Recording Lesson of the Day - Reverb Predelay
I’ve been teaching music production in Hollywood and when the subject inevitably turns to reverb, I make sure to touch on one of my favorite techniques: reverb returns with a prominent pre-delay. Sometimes for extra ear candy, that pre-delay is synced to the tempo of the song. Pioneered to imitate the lag between the initial sound and the subsequent acoustic reflections in real-world environments, this pre-delay temporally separates the initial (dry) sound from its (wet) reverb returns, and can improve clarity, even when a lot of reverb is used. Before trying this yourself, it’s ideal to hear some obvious uses in existing recordings, so I’ve made a playlist of some of my favorite examples (headphones on): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/63U1sNK8ZqlFSVx2QbG9oV
And here’s what you’re listening for in those songs:
David Bowie - Five Years - vocal at 0’22”, 0’32”, 0’43”, 0’52”, etc.
Led Zeppelin - The Battle Of Evermore - vocal at 4’29”
Led Zeppelin - Black Dog - vocals throughout, most obvious at 0’06”, drum fill 1’37” to 1’39”
Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven - guitar at 0’00”, vocal at 0’52”
Led Zeppelin - Babe I’m Gonna Leave You - acoustic guitar at 0’00”, vocal at 0’14”
Led Zeppelin - How Many More Times - vocal, most obvious between 5’30” and between 6’07” and 6’47” and 7’06”
Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love - most obvious on guitar between 0’00” and 0’11” and drums between 1’18” and 3’19”
Led Zeppelin - Bring It On Home - harmonica and vocal between 0’03” and 1’43”
The O’Jays - For The Love Of Money - bass 0’00” to 0’05”, 0’10” to 0’15”, horns at 0’48”, drum fill at 1’50”, trumpet starting at 5’25”
The Doobie Brothers - It Keeps You Runnin’ - snare drum throughout but especially 3’24” to end
Air - Photograph - wood block, most obvious in the first 7 seconds
Radiohead - House Of Cards - vocal, especially at 3’07”
Radiohead - All I Need - vocal, 1’21”
Elvin Bishop - Fooled Around And Fell In Love - snare, most obvious in first 30 seconds
The Beatles - From Me To You - vocal, most obvious between 0’07” & 0’34”
The Beatles - Thank You Girl - vocal “oh”s, 1’41” to 1’57”
Rodriguez - Crucify Your Mind - everything, most obviously on cabasa / shaker starting at 0’12”
Lou Reed - Andy’s Chest - vocal at 0’00”
Lou Reed - Perfect Day - cross stick (snare) at 0’01”
The Zombies - Time Of The Season - vocal & clap 0’00”
Joni Mitchell - A Chair In The Sky - bass at 0’00” (blink and you’ll miss it) vocal at 5’56”
Joni Mitchell - The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey - guitar between 1’20” and 1’36”, again between 2’25” and 2’46”
10cc - Old Wild Men - tambourine at 2’37”
Drake - Marvins Room - telephone voice at 0’06”, vocal starting at 0’29”
Post Malone - Circles - most obvious on the vocal starting at 0’34”
The Band - I Shall Be Released - piano from 0’00” to 0’07”
Jesus Christ Superstar [Original Cast Recording] - Overture - drums between 0’31” and 0’58”
Almost every reverb plugin has its own pre-delay setting, but if you want to do more exciting things with pre-delay, you should set this to zero or as close to zero as it will go, and add a separate delay plugin before the reverb return. NB this only works if you’re using send-and-return style reverb (which is the preferred method of using reverbs and delays the majority of the time). This delay plugin is now your reverb’s pre-delay knob, with the added excitement of controls such as:
syncing to the tempo of the song you’re working on (try a 16th note, 8th note, or a dotted 16th!)
optional warble (most delay plugins have an LFO controlling the delay time; a subtle bit of this delay time at a speed less than 1Hz will provide a really nice shimmer to your reverb, and helps emulate the inconsistencies of analog tape delays historically used for this purpose)
feedback / regeneration of the pre-delay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Send_tape_echo_echo_delay)
tape saturation (if you’re using a delay plugin that models analog tape)