RECORDING July 2022 - 16

Inside the
Studio
with Mark Hornsby
Delays &
Reverbs
A
dmittedly, I like hardware processors as much
as I do plugins. But as we know, plugins offer
superior recall, and you can run as many as your
computer CPU can handle. Plus, with the new landscape
of immersive mixing opportunities, software plugins are
much easier to process (see what I did there?). Let's tiptoe
down the spatial FX rabbit hole with some ideas to try and
some thoughts as to how we can clean up our workflow
when using our favorite plugin effects.
Want Reverb? Use a Room
When most people think of reverbs, they think of plates and
chambers. Room sounds often get overlooked. When recording,
I like to use room mics on a source. But I often send those
same room mics to an effects send with a room reverb close-in
vibe to the space I tracked in. This keeps the overall sound the
same but can make everything sound even bigger or more
interesting. An excellent drum example is to turn up your room
mic(s) in the mix, then add a room reverb to the snare, toms
and overheads set to 400 to 800ms. Then add a big, classic
snare plate on top of everything else. The room(s) create the
space. The plate creates the depth in the mix.
Stack the Deck
I see so many sessions where the delays and the reverbs are
setup on separate channels as parallel effects. While there's
nothing wrong with this (I do this from time to time myself), it
can be more fun routing effects into each other in series. For
example ... let's say you want to add a bit of slap to a dry
snare drum track. You can certainly achieve this using a short
delay. Next time route the snare drum to the delay and then
route the delay into a room reverb with less than one second
of decay. Bussing the slap delay into the verb still accomplishes
the desired effect but makes it sound far more realistic.
Want to take it over the top? After you route the delay into
16 RECORDING July 2022
the reverb, start playing with the feedback on the delay. Just be
careful that it does not get away from you. While routing delays
into reverbs can be beneficial and creative, this is one example
of where it usually doesn't work the other way around.
Delays need articulated transients for them to do their thing.
While a dry signal for a delay works great, sending a reverb
into a delay gets swimmy and unintelligible, because the delay
has a more challenging time keying off the muddied transients.
High Pass Filter
If you want to clean up a reverb (or any effect), a high pass
filter is your best friend. I have seen people avoid routing a
bass guitar or kick drum to an effects send because the result
often sounds muddy. Try putting a high pass filter in the
chain before the desired effect. By rolling out the bottom end
before the reverb, you can push the top end articulations like
the plucked and picked strings on a bass guitar, or the beater
clicks on a bass drum into the effect without letting the bottom
end get out of control.
Work in Layers
If you want to make a mix sound one-dimensional and lifeless,
then, by all means, keep using the same kind of effects
and spaces on every instrument in the mix. One of the keys to
creating a 3D sounding mix is creating depth through a combination
of different spaces. Dry acoustic guitars plus roomy
drums. Dry Bass plus soaring guitar solos. Slapback lead vocals
plus dry backing vocals. Any number of combinations can
work, but keep it musical. What do I mean by that? If the effect
doesn't serve the part, then it's a no-go!
RECORDING July 2022

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