23/09/2023 01:44 Essential Tips for Using Reverb on Vocals

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October 17, 2022 by Trevor Spencer

Essential Tips for Using Reverb

on Vocals
Reverb is a common effect for vocals, but can often cause masking
issues. In this article, we discuss how to add vocal reverb while
maintaining vocal clarity.

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Jump to these vocal reverb tips:

1. Add reverb on an aux channel
2. Choose a reverb type for vocals that works for the mix
3. EQ the vocal reverb signal
4. Adjust vocal reverb length to fit your song's tempo
5. Decide: mono or stereo reverb on vocals?

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6. Add high pass filter on background vocal reverb

Reverb reading and resources

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The basics:
What is Reverb?
How to Choose a Reverb
When to Add Reverb
What Does Digital Reverb Do?

Reverb history:
8 Unique Uses of Reverb in Music History
A History of Reverb in Music Production

General tips and techniques:

8 Reverb Effects for Sound Design
5 Essential Reverb Mixing Tips
6 Creative Reverb Production Techniques
Genre-specific Reverb Tips

Reverb problem areas:

9 Common Reverb Mixing Mistakes to Avoid
6 Times to Use Multiple Reverbs in a Mix
Managing Reverb Heavy Mixes

Reverb on specific mix elements:

Tips for Reverb on Guitars
Tips for Reverb on Drums

The vocal is often the most important element in a track and the presence you hear is
a result of vocal mixing techniques used to make a vocal sound professional. Listen to
any professionally made song, and focus on the vocals. Do you hear how present they
are? How cleanly they cut through the mix?

Reverb is a common effect used on vocals but can sometimes harm the clarity of the
mix if used the wrong way. In this article, we’ll discuss steps you can take to get the
benefits of reverb without the drawbacks.

We will be covering vocal reverb techniques using iZotope Neoverb , but you might
also find it useful to check out our article on learning Neoverb before you jump into
this tutorial.
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Demo Neoverb Free

We will be applying reverb techniques with some audio examples from Florence Wiley’s
latest record I mixed, titled My Next New Low.

Looking for even more ways to use reverb on vocals? Watch as Brian Fisher shares how to use
Neoverb and Nectar to get ethereal, dreamy vocals in your mix.
Nectar-3-

Why use vocal reverb?

Vocal reverb adds audible space, distance, and dimension to a vocal, whereas a vocal
without reverb sounds like it’s in a void. Reverb sounds great on vocals because it
smears a vocal with reflections, masking subtle imperfections in a performance. It also
simulates reflections and resonances our ears expect when hearing sound; it's an
acoustic phenomenon that provides cues about the position of sounds in our
environment. Let’s listen to a vocal with and without reverb, for context.

Vocals Before & After Reverb

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Before After

Can you hear the difference? A good sounding vocal can be made better with some
extra smoothness and richness from the reverb. The decay makes the voice sound like
it’s singing into a space, even though it was recorded in an apartment living room.
More often than not, we are using artificial reverb to create a sense of space—placing
the listener in a new environment from which they hear a composition.

How much reverb on vocals?

The amount of reverb on vocals depends largely on genre, how much ambience you
want, and whether the reverb is masking other elements in your mix. Keep in mind that
reverb pushes vocals further back in the stereo image and introduces sound
reflections into the mix that can mask other sounds, including your vocals.

Can you have too much reverb vocals?

If your vocals start losing clarity, sound too distant, or are masking other elements in
your mix, then you may have too much reverb on your vocals. If you're still wondering
whether you have too vocal reverb, try comparing them to a reference track in your
genre. How much vocal reverb are your favorite songs using in comparison to yours?

How to use reverb on vocals

What are the best vocal reverb settings? Typically, you want to set a 100% wet reverb
on an aux channel using a reverb type that works for your song, a pre-delay time that
allows the dry vocal to cut through, and decay time that aligns with your song's tempo.
You then want to raise the level of the reverb aux channel to taste, EQing out
frequencies that mask the main vocal. Let's dive into the details:

1. Add vocal reverb on an aux channel

While you can add reverb directly on vocals as an insert effect, the recommended
method is to add reverb on an aux channel and route the vocals there for mix bus
processing. Sending the vocals to an aux channel is the recommended method for
adding reverb to vocals because it allows you to process the wet and dry signal
separately, giving you greater control of the mix.

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With reverb, you’re essentially adding another signal to the mix, like if you added
another instrument. Therefore, reverb should be treated as its own element, and you
should have the ability to process and affect it as such. Doing so allows you to treat
the reverb signal as its own distinct element in the mix. This technique is called mix
bus processing and we have a whole tutorial on it if you want to dive in.

To do add reverb on an aux track, make a new aux/bus track with a 100% wet instance
of Neoverb, and send your dry vocal channel to that effects bus channel. This gives the
reverb it's own fader. Then simply raise the level to taste. This is what it looks like in
Pro Tools:

Send and return channels with reverb in Pro Tools

I rarely insert a reverb directly on a vocal—perhaps as a quick placeholder, or maybe

when I’m really dedicating myself to a very wet and affected signal with perhaps even
more processing. Utilizing a send and return will give you much more level control for
balancing, and for automating your vocal and its corresponding reverb.

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2. Choose a reverb type for vocals that works

for the mix
What reverb type is best for vocals? You can use any kind of reverb for vocals, but
depending on the intended effect, certain reverb types might work best with the mix
and the vibe you're going for. For instance, use the brightness of plate reverb to help
vocals cut through a busy mix, room reverb for vocals to sound close and intimate, or
hall reverb for dreamy or large sounding vocals.

Let's take a look at some different spaces in Neoverb and why you might use them for
your vocals.

Plate: A classic go-to for vocal reverb. Easy to make noticeable in a mix due to its often
bright but smooth character with a bit of natural modulation. It’s metallic attack gives
it a bit of extra pop that can be good or bad if you’re wanting it to blend in more.

Hall: Simulating a concert hall, it performs well with long tails because of its smooth
decay and low modulation. A good choice if you want to make something sound at a
distance, dreamy, or epic.

Room: This type of reverb creates spaces that often sound natural to the walls of the
“room” you’re simulating. Given that room reverb creates the perception of a smaller
space, room reverb is best for a vocal sound that is upfront, close, or intimate. If you’re
just trying to find a “space” for your vocal, this might be a good starting point. Try
using a very short length room when you want to add width and depth without adding
a noticeable reverb trail.

Chamber: One of the earliest styles of artificial reverb, created by placing a speaker
and microphone in a room capturing the characteristics of the room's exaggerated
reflections by playing the audio back into the room. Oftentimes the chamber has an
“echo-y” effect that places it somewhere in between the aforementioned reverb types.

If you’re still feeling stuck on deciding between reverb types, try some presets, or use
Neoverb's Reverb Assistant and follow the prompts to help find something that suits
your needs.

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How many reverbs on vocals?

Reverb is meant to create the effect of physical space. Having a too many reverbs and
different spaces makes it tough to identify what the “real” space is in your track’s
environment. Minimizing the number of reverb spaces sounds much more natural, as
the acoustic effects of multiple spaces would not occur simultaneously in the real
world.

If you have multiple vocals in the same project (i.e. background vocals), it can be
helpful to send them all to one reverb space. This prevents the sound of multiple
spaces clashing with each other, maintaining a consistent space in which all of the
vocals are played.

Using Neoverb’s blend pad, you can even combine different kinds of reverb to create
the space you’d like your vocals to live in instead of blending multiple reverb plug-ins.

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Neoverb reverb engine selection window and blend pad

3. EQ the vocal reverb signal

As mentioned previously, reverb should be treated as its own instrument because it
adds frequencies to the mix that can potentially prevent other sounds from being
heard clearly. In this case, vocal reverb can mask the vocals themselves, making them
feel less prominent and clear.

Now that our reverb signal is isolated in it's own aux channel, we can process it in
several ways to let the dry vocal cut through the reverb more clearly. One common
technique is to use EQ to attenuate key vocal frequencies from the reverb so it doesn't
mask the dry vocal.

EQ is great for overall bright to dark tone shaping, but it’s also crucial for cutting
unwanted conflicting and swelling frequencies between your dry vocal and reverb.

Neoverb EQ: Masking meter

Try using the masking meter in Neoverb's EQ section to easily keep track of reverb
build-up with an intuitive meter that highlights areas you may want to cut from your
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reverb. Masking Meter also communicates with other iZotope plug-ins (via Inter-Plugin
Communication) to show you where your reverb is masking other tracks in your
session.

Neoverb has both a Pre EQ for cutting out sound before it gets to the reverb (try
putting in a high pass filter from 100-200hz to cut out plosives and rumble), and
Reverb EQ that helps keep your reverb clean and under control at the bottom of the
window.

For starters, watch out for low frequencies, low mids between 200-600hz, as well as
high frequencies spiked by vocal sibilance.

Neoverb has Pre EQ and Reverb EQ settings in the bottom of the window

Here’s a before and after of an isolated vocal I cleared up with some low and high shelf
EQ:

Vocal Reverb Before & After EQ

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Before After

Just east of space, time and size, you’ll find some more advanced tonal controls that
will be helpful in dialing in your vocal tone. I’ll highlight a couple important ones.

Diffusion is how dense the reflections of the reverb is —a higher value will make the
reverb sound thicker, and a lower value will make individual reflections stick out.

The Crossover slider controls the dividing frequency between low and high-frequency
reverb engines, and the Balance graphic allows you to set which is more prominent,
with 0.5 being equal.

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4. Adjust vocal reverb length to fit your song's

tempo
The length of your vocal reverb is the most noticable characteristic and it should align
with your song's tempo. Try a shorter decay time to avoid reverb bleeding into the next
vocal phrase or downbeat. If the vocal reverb lingers for too long, it can build up and
cause vocals to feel less prominent in the mix. You can adjust the length of your vocal
reverb with the Time parameter (also called decay time).

Longer reverb decay times will be more atmospheric and create the perception of a
larger space while shorter decay times will create the perception of a smaller room.
You can dial in the reverb's decay by ear, with a reverb calculator, or use Neoverb's
tempo sync feature to automatically align the decay time to your song's BPM.

Neoverb’s advanced tab with Reflections, Plate, and Hall modifications

Another vocal reverb setting to pay attention to is the Pre-delay parameter. Reverb pre-
delay refers to the time it takes for the reverb to kick in after the onset of the original
dry signal. Carefully adjusting the pre-delay parameter makes a huge difference in the
“clarity” of a mix. For example, a delaying the reverb signal before it engages can give
the vocal space and time to cut through the mix before the reverb tail comes in.

To put it all together, check out this next example. I’m working on a dramatic verse that
has long spaces between the vocals. I’m going to let the reverb decay just about until
the next phrase starts to really let each line hang. I’ve also decided to add 20ms of pre-
delay to help the reverb separate slightly from the dry vocal.
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Here’s a stripped down version of my mix to illustrate.

Stripped Down Mix with Reverb Decay on Vocals

00:32

Selecting the rhythm note next to the time on Neoverb can also be useful to time your
reverb to the track. Experiment with different options depending on the mood and
space you’re going for.

5. Decide: mono or stereo reverb on vocals?

Whether you use mono or stereo reverb on vocals depends on how much space you
want the vocals to take up and where you want them positioned in the mix. Use a
mono reverb on vocals if you want them to be upfront and focused. But if you want the
vocals to sound large or like they're in the background, use a stereo reverb.

A tip I often share with folks is to experiment with panning your reverb. For a lead
vocal, I’m almost always tucking in the stereo image in to 75-50% to keep it wide but
also more focused towards the center. A completely mono vocal reverb can also be
cool for a retro vibe, or just for creating a lot of useful negative space in your mix.

6. Add high pass filter on background vocal

reverb
A lot of ooo’s, aah’s, and vocal harmonies are almost sung with the intent to put reverb
on them–they’re asking for sustain! And sometimes, a lot of it. That vocal stack might
sound pretty cool with a lot of long plate or hall to give it an ethereal, dreamy, and
larger than life quality.

If I’m sending lots of background vocals to a reverb, I’ll high pass the reverb
substantially to remove frequencies that may mask the main vocal and make them
sound nice and airy.

Let’s check out how that sounds in another stripped down version of my mix.

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Background Vocals with Reverb

00:32

Start using reverb on your vocals

Adding reverb to vocals can be an interesting effect and help create a convincing sonic
environment in a track. Using the above tips, you should be able to take advantage of
these benefits while maintaining the clarity and presence that a vocal should have.

And if you haven’t already, demo iZotope Neoverb for free to experiment with all of the
different reverb effects on your vocals.

Demo Neoverb Free

Share:

Learn more about vocal production

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Mixing vocals: What makes a professional vocal sound

Professional sounding vocals need to be clearly heard, have a consistent level, be in tune,
and have effects that enhance their presence in the mix. Let's take a look at some of the
techniques and tools you can use when mixing vocals.

September 6, 2023

What Is Double Tracking? How to Do It Effectively in Vocal Recordings

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Learn how double tracking, the act of recording a vocal multiple times with the aim of
matching each take to the original, can create width and depth in your productions.

July 22, 2022

Vocal Mixing 101: Free Vocal Doubler Plug-in and Tips for Mixing Vocals
Want to learn how to mix vocals? Get essential vocal mixing tips in this round up of our
most popular tutorials. Learn how to process vocals, make vocals cut through a mix, learn
all about vocal doubling, and more.

September 24, 2021

iZotope is now part of Native Instruments - Learn more about what that means for you on the NI blog.

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