What is the difference between delay and reverb?

“I don't really understand the difference between delay and reverb. Do you have a course that explains it clearly, and everything else I can do using effects?”

Suppose you have a great singer and a great backing band. Or a great singer and a great set of virtual instruments in your DAW. Shouldn't the recording and eventual mix and master sound great?

Well yes. If you are recording music that is meant to sound like traditional acoustic and electric instruments, then all you need are great performances, and a professional quality of recording, mixing and mastering.

But sometimes you might want a little more.

And sometimes the reality is that not every link in the chain is up to full professional standards.

Often when everything else is right, it is the acoustics of the studio that don't shape up. It is very difficult, for example, to get a good recording in an ordinary room in a house or apartment.

And software instruments often have a very dry sound. This is intentional, because you can always do things to a dry sound, but if the sound already has reverb locked in, you can't take it away.

And sometimes...

Well sometimes you want to use the recording studio as an instrument in its own right. You want to use all of the techniques and tricks of the recording studio to create an amazing sound.

So what we need are effects, as we call them.

The most fundamental effect is reverberation.

If you record an orchestra or acoustic band in an auditorium, you can capture the natural reverberation there and then, and you won't have to add any later.

But it takes time to get the mics in exactly the right places to capture the balance between direct and reverberant sound that is best. So broadcasters (whose time is extremely tight) put up microphones that are quite close to capture the direct sound of the instruments, and specific ambience mics, to capture the reverb. Then they can easily mix them in the right proportions from the console during the sound check.

In the studio, it is often best to use acoustic treatment to achieve quite a dry sound.

As I said earlier, if reverb is imprinted into your recording, you can't take it away. So if you start with a dry sound, you can always add reverb later if you need to.

Also, if you have a band in your studio, if there is too much natural ambience or reverberation, the sound of one instrument will spill into the mics of the others. You will find that all of the individual tracks have the sound of the rest of the band in the background. That will hinder your ability to mix well.

But if the studio has a dry acoustic, leakage between instruments will be much less. And you can add reverberation artificially as little or as much as necessary. All of the instruments will be much more controllable this way.

Delay is like a primitive form of reverberation. In the early days of recording technology, reverberation could only be created using an 'echo chamber', which is an actual room rigged up with loudspeakers and microphones to create reverb.

But in those early days, they could create a single echo, or a repeated echo, using a spare tape recorder in a special way.

We are all very familiar with the sound of delay through hearing, since birth, countless recordings that use the technique.

So it can still sound good now. Of course we don't have to use a tape recorder to produce the delay, we use a plug-in.

Another effect from a past era of recording is phasing, which in its subtle variations is also known as flanging or chorusing.

Phasing produces a rich 'swooshing' sound that can be very attractive to the ear. Of course it can be overdone, but so can any effect. The trick is to use it sparingly, when it will have its most useful influence on the listener, and subtly so the listener doesn't get tired of it.

Another effect is harmonic generation.

We are often told how useful it is to have 'warmth' in our recordings. You can use a vacuum tube microphone or preamplifier to achieve warmth. This is fine, but like reverberation earlier, once the warmth is burnt in to a recording, you can't undo it.

Too much warmth can be irritating to the ear. But fortunately there are plug-ins that will improve warmth in a controllable manner. So you can make a clean recording and add warmth later.

Don't have a warmth plug-in? Don't worry - we can show you how to generate warmth from first principles, using only the equipment and software you have already.

Finally, for now, there is pitch shifting.

You can use pitch shifting in a variety of ways. One is to correct the tuning of a slightly out-of-tune singer. This is more often necessary now than it used to be, because all the background instruments are now digitally tuned. Tuning in the past used to be done by ear, hence the singer could be a little more loose without anyone noticing.

Pitch shifting can be used in other ways, for example to make a vocal or instrument richer and fuller. Or you can create a harmony line from an already-recorded melody.

Or...

You can use the Auto-Tune effect!

Some would say that using Auto-Tune to extremes is a fad that is well due for going out of fashion.
But it is used so extensively that any recording engineer or producer should be familiar with it.

To use the Auto-Tune effect you would have to have Auto-Tune, or a similar pitch correction plug-in, installed in your DAW. If you don't have it, we'll give you something else to work on that will also help advance your knowledge of pitch shifting.

In summary...

You can improve your knowledge and skills in all of these effects through the Audio Masterclass Professional Reverb and Effects Course.

All Audio Masterclass Professional Courses are entirely project based. We set you interesting, challenging, and often tough, projects that you can carry out in your own home recording studio.

We will listen to your work and grade you on each assessment point, then give you helpful advice on how you can improve the quality of your work still further.

You can find more information on Audio Masterclass Professional Courses here...

www.audiomasterclass.com/pro-courses/


****DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated in any way with Audio Masterclass Professional Courses, I am simply sharing useful information.