Reverb

Space category, section-level.

Puts the instrument in a space, from a small room to a large hall, and lets you shape that space: how big it is, how long it rings, how bright it stays, and how wide it sits.

The decay tail

The effect opens with a picture of its own tail: a tall dry hit on the left, a gap, then a fading cloud of reflections under a decay curve. The two handles on the picture are controls.

The left handle is Pre-delay. Drag it right to open a gap between the original sound and the reverb. The right handle is Decay. Drag it right for a longer tail, left for a shorter one.

The cloud fills out as Size goes up and dims as Damping goes up, so the picture always shows what you are about to hear.

Controls

Size. How large the space is. Small gives tight, closely spaced reflections, a bedroom. Large gives a smooth, diffuse wash, a cathedral.

Decay. How long the tail rings, set independently of Size. This is where a lot of the character lives: a small room with a long decay is a tiled bathroom, a huge hall with a short decay is a quick cinematic swell. Set the room with Size, then the length with Decay.

Pre-delay. The gap between the dry sound and the start of the reverb. A short gap separates the attack of a vocal or lead from its tail, so notes stay intelligible while still sitting in a big space. With no gap the reverb sits right on top of the sound, which glues well and washes out detail.

Damping. How quickly the highs fade out of the tail. More damping is the dark room with curtains and carpet. Less is the bright marble hall with its plate-like sheen. Raise it when the reverb sounds harsh or hissy.

Modulation. Slow movement inside the tail so it never sits still. Subtle on its own, and what keeps a long tail from turning metallic.

Low Cut. A high-pass on the reverb only, and the most useful cleanup control here. Reverb on bass-heavy material muddies a mix quickly; raising this removes the boom from the tail and keeps the air.

Width. How far the tail spreads across the stereo field, from mono to wide. Narrow keeps it focused and mono-compatible, wide is enveloping on pads and choruses.

Ducker. Holds the tail back while the dry sound is playing and lets it bloom in the gaps. It keeps a busy vocal or lead clear without turning the reverb down.

Mix. Balances the reverb against the dry signal. As a section-level control this is one of the simplest ways to shape an arrangement: a dry verse feels close, opening the mix on the chorus makes everything bigger.

Sync. Switches Pre-delay and Decay from milliseconds and seconds to musical note values, from a sixteenth up to a bar and a half. The tail then follows the project tempo, and changing the tempo re-times the reverb. A decay of a quarter note dies away right on the next beat; a pre-delay of an eighth places the reverb a step behind the note. This is how you get a space that pulses with the groove instead of floating free.

Presets

Bedroom, Studio, Hall, Cathedral, Plate, Cave.

When to use it

Almost everything takes a little reverb. Keep verses drier for intimacy and open the mix or the decay on choruses. Reach for Low Cut the moment a mix feels muddy, Pre-delay when a lead loses clarity, and Sync when the space should move with the song.