Reverb: The Bane of Audio

Reverb is one of those weird effects that screws up a lot of people. I would always get tripped up with it and feel like I was always doing the wrong thing. Over the years, I’ve found that I usually like to shave off highs & lows on reverb & delay sends. However, this can get out of hand quick, and you need to make sure that you DO NOT let that 150hz-5k range get clogged. Be smart and use EQ!

One advantage to cutting highs on a reverb is you are helping make sure it doesn't get in the way of your lead. Whether that be a vocal, synth, or something else, when you have too many "things" competing for attention in the upper region, it can get messy and too many things are competing for your attention.

Cutting lows serves the same purpose. You don't want to get your low end too clogged up with low end information. This is important to watch out for because that low area can easily get out of hand and take up a ton of headroom in your mix. Shaving off some of that unnecessary low end is a great way to keeping things under control.

Which brings us to all those lovely mids. By cutting off the highs and the lows, you are kind of accenting the mids. If you know your EQ well, you know that mids can get really muddy, really hoopy, and really “weeee”-y. I’ll give a shiny quarter to someone who can find a better way to describe that. A lot of build up can happen here .especially on ambient pads and textures, and make your mix unpleasant. Keep an eye out and stick that EQ after your reverb to touch it up if things get out of hand.