Algorithmic and convultion reverb

By Marcin Badura

Hello everybody!• My name is Marcin, I’m 24

years old and I’m from Poland

• As you might know english is not my first language so go easy on me if I make some mistakes

• In this assignment I’ll try my best to teach you what’s a reverb and what’s the difference between algorithmic and convolution reverb so without further so without further ado let’s begin!ado let’s begin!

What exactly is reverb?• Reverb (as reverbation) is the persistence

of sound in a particular space after the original sound is produced

• It’s is an effect that gives us a sense of a space• It’s used to make an instrument sound natural, like it was

recorded in actual room • It’s very important component of most modern mixes • In most cases one type of reverb is used to all instruments

in the mix giving it feeling that all of them were recorded in the same kind of environment, room

• There are two different categories of reverb plug-ins : alhorithmic and convultion reverb

Convultion vs algorithmic reverb

• Convolution reverbs use real sound samples, recorded from real rooms (or modified but based on real recordings in some cases) known as “Impulse Responses”

• In algorithmic reverbs sense of space is created in mathematic formula, similar to how synthesizer creates sound. It offers many opportunities to create sound of a space but it would not sound very realistic since it only emulates it

Convolution reverb features

In convolution reverb most of what you do is choosing an Impulse Response, that means a recording of an actual space (in this case it’s Studio Large) and see if you like it.

Of course you can manipulate all the features such as attack (determines how quickly reverb starts to work), decay (determines the time needed for effect to fall off), the lenght or the wet/dry field with which you can set the proportions between original and processed signal

Algorithmic reverb features

Unlike in Convolution reverb here you’re actually creating your own virtual room instead of using pre-recorded samples

Time design

Every algorithmic reverb plug in can be more or less different from one another in terms of features

but every one of them will have section dedicated to setting up a decay, predelay and attack of your

reverb

Time design

Note: If you’re trying to create a sound of an actual room keep the reverb time at less than 2

seconds. Anything more than that would sound rather unnatural.

Room design

The same thing applies to „room design”. It’s the second, fundamental section of algorithmic

reverb effect and here you can make your own „virtual recording room” setting it’s height, width

etc.

EQ of a reverb

• Changin the high cut filter is like changing the materials in the space (more of high frequencies gives you sense of being in empty room with hard walls and on the other hand less of highs gives you feeling of warm, curtain filled room).

My reflection on the subject

• I have to say that creating a reverb is more complex topic that I thought. This assignment made me think of that and I would definitely take those things into consider making my own mixes.

• I hope you’ve learnt something useful here and you found my presentation pretty well done.

• Thank you for taking your time on reviewing my assignment, I wish you a happy recordings

• Greetings from Poland!