Wow, we’re halfway through this month of mixing madness. I hope you’ve been enjoying it thus far. I know I have! Today’s tip involves taking advantage of your reverb’s pre-delay setting to get a fat, big sounding snare drum without washing it in reverb decay.
It’s All Smoke And Mirrors
Good mixing is as much about tricking the ear as it is being honest and revealing. Using things like reverb effects in a mix are a trick, they convince the listener that something like a snare drum is in a bigger space than it actually is. But if you go too overboard, your trick can fall apart and people can tell that it isn’t real. I find that using the pre-delay setting on my reverbs gives me more control in the mix and can sound more realistic!
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I’m really enjoying this stuff Graham, thanks for all your work! Great tips for a rainy month (in MA anyway!) mark
Hey Graham – great stuff bro. What reverb plugin are you using here?
Travis, this is just the AIR Reverb that comes bundled with Pro Tools.
Great tip, Graham! Did you ever used this trick on the kick-drum?
I have actually
what amount of predelay do you use? 1/8th note 1/16th note?
[...] I can't listen right now, but check this tip out. It helped my reverb-usage a lot. 5 Minutes To A Better Mix: Reverb Pre-Delay On Snare – Part 16 of 31 | The Recording Revolutio… If life gives you melons, you may be dyslexic. Reply With [...]
maybe my question was a little vague. Do you set up your predelays to sync with the timing of the song? for example, if the song is 120 BPM do you set the predelay to .125 so that it starts 1/8th note delayed? thanks
I actually just tweak till it sounds good
Awesome tip! Always wondered about pre-delay on reverb. Quick question though: I’m using a VST drums (Slate) and I also have a reverb buss that I send certain instruments through (including the snare) to give the illusion that they’re sharing the same space. So I wonder how I should apply this to the snare — do I put it on the actual (dry) snare track? do I put it on the ‘room mic’ in my drum VST, which is the ‘natural space’ of the kit? do I then take the snare out of my reverb buss? Any thoughts/suggestions?
JT – You could simply create a version of the reverb with less “room” and more pre delay and then send the snare only to that.