ANATOMY OF A REVERB - DEPTH

REVERB GRAPH
This shows the 3 stages of sound: Direct Sound, Early Reflections, and Late Reflections.
DS / ERs / LRs
Direct Sound (DS) - the dry sound, before any reverb is created.
VOLUME

Early Reflections (ERs) - the first echoes that bounce off a wall and reach our ears.
We use them to tell the size of the room, and the distance and direction of a sound.
Late Reflections (LRs) - the rest of the echoes that bounce around the room, creating the
“wash” of sound we know as reverb. We use them to tell the “tone” of the room.

ms 0 15 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270

PRE-DELAY ROOM SIZE DISTANCE

PRE-DELAY
There are two kinds of pre-delay:
Early pre-delay adds a time delay between the DS and the ERs.
Late pre-delay adds a time delay between the ERs and the LRs.
Early pre-delay helps a sound seem closer to the listener.
DECAY TIME DIFFUSION DENSITY ROOM SHAPE
Late pre-delay helps a room seem larger to the listener.
Make sure to find out which type of pre-delay your plugin has before you use it.

ROOM SIZE
DAMPING This controls the size of the room the reverb plugin is simulating.
It does this by stretching the ERs apart, delaying them from one another.
Myth Debunked: This is not the same thing as decay time. You can have
a large room and a short decay!
Hz 20 50 100 200 500 1k 2k 5k 10k 20k

DISTANCE
This controls the distance between the listener and the sound.
MOD RATE MOD DEPTH SPREAD ER / LR MIX WET / DRY MIX
It does this by changing the volume ratio between the DS and the ERs / LRs.
Upfront sounds need a small distance, while faraway sounds need a large distance.