Reverb holds the power to take your mix from sounding dead to alive. But, it also comes with the risk of making your mix unintelligible and frustrating to the listener.
Good news is, there are a few simple techniques you can employ to harness all the benefits of reverb while protecting your mix from becoming unclear.
In general, the best way to mix reverb is to turn it up until you can hear it and then dial it back until it blends in with the mix. In other words, you should notice when it is missing but not necessarily notice it is there.
Of course, there are a few exceptions to this rule.
There is plenty of room for creativity with reverb. But when it comes to church sound, I have found the following three reverbs are a great way to achieve great sound while keeping it simple.
When it comes to live sound at church, plate reverb works the best for vocals. It is bright, clean and has a bit of a sparkle/sizzle, which adds brilliance to vocals.
The two things you want to dial in on this reverb is the decay and pre delay.
Another setting you may want to use is hi cut, which takes high frequencies out of the reverb. I recommend starting with this as high as it will go (~20kHz). Then, if you have problems with s's and t’s coming across too harsh, dial it back to about 5kHz.
Hall reverb is beautiful, but quite a bit ‘duller’ than plate reverb, which makes it a good option for instruments. Giving instruments a different reverb than vocals will help keep separation between the two and the vocals clean and clear.
Decay is the setting you want to focus on with this reverb. I generally set decay between 2-3s, but don’t be afraid to experiment.
Keep in mind, many instrumentalists dial in their own reverb. For example, electric guitarists use pedals for reverb and keyboards may use MainStage or the built-in reverb on their keyboard. So, only add reverb if they still sound too dry or you are struggling to get it to blend.
Side Note: There are certain times when you may want to use plate and hall reverb on vocals. For example, if you have a ballad where the vocal should occupy lots of space, adding hall with plate reverb will add space to the ‘warm' frequencies.
Most reverb processors have a setting for drums. For example, the Behringer X32 has a preset called ‘Drum Treat’ which is what I am currently using. If a drum room preset is not available, a small to medium bright room would be a good choice.
Add this reverb to your snare and overhead microphones – possibly your toms as well if you feel like they need more depth. The kick drum should remain dry unless you are using reverb for some kind of special effect.
Use the golden rule mentioned above by turning it up until you can hear it and then dialing it back to where it blends in with the mix.
If you are not used to reverb on vocals, one issue you will run into is reverb being on a vocal who starts talking into the microphone. You need to be ready to cut reverb in these moments because reverb on a talking mic is extremely frustrating to the listener.
Find a way to designate a ‘kill switch’ to vocal reverbs. For example, on the Behringer X32, you can assign a mute group to the FX busses that control the vocal reverb.
If you are using the Behringer X32 (or Midas M32), I have put together a cheatsheet for how to set up these three reverbs using built-in presets.
Thanks for this article. This is the first time I have seen this topic discussed. I have been playing trumpet (praise, worship and prophetic) for over 50 years. There are many set-up's on the market today but I find that the simpler the better. I'm using a DigiTech RP-155 with user presets 1-10. 1 being dry and 10 being very wet. (mainly for shofar). FYI Thanks again for your info.
On the x32 aren't we limited to just a small number of effects processors?how do you use different reverb processors for different groups like vocals and instruments?
Hey Paul - There are a total of 8 FX slots on the X32, 4 of those being tied to Bus 13-16. So you could assign vocal reverb to the first slot, and instrumental reverb to the second slot. Then, send all of your vocals to Bus 13 to add reverb, and then send your instruments to Bus 14. Hope that helps clear things up!
On the plate reverb on the x32 there are a lot of other setting besides the decay and pre-delay. What settings should be used for those?
I recommend leaving the other settings in the default state.
Thanks for the good concise article. Currently, we use a hall reverb with the option of mixing in some short delay on vocals (they sound similar to my ears). I'm going to try using just a plate reverb instead. I got a good tip from a touring pro on handling reverb between songs. He said to pull it back a bit so it becomes more subtle, instead of using mute/unmute. I think this technique sounds a bit smoother. Give it a try!
Great tip, Ron. Thank you!
Do you adjust any of the settings on the FX when you load them?
Yes. On vocal reverb, I increase the pre-delay to keep it off the first part of the sound. On all reverb, I adjust the decay time until it fits the room and what I am trying to accomplish.
Hey Kade, thank you so much for your tips and demos. QUESTION.
can you do a video on how to make a "Kill Switch" for vocal reverbs. I am still learning..........
Hey Jermain - Simply assign the FX Returns to a mute group. Here's how: