Calling all the veterans

[BiggChev]

Here's a quick hot tip.. When using reverb, especially on drums, but really in all cases IMO, cut the low frequencies off of it. It really stops for example a snare sounding boxy and muddy. Low frequencies don't sound very good with reverb so just cut them off, I usually chop off below around 300 to 400 hz, this helps for a clean, realistic reverb.

Great tip! I remember, when I first started making beats, really abusing reverbs on my tracks to get a specific result which ended up ruining the track as a whole. It's an easy way to extend tails/decay on samples that may be a bit too choppy or not quite fit perfectly with the project tempo or blend together a collage of samples to sound more cohesive.

While I'm not an Ill OG, I did stumble across this tip a while back and started using it with great results. Bus and Side-chain your reverb. For Example:

Situation:
Plucky melody or arpeggio (lets say a guitar) that you want to add reverb to. Using it as an insert FX would muddy the mix and soften the attack/pluckiness of your guitar.

The Setup:
Create a aux send from your guitar to your reverb
Bring bus level all the way down
Compressor at the front of the chain
Add an EQ
Reverb behind it

Adjust:
Keep compressor all the way down. Essentially not doing anything
Set Reverb to full, or near full, wet
Slowly bring up Bus level
As you bring up the Bus levels, you can fine tune your reverb settings
Once you have the "space" your after gradually bring up the compressor so that the "dry" guitar can poke through.
As @2GooD Productions mentioned, be sure to use EQ to carve out unwanted frequencies that'll muddy the mix.

Result:
A finely tuned reverb without the muddiness
Better control of the reverbs balance in the mix
Preserves the attack and pluckiness of the initial instrument

 

[2GooD Productions]

While I'm not an Ill OG, I did stumble across this tip a while back and started using it with great results.

When I said veterans I didn't mean ILL veterans, I meant beatmaking veterans, people that have put in the hours and developed techniques that are tried and tested and have gotten results.

Great tips, side-chained effects are a great way of stopping them from washing out your beat, it can keep things tidy and they only become more prominent once what they are being applied to has stopped allowing the fx to fill the empty space. I use that technique quite a bit on delays, dont do it very often on reverb as the cutting of the lows usually does a lot of the lifting in preventing things sounding washed out, but can see how using side chaining on reverb can help allow the original sound cut through without being pushed back into the mix by the reverb, so just the tails get prominence. A much cleaner method.

 

[Iron Keys]

Situation:
Plucky melody or arpeggio (lets say a guitar) that you want to add reverb to. Using it as an insert FX would muddy the mix and soften the attack/pluckiness of your guitar.

^remember, using this advice in reverse if you ever need to soften the attack or pluckiness.

Sometimes we need to do the opposite.

Adjust:
Keep compressor all the way down. Essentially not doing anything
Set Reverb to full, or near full, wet
Slowly bring up Bus level
As you bring up the Bus levels, you can fine tune your reverb settings
Once you have the "space" your after gradually bring up the compressor so that the "dry" guitar can poke through.

I go the other way, and even further now as encouraged by my mentor - go full blown with the effect. Make sure it has the emotion and feel. Then back it off to where it is more balanced - if you even really need to that.

That being said, there's no right or wrong way, it's whatever works for your process and there are definitely times when bringing it in from the bottom* is the best approach
(*no diddy)


Is good to remember that... these subtleties likely not heard or appreciated by the end listener; which is fine when it's for something felt, but in other times you'll likely want to slap the listener in the face with it.