Reverb: the most important of all effects?

[JO512]

The most important effect of all, I would argue, is reverb (distortion/saturation competes for that designation!). I find it very fascinating how much it can improve the way something sounds, and how critical it often is.

What I find especially fascinating is how, if you put on headphones and listen to a simple saw wave completely dry, it is very hard to listen to, and can even feel painful. But put a little reverb on it and there is a sense of relief. Suddenly it sounds good! What is it about that completely dry sound that makes it uncomfortable? It is as if our brains need the reverb as a cue to tell us what kind of space we're in. It is less uncomfortable to listen to a dry synth through speakers, since, it seems to me, you get some room reverb.

I often suspect that when people say that one synth sounds "better" than another, it is because the presets are better and include some reverb, or better reverb. Dry oscillators and simple filters are pretty similar from synth to synth. I find that having a good reverb and knowing how to use it is more important to my synths sounding good than the particular synth plugin I am using.

And I am not talking about drowning the sound in reverb either. That is nice in many contexts too, but even very subtle and short reverb can make a HUGE difference to especially a synth sound. This is especially true of synths because they are perfectly dry to begin with, whereas recorded instruments and even sample libraries usually (short of being recorded in an anechoic chamber) have some room reverb baked in.

Some forms of reverb that emphasize late reflections still leave the main sound a bit too dry, even if it sits in a sea of reverb wash. I've found that it helps the sound a lot to add at least a small amount of short-decay room ambience with some sharp early reflections, especially when the filter is open or there is otherwise a lot of high-frequency texture. It just somehow makes the sound more present and vibrant, even though reverb can create a sense of distance.

I love reverb! It's the only effect that I put on absolutely every synth sound, even if in very small doses!

I saw a video a while back where someone was demonstrating a real CS-80 and he was saying that actually, something surprising to most people, is that they actually don't sound very good dry, that you need to sweeten the sound a lot with reverb and other things. I don't think this is unique to a CS-80, is it? Perhaps it's less important though with a bass where the higher frequencies are mostly rolled off, as in the way people sometimes use a Moog.

I am curious what others think of reverb and how you generally use it. Do you stack multiple reverbs very often? Where do you place it in your effects chain? Before or after delays? Any other thoughts you want to share on reverb would be interesting for me to read. Is there anyone who likes to use synths completely without any reverb?

[mixtur.se]

Compression, I can live without reverb as I can record with some room.

[vitocorleone123]

I’d vote that delay is more important (and can become reverb).

My analog synths don’t need saturation - though distortion can kick ass. Reverb is amazing and I love CRP and my MercuryX, but it can be too much of in a mix, whereas delay can be dialed in.

[SteveWZ]

The importance of effects will always be dependent on the type of music and production techniques.
Not all productions use reverb and delays.

Most productions do require some dynamics control and tonal tweaking, so EQ, compression/limiting are more "meat and potatoes"....

Personally, i love some reverb, delays and modulations........

[cryophonik]

There’s no such thing as a most important or best effect. Every effect serves some purpose and each one’s importance depends on the problem it solves, the source you’re working with, the result you’re trying to achieve, the context within the larger mix, etc.

[kritikon]

Bitcrushing. To coin a modern phrase, it's underrated. For example music such as Taylor Swift, any Country/Western music, prog rock, dubstep, rap, freestyle jazz...all would be made immeasurably better by crushing down to 1 bit. Barry Manilow should be zero bits.

[cryophonik]

I stand corrected

[foosnark]

Reverb or delay definitely do wonders for completely dry synth sounds, and have some fun creative uses as well.

But I also agree that "most important" is going to depend a lot on context.

[_leras]

I’d vote that delay is more important (and can become reverb).

My analog synths don’t need saturation - though distortion can kick ass. Reverb is amazing and I love CRP and my MercuryX, but it can be too much of in a mix, whereas delay can be dialed in.

What?? You can dial I'm reverb just at as easily as you can dial in a delay.

I'd even say there are more options to dial in reverb as it's more closely linked to the sound it is affecting.

If you have too much reverb in a mix, turn it down...

I would of course use delays if someone took my reverb away. My tracks would sound different but would survive.

[_leras]

Most productions do require some dynamics control and tonal tweaking, so EQ, compression/limiting are more "meat and potatoes"....

Personally, i love some reverb, delays and modulations........

If there were no compression people would just use more volume automation. Might actually make for better sounding mixes too!

(And several other things like saturation, clip, tape also can do similar things)

[SteveWZ]

Bitcrushing. To coin a modern phrase, it's underrated. For example music such as Taylor Swift, any Country/Western music, prog rock, dubstep, rap, freestyle jazz...all would be made immeasurably better by crushing down to 1 bit. Barry Manilow should be zero bits.

Crush baby crush.........

[vurt]

The importance of effects will always be dependent on the type of music and production techniques.

moreso, the goal in the moment

"i want this to sound punchy and rip my face off"
youre gonna look in the distortion folder, before the reverb folder

[vurt]

Bitcrushing. To coin a modern phrase, it's underrated. For example music such as Taylor Swift, any Country/Western music, prog rock, dubstep, rap, freestyle jazz...all would be made immeasurably better by crushing down to 1 bit. Barry Manilow should be zero bits.

cant comment on this, but tiny tim sounds f**king amazing through time stretching and several delays (i have released that on youtube)

[martiu]

spectral FR shifters are most importan

[emef]

for me its Distortion, i love the filth it brings