Reverb with ducking

[DCrown]

There are reverbs with and without ducking, I know you could also use a compressor, but is it necessary to always duck? Was ducking used back in good ole days?
To duck or not to duck...
Do you always duck?
What are the reverbs with ducking feature?

[nilhartman]

ApVerb by ApulSoft sounds incredible, is a sound-designer dream and has a few tricks up its sleeve such as ducking and buffer reset (on transients and/or above a given threshold).

[osiris]

UVI Relayer. Reverb and delay with ducks. Also Deelay is a great one.

[db3]

Verbs I have with Ducking are D16 Toraverb 2, UJAM Reverb (demo), and SSL Flexverb (built-in compressor). Sometimes use it as a creative effect.

[Ah_Dziz]

Using dynamics (keyed or not) on reverb is a trick as old as the ability to add reverb. It's not necessary but it has tons of uses. Ducked reverb has become a pretty standard effect in 4 on the floor based dance music and pop over the past few decades. Gated reverb on drums was huge all through the 80s and 90s. Compressing the hell out of a short room reverb (natural or artificial) is a common trick from pretty much always. Then there's overdriving and compressing/ equalizing spring and plate reverbs.

I would say ducking reverb should only be used if it's the effect you want. It's not even remotely "necessary". Lightly ducking reverb via a lead instrument or vocal is a good mix trick to bring a bit of clarity back from something that you want to have sound "reverby" in between phrases, but that's nothing compared to what most people call "ducking reverb". The over the top pumping ducking that you heard on giant reverb tails in trance and other techno is what comes to mind when I hear "ducking reverb"

[kritikon]

There are reverbs with and without ducking, I know you could also use a compressor, but is it necessary to always duck?

Absolutely not. It might be an optional thing to do if you have no idea how to mix and follow YouTube eejits who also have no idea what they're doing, but it is never actually necessary to duck reverb. Of course you can do it as often as you like, same as you can do anything you want in a mix. My personal opinion is that if you really do have the need to duck reverb in your mix, then you're way overdoing the reverb to start with and I feel a better solution would be to go back and reduce the reverb or pull back the decay to something more sensible in seconds rather than minutes. Dicking around with extra complications will only cause further problems. But y'know...the world is your oyster and you can f**k up your music however you want. No dicking around is actually wrong per se...just amusing.

Was ducking used back in good ole days?

I'd be surprised if someone somewhere didn't use it on occasion, but absolutely not a common thing to do on reverb.

Do you always duck?

No, I never duck reverb and probably never will in any style of music I make. I can make doof-doof quite happily without ducking reverb. Sometimes with delay though.

What are the reverbs with ducking feature?

I have no idea, they do not interest me in the slightest. I might even have some reverb plugins that can duck, but TBH I would have completely ignored that feature and forgotten it was there.

It's a recent fad. It's never been necessary. However, I suppose it's nice that music tech moves on and and introduces easier-to-do tricks. But never assume that any new trick is actually essential just because someone else does it. If a new trendy singer stuck a coat hanger up their arse because it helps them reach the high notes, would you do that too?

[Benedict]

Duk duk duk. It's just double dutch.

In 35+ years I have never cucked, sorry ducked a reverb. It is a silly thing as a general rule as rooms do not do this - doing so may be ok for an effect but silly as it is unsettling. Occasionally I might ever so slightly duck an echo but even then I could not at all with no real loss.

I think that this obsession with chaining the side of their sample to the other side of the other sample is just because they don't know how to mix so they are not Mix Engineers but Avoidance Engineers. They make reams of same-same noise where everything is separated from everything else and it is totally pointless as 'music as an ensemble performance' is about together (909s or violins alike).

The final Q: Who cares as if you really need it you can take the signal round the outside, round the outside in less time than it takes to obsess over what pluginz have this useless feature (suggesting the dev has wasted time on that instead of the reverb)

[bite_me]

Duk duk duk. It's just double dutch.

In 35+ years I have never cucked, sorry ducked a reverb. It is a silly thing ...

Cool, keep it like this the next 35+ years.

Ducking is a mixing and sounddesign choice and always worth to try.
Bitwig makes sidechaining and ducking incredibly simple, so no special reverb is necessary.

[I_Am_Become_KVR]

Ducking comes in two broad flavors:

1. Corrective fix to a mix problem. This is typically not especially noticeable to the listener.

2. Obvious swooshing as an effect. This isnt even about the ducking, it's just about the fact that the volume is turning up and down. So you can just as well use an LFO here.

In either case, buy a reverb based on if you like the sound of the reverb, not whether it has extra processors tacked on.

[Winstontaneous]

Goodhertz Megaverb has the most responsive ducking/gating of any reverb I've used, which is very helpful because the 'verb algorthms are so big/funky/unruly.

And Exponential Audio Nimbus/R4 "Tail Suppression" ducks the Late Reflections signal so you still get a sense of space from Early Reflections.

[Benedict]

Duk duk duk. It's just double dutch.

In 35+ years I have never cucked, sorry ducked a reverb. It is a silly thing ...

Cool, keep it like this the next 35+ years.

Ducking is a mixing and sounddesign choice and always worth to try.
Bitwig makes sidechaining and ducking incredibly simple, so no special reverb is necessary.

Rude wot.
Acting like I am too silly to understand the thing. Well played.

Who says I haven't tried? Clearly, I have if you hadn't selectively (mis)quoted to suit your agenda. Again: I don't see the point as it makes things sound weird. Rooms don't duck - sounds do mask in the human mind but that is what a mix engineer uses, not this constant avoiding which in no way represents a reality anyone actually likes outside of a special effect that should not go on over and over because the music sucks so bad it can't stand without this lazy trick. Disco, Hi-NRG, House were all better before tucking cucked it up.

Oh and while I like Bitwig I can apply side chains mighty easily in Reason thank you very much for suggesting it is only because I am not using the you-approved DAW therefore it must be too hard for me.

Sheesh, we can all do better than this BS. Attacking people out of nowhere because we don't like that they don't agree. So childish. Have your say, but leave me out of it.

[bite_me]

Rude wot.

Sheesh, we can all do better than this BS. Attacking people out of nowhere because we don't like that they don't agree. So childish. Have your say, but leave me out of it.

Seems I got you on the wrong foot and maybe we have different views on how to attack someone.

Of course it doesn´t really make sense to duck every reverb in a track.
For me the most useful case is mixing vocals so they stay in the front while having the impression of a room. Reverb is a spice. Just use it carefully Music should be fun right?

[bite_me]

https://www.cableguys.com/reverbshaper
Here´s a reverb that I don´t like that much but it´s all about reverb and ducking.

[vitocorleone123]

I use ducking all the time in Liquidsonics reverbs. For clarity, not effect. You can’t get the same kinds of ducking without it being built in.

[onerob]

Toneboosters Reverb 4 has an excellent ducker with separate attack, hold and release control. Having a hold setting makes it more flexible.