even ‘Taj Mahal’ (it took me years to finally get
that joke.) As you might have guessed, these
settings offer spacial models of reverb via a
range of combinations of Pre-delay and Decay
Time (and other parameters we’ll dive into later)
that approximate what a source would sound
like in each of those physical acoustic spaces.
My goal in this article is to help get you familiar
with how these combinations come together so
that you can better adjust and refine your own
reverb approach for your mix.
DRUM ROLL, PLEASE …
One easy and effective way to get a better
handle on how these two controls play together
is to create virtual soundcheck tracks to play
with in your sanctuary on your regular FOH
console during off hours. Load up a loop of
a soloed snare drum backbeat, apply reverb
to that track and study the interplay between
Pre-delay and Delay Time without touching
any other settings. Maybe aim for a quick and
obvious reverb that gets out of the way almost
like a gated reverb. Then try to create more
of an 80’s long trailing tail that would be at
home on a power ballad. With only those two
controls, you should be able to get quite a wide
range of usable settings.
Live vocals are particularly well suited for a bit of tasteful reverb.
Once you’ve got a feel for the solo snare track
reverbs, bring up a track with the full worship
band and vocals. Repeat the same snare drum
exercise on the lead vocal track, noting how the
Pre-delay can impact intelligibility of the vocals
on more rhythm vocal segments. It will also
be interesting to listen to how your previous
unaccompanied snare reverb settings play in
the full mix.
If you don’t have ready access to the space
for testing and playing with reverb, you can
somewhat approximate the exercise with a
DAW and headphones to get a basic feel for
each control. These key reverb parameters are
also important in the recording and broadcast
audio world, but the interplay of added reverb
with the particular acoustics of your church are
important to get familiar with as soon as you
While most guitar amps offer a single control for reverb levels, modern
digital reverb units can be much more complex.
January 2020
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