set it, you can also use it to 'duck' the reverb which allows a bit of un-reverberated signal through first, helping with intelligibility. Putting a compressor after the reverb can smooth it out, alter its character and make it sound bigger. For example, saturation placed after the reverb in the signal chain can provide a pleasant character change that doesn't sound distorted per se but adds texture to the reverb that can be really cool.

It can also be too bright and may exaggerate sibilance in the vocals.Д¬ombining reverb with other effects can also be useful for creating unique FX tones. Without equalization, the reverberated signal has low end and lower-midrange information that can clutter up your mix. How you EQ the reverb, whether from its own built-in controls or an external EQ inserted afterward, is also significant.

The more reverb in the signal, the more its characteristics will be magnified. Obvious as it sounds, another key to what your reverb will sound like is how high you turn up the reverb send. The pre-delay parameter on Waves H-Reverb gives you the option of setting a rhythmic value. This can be a useful way to come up with a setting. Some reverbs, like Waves H-Reverb, allow you to set the pre-delay based on rhythmic values from the song's tempo. Play around with some different settings to find the one that has the best feel. It's also important to listen to how your pre-delay works with the song tempo. This makes sense when you consider that big rooms are more reverberant because of the distance the reflected sound must travel. The longer the delay before the reverb kicks in, the larger the simulated space will sound. Pre-delay also has an impact on the perception of space. It repeats again with an acoustic guitar track to show you how the pre-delay helps the words cut through. The first time it's dry, the second time it has reverb with no pre-delay ( Manny Marroquin Reverb with a Hall setting), and the third time has the same reverb with pre-delay.

Example: Here's a vocal line repeated three times.

Postponing them slightly with pre-delay allows the transients of the lyrics to poke through, which not only keeps the vocal upfront but also more intelligible. Without it, the reverb reflections will begin immediately. It will dictate whether the simulated space will feel massive, intimate, or something in between.ДЄdding pre-delay is also vital for keeping your vocal from receding to the back of the mix when the reverb is added. Perhaps the most crucial parameter in any reverb is its decay time (aka 'reverb time' or 'RT60'). Whichever type of reverb you end up choosing for a given situation, how you set it is critical and can have a considerable impact on the results. Even with those limitations in mind, you still have a lot of creative freedom to shape your vocal reverb. The faster the tempo, the shorter you'll need your reverb time to avoid cluttering up the sonic space. Excess reverb 'wash,' as it's referred to, can cause your mix to sound muddy and the lyrics indistinct. As a general rule, you don't want your reverb tails ringing over into the singer's next phrase. The choices you make will be dictated to some extent by the nature of the song and the genre. Do you want an effect that subtly adds space, gluing the vocal to the instrumental, or do you want to transform the vocal sound with it? Are you going for drama or intimacy? Do you want it to be aggressive or natural? Over-the-top, massive or uptight? It's useful to evolve your thinking beyond, 'Do I want a plate or a hall?' and instead ask yourself what would be the reverb configuration that enhances the vibe you're going for with the mix as a whole. Given those options, and the numerous ways you can modify reverb with compression, EQ, delay and saturation (whether built into the reverb or applied from a separate plugin), you have a broad palette of choices available to you for creating a compelling space for the vocal to sit in. Most contemporary reverb plugins, whether they're emulations of hardware units or not, offer a choice of algorithms along with a ton of adjustable parameters. Because it's literally front and center, the reverb treatment you choose for the lead vocal is not only going to have a significant impact on the sound of the voice, but also on the mix as a whole.

Valhalla shimmer predelay professional#

Professional mix engineers will often tell you that they build their mixes around the lead vocal.

Valhalla shimmer predelay how to#

Learn how to tweak your vocal reverb to make your mix sing. Reverb can put a vocal in a myriad of different spaces, but your choice of space and how you set the parameters will dramatically affect the mood of the track.