Logic Pro X Platinum Reverb

This is probably one of my proudest mixes! I think the right reverb on the vocals really brought everything together. I hope this video helps you understand. Learn how to use Reverb in Logic Pro X: Send Effect, Insert Effect, and instrument effect. New Sounds for Your Music: Courses t. 4 Use the reverb designer to give a wide ambience sound and keep it below the lead, by quite a bit. If you want to get the best separation from the lead and the reverb, offset the AUX bus timing by a short single delay (very fast), or alternatively, use a compressor to 'duck' the reverb when the singing happens and set the compressor to stay. Create glassy, ambient 'shimmer' reverbs in Logic Pro X. If you are mainly into mainstream pop or classic rock, it is possible that the term 'shimmer reverb' may not even have crossed your radar. For anyone who has the occasional dabble in ambient music, however, having access to one is pretty much essential, especially if you are a guitar player.

• Logic Pro X Platinum Reverb Download
• Logic Pro X Platinum Reverb Review
• Reverb Pro Microphone
• Using Logic Pro X

Following on from Steve Hillier's excellent post on how to mix in 3D with reverb, we thought we'd give you some more reverb tips, this time from professional mix engineer and Point Blank tutor Ian Sherwin.

Whilst we're not massive fans of the sound of Logic's PlatinumVerb, it is a good place to begin learning how to create your own reverb settings. And it can be good for cheap-sounding synthetic reverb sounds! Check out Ian's video tutorial followed by a glossary of terms, common accross most algorithmic reverb plugins.

PlatinumVerb has split controls for the early reflections and reverb tail portions of the signal. You can also adjust the balance between these portions by using the ER/Reverb Balance slider.

The main parameters for each are:

Early Reflections

• Pre-Delay: One of the most important parameters on any reverb unit, this simply determines the amount of time between the original dry signal and the onset of early reflections. As discussed, in reality, reflections never occur immediately (there is always a delay before the first reflection travels back to our ears) and the length of this delay will be proportional to the size of the room.

• Room Shape & Size: These controls adjust the size and shape of the virtual room. In effect, they will change the pattern and spacing of the reflections.

• Stereo Base: Think of this as a control that adjusts the spacing of the two virtual microphones that are recording the reflections. For a realistic simulation, set these to around 0.2m (roughly the distance between your ears.) Increase the distance for a wider stereo image.

Reverb

• Initial Delay: Sets the amount of time between the original dry signal and the diffuse reverb tail. In general, you will want this to be longer than the pre-delay so that the reverb tail occurs after the early reflections.

• Spread: Widens or narrows the stereo image of the reverb tail. 0% is mono, 200% is very wide.

• Crossover: As discussed, high frequencies are generally absorbed more easily than low frequencies and therefore the low frequency reverberations will last longer than the high frequency ones. For this reason, most reverb units split the signal into low and high so that they can be processed individually. This control sets the frequency at which the signal is split.

• Low Ratio: Sets the relative reverb times of the low and high frequency parts of the reverb tail. At 100% they will be the same, above 100% will make the low part last longer than the high part, below 100% will have the opposite effect.

• Low Freq Level: Controls the level of the low portion. Bass-heavy reverb is generally not a good idea so use this control to reduce the level here.

• High Cut: Also known as High Frequency Damping on some units. Emulates the effect of high frequencies being absorbed. Setting this to around 6kHz is a good start. Setting it to maximum will emulate reflections from nonabsorbent materials such as glass or stone.

• Density: Controls the density of the reflections in the reverb tail. A denser reverb will sound smoother and more natural but can sound very coloured. Bringing the density down will result in a grainy sounding reverb, which can be great for effects.

• Diffusion: Controls the rate at which the reverb tail reflections will be build in density. The higher the diffusion the more regular the density of reflections will be in terms of timing, levels and pan position. Reflections with a low diffusion setting tend to sound more distinct and grainy than high density. settings.

• Reverb Time: Also known as Decay Time on some units. Another big reverb parameter, this controls the length of the reverb tail. Bigger rooms will have longer reverb tails, smaller rooms will have shorter reverb tails.

Ian Sherwin is currently working on the forthcoming My Bloody Valentine album. He joined Point Blank fresh from engineering the Mercury nominated album by La Roux with the next one in the pipeline in late 2011. An experienced recording engineer, mixer and programmer, Ian has also worked alongside a diverse spectrum of artists including Primal Scream, Freemasons, Stereophonics, The Rakes and Terry Callier. Office subscription vs purchase.

You can learn more of Ian's mixing tips and techniques on the full Art of Mixing – Logic course. Click here for details.

Keep up to date with all of Point Blank's news, tutorials and giveaways by subscribing to our Youtube channel, or following us on Facebook and Twitter… and if you have something to say about this post, start the conversation with a comment below. Thanks!

Video Transcription:

This tutorial comes from Ian Sherwin who's a mix engineer for the likes of 'Primal Scream', 'The Free Masons' and 'The Stereophonics'. He's currently working on forthcoming albums from 'La Roux' and also 'My Bloody Valentine', and he's also a tutor here at Point Blank. This is a sample taken from the online Art of Mixing course.

Ian Sherwin: In this video we're going to take a look at setting up an algorithmic digital reverb. We're going to use Platinum Verb as an example. As we've said, it's not the greatest sounding reverb in the world, but it's got all the parameters so it's a useful one to practice on. We're going to use the temp track as our example and I'm just going to play around with this for a second. All right. So, I'm just going to stop us there because it's that lead step sound that I want to use as our example. I'm just going to find it down here and just slow it up for you guys and also turn it up so we can hear it a little bit more clearly. Let's just extend this out. It's this sound. What I'd like to do with the reverb, I'd like to create something that's just going to add a little bit of tail to that and a little bit, kind of, flutter. So I'm going to grab a Platinum Verb and insert it on a bus. So I've got a bus going to my auxiliary, come down, insert my Platinum Verb onto my aux return, and just dial in a bit of level.

Now, we've looked at the parameters for this and what we're going to do is we're going to look at both the early reflection and the reverb components of this sound. For the moment, I'm just going to demonstrate on the early reflection so you can really hear those clearly. What we can do is just play this and just see what we get straight out of the box. Let's mute this so you can hear that's just a very subtle reflection. We're only really just hearing one of them at the moment. What we can do is we can extend the time that it takes to hear this and that's our pre-delay. That's one of the most important parameters on any reverb, really. If we just make this quite extreme, excuse the glitches, so you can hear it really quite clearly. We kind of re-separate it from the original sound. Now usually the pre-delay that you're going to be wanting is going to be something around 10 milliseconds, maybe up to 50, maybe more if you're going for special effects. What I quite like to do is actually set it in time with the tempo for the track. I just find that it works for me. What I'm going to do is get out a calculator.

There's a simple calculation you can do to determine how many milliseconds are per beat at any tempo.

It's this: You take 60,000, which is milliseconds per minute, divide it by the tempo which is 130 in this case, and it gives us 461. So it's 461 milliseconds per beat at 130 bpm. If we divide that by 4, it gives us a sixteenth. We know that 115 milliseconds is a sixteenth at 130 bpm. What I like to do is divide it by 4 again to get into pre-delay numbers. So we could say that 14 would be a good number for pre-delay, 28 would be. Times that by 2 is 56 or there about. I think there's a bit of rounding up there. Let's see. So 57.5. I just find this generally works quite naturally on the track.

If we look at 28, there or there about, and we haven't got a lot of tempo reference but even so you can kind of tell it feels comfortable with the sound. I'll get a kick going, maybe. What did we say? 115 would be a sixteenth. The thing here is there's no kind of tempo reference there, but I even find right down in the low reaches of the numbers that the reflection feels most comfortable when it's actually in time with the track. It's just a little tip for you. What we can do, our next parameters, we've got room size and room shape. These two kind of work together. If I bring up the room size, you'll hear what happens is we get more reflections. The bigger the room size, the more reflections that you're going to get. I quite like what it does to this sound. I quite like that little flutter. If I change the room shape, it's going to change the pattern of those reflections. I quite like the triangular where you get a lot of reflection. Maybe just a little bit less level there. That's kind of the flutter that I was after, just a little bit of movement. OK. So I'm going to live with that for a second.

Stereo base, very simple. If you imagine two virtual microphones, stereo base is the space in between them. So what we've said is [null] 0.2 is going to be the equivalent of standing in the room if you think about how wide you're head is, so it's going to sound a little bit more natural. Obviously if you want to widen out the reflections, it's not a problem. It's just going to make them wider. For our purposes I'm going to start pretty narrow. That's really our early reflection setup. Let's bring the balance over and start hearing a bit of reverb. Now, we'll look at our first parameter here, initial delay. It's a little bit like the pre-delay here, but it's the amount of time between the original sound source and the onset of the diffused reverb portion of the sound. Generally you're going to want this longer than the actual pre-delay, because if you think about it, you need to hear the reflections before that tail comes in.

If we look at 28, there or there about, and we haven't got a lot of tempo reference but even so you can kind of tell it feels comfortable with the sound. I'll get a kick going, maybe. What did we say? 115 would be a sixteenth. The thing here is there's no kind of tempo reference there, but I even find right down in the low reaches of the numbers that the reflection feels most comfortable when it's actually in time with the track. It's just a little tip for you. What we can do, our next parameters, we've got room size and room shape. These two kind of work together. If I bring up the room size, you'll hear what happens is we get more reflections. The bigger the room size, the more reflections that you're going to get. I quite like what it does to this sound. I quite like that little flutter. If I change the room shape, it's going to change the pattern of those reflections. I quite like the triangular where you get a lot of reflection. Maybe just a little bit less level there. That's kind of the flutter that I was after, just a little bit of movement. OK. So I'm going to live with that for a second.

Stereo base, very simple. If you imagine two virtual microphones, stereo base is the space in between them. So what we've said is [null] 0.2 is going to be the equivalent of standing in the room if you think about how wide you're head is, so it's going to sound a little bit more natural. Obviously if you want to widen out the reflections, it's not a problem. It's just going to make them wider. For our purposes I'm going to start pretty narrow. That's really our early reflection setup. Let's bring the balance over and start hearing a bit of reverb. Now, we'll look at our first parameter here, initial delay. It's a little bit like the pre-delay here, but it's the amount of time between the original sound source and the onset of the diffused reverb portion of the sound. Generally you're going to want this longer than the actual pre-delay, because if you think about it, you need to hear the reflections before that tail comes in.

Of course you can have the reverb starting immediately, but it's going to sound a little bit more natural if it's a little bit longer. Again, you could start using those musical increments again so there's kind of a stagger to them.

I quite like what happens if we come up to around 1/16, so a sixteenth. I love that little pause that happens. So I'm going to stick with that because it feels quite natural and I think it's going to work well with the rhythm track. It just adds a little bit of bounce to it, really. Next one, again, we've just got a simple stereo spread, which you guys are familiar with. We can make it wider. It tends to make it very thin when we go wide, but we could also make it mono which, especially for rhythmic, percussive sounds, creates really interesting effects. Now the next one, the crossover. This crossover, low ratio, low frequency level are all kind of related. Really, what we've said I guess very briefly is what happens with the reverb portion of the sound, it gets split into two bands. This is because, generally, in reality high frequencies are absorbed much more easily and therefore more quickly than low frequency.

So what happens naturally with reverb is the high frequency portion of the sound tends to not last as long, it doesn't extend as long as the actual low frequency portion of the sound. In other words, as you get to the end of the reverb tail, the sound just gets duller and duller. These three parameters really kind of mimic that – well, four if we include the high cut. I could demonstrate for you. If we use the low ratio down below 100%, it essentially means that the low portion of the sound is going to last for less time than the high portion. If we go above 100%, it's the other way around. So if we just push this right up and also push up our low frequency level, and that's just a level control for the low frequency portion, you can see and hear the low frequencies just carry on much longer than the high frequencies. If you bring that down, there's not a lot of high-frequency content in this sound, but nonetheless you get the idea.

Now, the crossover is the point you split those bounds. If we move this down to 100 hertz, it basically means that only frequencies below 100 hertz are going to be extended in relation to the low ratio. If you've got your big speakers out, you'll be able to hear that. If we go all the way up to 1000 hertz it means that all the frequencies below 1000 hertz are going to be extended as per the low ratio. You can kind of hear that there's more frequency content in that. Now, I quite like the effect of just having that little sub rumble. It's really good for sound design, the way you're shaping the character of the way that the reverb evolves. Bring that level down a bit. Yes, I kind of like that. Something like that. Now, the high cut is just a high cut on the actual high portion of the sound, and there's not much high frequency content. We don't really hear it, but as you guys know about filters, you won't have a problem getting your head around this.

Density, as we discussed, is how densely packed in the actual reflections in the reverb portions of the sound are, the thousands and thousands of reflections that you've got there. A high density is going to give you a smoother sounding reverb. As we come down to the bottom, we're going to start hearing those reflections as distinct echoes in way. There are still a lot of them, but you can hear them because they're not so densely packed in. I'm going to go somewhere in between there because I quite like the graininess of it. Obviously that's very grainy. I think we want this to be a little bit low-fi. If we wanted it more grainy, we could reduce the diffusion. This is kind of messing with the pattern of the reflections, the timing, the spacing, the panorama, the levels as well. Again, it's just going to make it more grainy. Again, kind of smoother and less distinct up at the top. I quite like that. Again, I kind of like this low-fi idea on this sound. Let's just try all the way down.

Lastly, we just got our reverb time. So we can bring this up. You'll see it make the reverb much longer. Or bring it down, make it much shorter. I thinking around three seconds is good for this sound. I got kind of used to that.

That's it. Let's hear it in the context of the track. Let's just find our loop. Now hopefully this will just help it sit in a little better, I think, to bring the level down a little bit. Yes, I like that. I like that little tail we've got in there. I feel like I can have it a bit louder now. Here, we were down at 11 before. Yes, definitely. It's nice. Very subtle bit of ambience tailing off there, it's like shimmer which is exactly what I want. You can see Platinum Verb, something like that, does sound all right. In terms of sound design you can get some kind of interesting stuff, it's just not very natural sounding. I think that's kind of my point with it. But very controllable, very editable, you can really sculpt it to sound the way you want it to.

• DAWs >Logic

Unlock the secrets of Logic Pro's new ChromaVerb algorithmic reverb.

Logic Pro X Platinum Reverb Download

Logic has a long history of including excellent reverb plug-ins. Space Designer is a brilliant convolution reverb however, because of the huge library of impulse responses that come included, it can be a bit overwhelming, particularly if you just want to reach for a simple room reverb and tweak a few parameters. Then there's Logic's algorithmic reverbs such an PlatinumVerb and SilverVerb. While both are capable effects, they're getting rather long in the tooth, so it's great to see the addition of ChromaVerb in the 10.4 update. In this month's Logic workshop we cover ChromaVerb's interface and look at creating some of our own presets.

Early Reflections

Screen 1: When trying ChomaVerb for the first time it can help to listen to just the early reflections so that you can easily hear your parameter adjustments.First, let's look at how ChromaVerb handles a range of different material. Create an audio track and add a synth loop, a drum beat and a vocal recording to it so that you can easily jump between parts. From the channel strip go to the first insert slot and bring up an instance of ChromaVerb. The first thing most algorithmic reverbs do is generate early reflections. These give the listener psychoacoustic cues as to the size and type of space you are creating. You can learn a lot about how a digital reverb works by listening to the early reflections in isolation. To configure ChromaVerb so that you are only hearing the early reflections, navigate to the Main tab and set the Dry slider to 0 and the Wet slider to 100. Next, click the Details tab, the Early/Late slider allows you to balance the reverb between the early reflections and the late reflections. To only hear early reflections, set this slider to its minimum value (see Screen 1). For now let's set the Mod Depth to 0 so that the modulation section is off. Return to the Main tab; the main parameter that sets the character of ChromaVerb is the Room Type setting at the top middle of the GUI — by default this is set to the Room algorithm (see Screen 2).

Clicking on the Room Type field in the top middle of the plug-in GUI opens up a striking drop-down menu of 14 different room types. The room types are radically different to one another and worth exploring, but note that some editing parameters do nothing with certain types and make huge differences with others (again, see Screen 2).

Screen 2: ChromaVerb comes with 14 Room Types, each with a different sonic characteristic.

Reverb To Type

Now that you have heard how the Room Type defines the theme for the early reflections, set the Room Type to ‘Room' to explore some editable parameters. Begin by adjusting the Size parameter from 0 to 100. This parameter simulates the effect of increasing the size of a room by spreading the early reflections out over time. The next parameter to try is Density. Increase this from 0 to 100 percent, and notice the difference when applied to a synth sound compared to a drum beat. On the synth part I was using, I found the effect of this parameter was very subtle and preferred it at lower values — at 100, everything felt slightly blurred and washed out. On the drum part I auditioned, the effect of the Density parameter warranted more careful consideration. A Density of 0 transformed the early reflections into a burst of short delays creating a subjectively unpleasant flamming effect. This was easily removed by increasing the Density to blur the early reflections into a more cohesive-sounding reverb effect

Now tweak the Attack parameter, increasing it to gradually ramp up the level of the early reflections on the ‘Room' model. This doesn't make a huge difference until you switch the Room Type to Dark Room, whereupon you will hear a much more pronounced effect. Now let's move across to the Decay parameter and adjust it from 0.25 to 100 seconds.. Surprisingly, this also has little effect on the Room model when listening to just the early reflections. However, changing the reverb type to Dense Room and altering the Decay parameter creates a much more obvious difference. After playing with the different room types for a couple of hours, listening to how they sound with different program material, I found it helpful to think of the Room Types as 14 different reverb units with subtly different configurations and parameters. You may also find it helpful to save presets matching the different Room types to the instruments/textures that you are likely to use them with.

Slapback Echo

Now that we have looked at the basic parameters that affect early reflections, let's try our hand at creating some example patches. For our first patch we will create a preset that imitates a slapback echo recorded in a real room. Set the Early/Late slider to its minimum value so that you are just hearing early reflections. Leave the Width slider at 100 — this will make our slapback echo nice and wide, unlike a normal mono delay. Use the Output EQ to roll off the bottom and top frequencies. In the Main section choose the Chamber Room type. In order to get a tempo-synchronised slapback effect we will use the Predelay parameter. Turn Sync on and set the Predelay to 1/16th note; the Predelay will form the basis of our slap sound. Next, tweak the Size and Density parameters to taste. I settled on 44 and 56 percent, respectively. In ChromaVerb you have the option to blend from a single slap to a wall of reverb. Experiment with setting the Distance parameter to 50 and the Early/Late slider to halfway, so that you have equal Early and Late reflections. This will create more of a rhythmic wash than a single slap echo. The Decay time of the reverb as a whole can also be set to a tempo-synchronised division. Just click Sync On and try setting this to 1/4 note.

Logic Pro X Platinum Reverb Review

Modulated Reverb

For the second example let's create a modulated reverb sound that adds the type of movement and width to a synthesiser pad that we might associate with a chorus effect, whilst adding the decay we normally associate with reverb. On a synth track with a synth pad part, add an instance of ChromaVerb. From the Room Type pop-up, choose Dense. The Dense and Strange Room algorithms seem particularly suited to wide, deep modulated reverberation that is perfect for synth pads. Set up a medium sized reverb in the Main page and then in the Details page set a Mod Speed of 3.90Hz and a Mod Depth of 40. This will give you a deep, rich modulation effect. The Width control is perfect for adding tons of stereo width to your modulation effects. Try setting this to 110. Now adjust the Decay time to add the right length of decay to the pad. To make the modulation effect sound more gritty and lo-fi, go to the Quality parameter on the Details page and set it to Low. Alternatively, set the Quality to Ultra to make things clear and clean.

Let's finish by making a larger reverb that's perfect for creating ambient textures. On a track with a simple single-line melody played on a guitar or mono synth, add an instance of ChromaVerb, set the Room Type to Reflective Hall and then crank up the Decay time to 14 seconds. The Reflective Hall mode has a beautiful soft characteristic perfect for creating long washes of sound. To accentuate the ambient nature of the track set the Dry to 0 and the Wet to 100, so you are hearing only the wet signal. Now go to the modulation section and experiment with the Mod Speed and Mod Depth parameters to further wash out the sound. When creating long reverberant tracks you can often get too much of a build-up in the bottom end; there are two ways to tackle this problem in ChromaVerb. The Damping EQ section, available in the Main view, allows you to tweak the decay time for a given frequency band. To decrease the decay time of the bottom frequencies, so they decay more quickly, drag the left hand node down. You can read the time in seconds on the right-hand side vertical axis or as a percentage of the reverb time on the left (Screen 3). On the Details page you can also use the Output EQ's high-pass filter to remove unwanted bottom end. This works in a similar way to Logic's Channel EQ plug-in.

Screen 3: The Damping EQ can be used to tweak the decay time of a given frequency band. To decrease the decay time of the low frequencies, drag the left node down.

One Last Thing

Reverb Pro Microphone

If you're wondering where the your trusty old PlatinumVerb plug-in has gone, then hold down the Option key and click on an empty audio FX slot. Here, in the drop-down menu you will see a ‘Legacy' section, containing PlatinumVerb and other older Logic plug-ins.

Using Logic Pro X