Hi, I am Rasheeq Rayhan from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

This lesson is for week 5 of Introduction To Music Production at Berklee College of Music. I will compare and contrast an algorithmic and convolution reverb as well as demonstrate the differences and the important features in both types of reverb.

Let us get done with the basic idea. So, what is reverb? Reverb is short for reverberation, which is basically what happens when a sound is bounced within a space, creating echoes. It is created when sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air. This is most noticeable when the sound source stops but the reflections continue, decreasing in amplitude, until they can no longer be heard. For example, when you speak in a church and you hear remnants of your voice decaying after the initial sound was made.

Reverb is one kind of delay and a very important one. Aside from distortion no effect is probably more important to the electric guitar than reverb. From almost the instant that amplifiers were created, guitarists yearned to be able to duplicate the sound of their amps in a hall or large room.

Reverb is frequently used in modern music recording to create a sense of space, warmth, vibe, and reduce harshness. Phil Spector is famous for using a great deal of reverb on his Wall of Sound recordings. When theres a lot of reverb on a recording, we say the recording is wet while an unprocessed, clean signal is called dry. Early reverb simulators incorporated springs or large metal plates. Most fine recording studios had their own large rooms dedicated to providing reverb. A speaker and microphone were placed in the room and the reverberated sound was recorded.

But with the advent of technological evolution, it is now possible to create that reverb digitally inside the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) or with reverb-pedals. Digital processing now excels at simulating natural reverberation using various signal processing algorithms. Since reverberation is essentially caused by a very large number of echoes, simple reverberation algorithms use multiple feedback delay circuits to create a large, decaying series of echoes. More advanced digital reverb generators can simulate the time and frequency domain responses of real rooms (based upon room dimensions, absorption and other properties). Reverb is a complex plugin built from many, many delay blocks. But instead of adjusting individual delay blocks, we adjust parameters designed to represent how delays function in a real space.

Based on the technology the reverb plugins use they are divided in two categories: 1. Algorithmic Reverb 2. Convolution Reverb

1. Algorithmic Reverb: It is your standard reverb plug-in. Algorithmic reverb creates a reverb from a formula like a synthesizer creates sound. It synthesizes a rooms characteristics by creating algorithms that generate a particular number of reflections, subject them to high-frequency damping, add pre-delay, simulate a particular room size. It is a mathematical representation. Examples: Apple GoldVerb

Variety of Sound EpicVerb

 Eventide Blackhole

Lexicon PCM Native Reverb

2. Convolution Reverb: Convolution reverb uses real sound samples, recorded from real rooms (or modified but based on real recordings in some cases) known as Impulse Responses. It is kind of like the samplers as opposed to synthesizers. It is a sampled snapshot of a rooms decay characteristics by capturing the acoustics of a room using multiple microphones and producing an IR file for you. The reverb plug-in then filters your sound through this impulse response to generate a believable organic tail based on the characteristics of a real room. Examples: Apple Space Designer

AudioEase Altiverb

 Native Instruments Reflektor

There are some important differences in these two technologies: I. Algorithmic reverb generates reverb sound strictly based on parameters you set in the DAW. It tries to generate the same thing as convolution reverb but because it is simulating the impulse responses (as opposed to the convolution case) it can tend to sound fake especially when isolated in a solo instrument case. Unless you have a very good reverb plug-in, I recommend not using algorithmic reverb on your solo instruments. II. Since the effect process for convolution reverbs involves running filters over your signal and mixing that with another signal, they often have a larger impact on CPU, which is not the case for algorithmic reverbs.

So, which type of reverb should you use? Well, the short answer is, both! Convolution reverb is more literal, while algorithmic reverb is more impressionistic. Convolution reverb is more flexible in that you can load different impulses and obtain entirely different soundseven impulses of tunnels, or something like the body of an acoustic bass. However, its less flexible in other ways because changing individual parametersdecay time, damping, and so onis difficult, or in some cases, impossible. Algorithmic reverb limits you to the chosen algorithm, but you have far more flexibility to edit the algorithms parameters.

The choice of which reverb to use is invariably an artistic one. You need to experiment and determine what sense of space you want to create. Do you want to recreate the original recording environment? Then consider a convolution filter for realism. Do you want to add character to sampled instruments? Then you might want to go with the algorithmic reverb. Each type of reverb has its own sound quality, and neither one is wrong unless it does not sound right in the context of your music. Try different types of reverb, and it should be obvious which works best with your recordings.

I hope you enjoyed the lesson as much as I enjoyed making it. If you have any questions do not hesitate to discuss with me so we can learn together! Thank you for critiquing. Also, if you want to know more about my music, please visit my YouTube channel. J http://www.youtube.com/user/FrenzyPhrenesis Regards, Take Care and Happy Learning!

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