SOVL Report: My 'dirty little secret' for better sounding reverbs
There's this little-known thing called sound design. Hardly anybody is talking about it when it comes to mixing.
What's up Forum,
There's this little-known thing called sound design. Hardly anybody is talking about it when it comes to mixing. But when you learn it and use it, you'll see a huge difference in your productions and how fast you can get better-sounding mixes.
Im big on 'using what you've got to get what you want', so I've been looking for a way to get some 'warmer' or different sounding reverbs going on the Force.
The Akai reverbs are great and everything..
But they are very 'one dimensional'
This is when it’s time to use...
I think one of the most versatile delays that Akai/AIR has provided is the Diff(fusion) delay...
The cool thing about this delay is that it has the ability to diffuse each 'tap' into the adjacent taps resulting in a more blended sound of the delay.
You can crank this all the way up to 100% and depending on the delay time you can get some pretty good reverberant-sounding results.
One of these days I may compile some of my favorite reverb combinations but for now you can just copy these parameters to get a start.
and instead of just relying on me, let’s break these parameters down so its easy for you to do yourself...
we'll go column by column..
Time: This parameter sets the total amount of delay taps and can really help give the reverb pre-delay pumping vibe without too much calculation. Think of longer times meaning longer pre-delay.. shorter times for smaller rooms etc...
Sync: essentially the 'cheat button' ... it makes it easy to find the 'right' reverb for the track
Width: How wide do you want your reverb to be?
Mix: I personally go 100% wet for sends and anywhere below for tracks
Feedback: How much reverb tail
Diffusion: this is the 'magic knob' this does all the reverberating .. without this cranked up high, its just a delay plugin
High Damp: The lower the setting the 'warmer' the reverb
Low Cut: Cuts out annoying lows, but you should really eq them out before the reverb.. try the Abby Roads trick
Pan: Do you pan your reverbs? you should
Boom so there you have it,
I will say that you can also get good results with the granulator, however,, it does take a bit of time and tweaking to get some good-sounding results.
PS: I do offer free one-on-one virtual sessions to get your first productions up and running on your Akai Force.. if you are having trouble with something on the force and need some guidance on getting better on the Force, hit me directly and we can chat via zoom.