Why use reverb? 5 ways that reverb can benefit your mix

Why use reverb: 5 ways that reverb can benefit your mixThe addition of reverb in your songs has a lot of benefits. As well as making your mix sound more natural, there are many other advantages that you can bring to your songs using reverb. In this article, we’ll break down 5 benefits that reverb can bring to your mixes.

1. Creating depth

Reverb allows us to create depth in a mix. This can help to create a more immersive and engaging sound. Wetter sounds will make the instrument appear to be further away from the listener. Dryer sounds will appear closer. As such, you can move instruments back and forth to create greater depth in your tracks.

2. Creating a natural sound

Often, a dry sound can feel unnatural and sometimes even uncomfortable to listen to. Although we may not always notice it, there are few occasions when reverb is not present in enclosed spaces. Because we are exposed to reverb so frequently, we are accustomed to its presence. Accordingly, completely dry recordings can sound unnatural to us. As such, the addition of reverb can make a track sound natural and turn it into something that we are more accustomed to.

3. Placing the instruments in a space

By applying one reverb type to the tracks in your mix, you can simulate the appearance that your music was recorded in a particular environment. By using something like a hall or room setting, and by sending all of your tracks to it, you can make your instruments sound as though they were recorded in that space.

4. Unifying different elements

In our sessions, having a combination of tracks recorded in different places, with different mics, using different techniques along with countless other variables is commonplace. By applying reverb to all of the varying elements, we are able to make things sound unified and give all of the different elements something in common. This tends to work even when multiple reverb types are used.

5. Increasing variation

In contrast, reverb can also be used to create better variation between the instruments in your songs. By using different reverb types for similar instruments, you can create better separation by making it easier to perceive them as different tracks. For example, sending an electric guitar to a spring setting and an acoustic guitar to a room setting can create variation by providing greater uniqueness to each instrument’s sound.

This is a particularly useful approach when two instruments are playing the same notes. Say a piano and a guitar for example. In this instance, sending each instrument to a different kind of reverb can help to create better separation between the tracks.

Conclusion

As you can see, reverb can bring about some major benefits in your mixes. Do you aim to achieve any of these 5 things in your mixes? Can you recommend any other benefits that its use can bring about in your tracks? Leave a comment below.

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