Reverb is undoubtedly one of the most used effects when mixing vocal tracks.
Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a completely dry vocal track, without any ambiance around it to provide realism.
However, in most songs, the vocals play a rather central role in the mix: they are highlighted, and thus we expect them to be consistently intelligible and clear.
The problem is that poor reverb settings on this track can severely harm the quality of the mix: it can feel like the vocals are too distant, drowned in the mix, or that the lyrics are not understandable enough…
In other words, to properly apply reverb to a vocal, it is important to know some essential techniques — which I wish to share with you through this article.
#1: Place Your Vocal Reverbs on Return Tracks
When you add a reverb plugin to your vocal track, you have two choices:
- either you place it as an insert, directly on the track;
- or you place it as a send, that is, on a dedicated return track.
While the first option may seem quicker, it is generally a very bad idea. Except perhaps for sound design, I don’t see a situation where putting reverb as an insert offers any advantage.
Indeed, when your reverb plugin is placed directly on the vocal track:
- on one hand, you cannot process the reverb signal in isolation (for example, by compressing or equalizing it);
- and on the other hand, depending on your plugin, you will have difficulty adjusting the signal level (when you increase the amount of reverb with the famous “Mix” knob, it often decreases the amount of dry signal).
As a result, mixing the vocals and their reverb becomes more complex.
So, use send tracks for your reverbs by default! 😉
#2: Which Reverb for Vocals? (Choosing Your Reverb Wisely)
There are many types of reverbs: some are rooms, others are halls, and some are referred to as plate, etc.
This translates into obvious sonic differences between the tracks.
For example, the beautiful reverb in Chris Isaak’s song “Wicked Game”…
…has little in common with that of “Children of the Sun” by Dead Can Dance:
Moreover, from one plugin to another, the sound is of course not the same: the “Room” reverb from plugin A will not be the same as that from plugin B.
It is therefore particularly important, when mixing your vocal tracks, to use “the right reverb”.
But how do you choose the right reverb?
Well, for me, the process is quite simple:
- You decide on an ambiance for your vocal track;
- You select the plugin that will achieve this ambiance;
- Either by relying on presets or by going directly into the settings, you find a sound that matches the ambiance envisioned in point #1.
The basic choice — this point #1 — is really very important.
If you randomly look for a reverb, you won’t find what you want.
However, if you define the characteristics of the ideal reverb from the start, it allows you to set a target.
Will your reverb be:
- wide or intimate?
- dark or bright?
- precise or diffuse?
- etc.
Don’t hesitate to use reference tracks: do you want to sound like Chris Isaak up there? Well, analyze his track to identify the characteristics of the reverb.
Among the different types of reverb mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, of course, you can use them all: there are no absolute rules.
That said, on vocals, I find that plate reverbs are generally very effective: this is the type of reverb I recommend you test first.
After that, it’s entirely possible to use Room, Hall, or Chamber type reverbs instead.
Also note that there is a type of reverb called “Ambience.” You may not find it on all plugins, but this type of reverb can be interesting for adding dimension to a track without making the reverb too pronounced/audible.
A bit to add a hint of naturalness to a somewhat dry recording — which can be useful for mixing rap vocals, for example.
#3: Adjust the pre-delay of your reverb
When you add reverb to the vocals, it can have the effect of masking the lyrics.
Indeed, the first reflections simulated by the algorithm overlap with the raw sound, and the words and syllables tend to sound drowned out. It becomes difficult to understand them.
Here’s an example with a raw track:
and the same track — now harder to understand — with the reverb:
If this type of situation occurs, it may be because the pre-delay of your reverb is not well adjusted.
The pre-delay is simply the duration (usually in milliseconds) between the initial sound and the first reflections.
By increasing this pre-delay, you will delay the reverb.
The result: your vocal track gains clarity, intelligibility, and even tends to reposition itself at the forefront of the mix.
If we take our example again, but this time with a marked pre-delay of about 90 ms, you can hear that the reverb is now dissociated from the vocal track, making it much more understandable:
#4 Equalize your reverb
The advantage of having placed your reverb on a send track (see tip #1) is that you can process it as you wish.
In particular, by applying equalization — which is essential for me.
100% of my reverbs on my vocal tracks are equalized in one way or another.
Why?
Simply because without equalization, two phenomena occur:
- First, resonances are created in the low-mids due to the addition of the raw track and the track with reverb. The problem: these frequencies are the fundamental frequencies of the voice. If we don’t equalize, the low-mids will sound very muddy.
- And then, depending on the reverb plugin used, the sibilance of the voice may stand out too much.
It is therefore necessary to equalize these issues, sometimes quite drastically, using high-pass/low-pass or low-shelf/high-shelf filters:
#5: Try sidechain on your reverb
Still in the idea of making the vocal track stand out compared to the reverb track — or at least avoiding the former being drowned in the latter, you can use sidechain compression.
The concept is simple: you compress the reverb when the voice is present, and you stop compressing as soon as the singer stops singing.
The result: as soon as there is a space between two words or two phrases, the reverb will be heard. But as soon as the voice resumes, the reverb goes back into the background.
This allows for maximum intelligibility of the lyrics: it’s really an effective technique.
However, be careful: make sure your reverb is always sufficiently realistic, and ensure that the effect is not too identifiable (unless it’s a style you want to give to your track).
By default, aim for a gain reduction of a few decibels at most.
In conclusion
There you go, these tips should help you improve your reverbs on your vocal tracks.
To go further, feel free to take a look at my complete guide on vocal mixing.