What is reverb?
Reverb is an effect that recreates the reverberation you hear when sound reflects off the walls and ceiling of a room or hall and gradually decays. It adds a sense of space and distance to recorded sound, and it can make parts recorded separately feel like they are sounding in the same place.
Early reflections and the reverb tail
The distinct reflections that arrive right after the direct sound are called early reflections, and the part that follows, growing denser as it decays, is called the reverb tail. From these time differences and the way the sound decays, we sense the size of a space and the distance to the source.
Basic parameters
Pre-delay sets the time between the direct sound and the start of the reverberation, Decay or Reverb Time sets how long the reverberation lasts, and Mix or Wet/Dry sets the balance between the direct and the reverberant sound. Adjusting high-frequency damping or EQ changes the texture from a bright space to a soft, dark one.
Why use it on a send
Placing a reverb on an aux and sending to it from each track lets several sounds share the same space while you adjust only the amount for each one. Too much reverberation pushes the image further away and blurs the low end and the definition of words, so judge it within the whole mix.
Main types of reverb
Room and Hall are based on the space of a room or a hall, Plate on a metal plate, and Spring on the sound of springs. Algorithmic reverbs create the reverberation by calculation, while convolution reverbs use impulse responses taken from real spaces. Choose by listening to the sense of distance within the song, not by the name alone.
Articles to go deeper
For reducing strong reverberation from audio you have already recorded, the De-reverb feature is introduced in Just how impressive the noise removal software iZotope RX 7 is (Japanese).
