Vocal Reverb & Delay: Add Life to Your Vocals With This 3 Step Approach

 

When it comes to vocals, reverb and delay can add that final touch that really sets things over the top. A great vocalist is a great vocalist. But a great vocalist wrapped in the ambience of the perfect reverb? The romance really comes alive then.

Reverb is a way of life, really. Whenever I track vocalists, the very first thing they always ask for is some reverb on their vocals. A dry vocal sound can be pretty disconcerting to listen to.

I mean, they’ve only ever heard their voice in physical spaces their whole life. So it’s only natural to want to hear oneself in a space of some sort!

That’s why it’s important to take your vocal ambience seriously. And once you sit down to dial in reverb and delay, the experience can be a bit more challenging than expected.

You scroll through preset after preset, and some might sound really great! But nothing is every quite perfect, is it? It’s like no preset really checks all the boxes for great vocal ambience.

Maybe the height is there, but that presets makes the vocals sound muddy. Or perhaps you want a tight room sound, but it makes the vocals feel small.

That’s why I segment my vocal ambience. Instead of relying on one reverb or delay, I parse out the responsibilities to multiple instances:

1. Delay for room ambience
2. Delay for width
3. Reverb for height and space

So in today’s video, I break out my strategy for vocal reverb and delay into 3 steps.

Enjoy!