Modern Approaches to Reverb and Delay

The Red Bull Academy ‘Modern Approaches’ series aim to present a wide range of production techniques and philosophies from a diverse panel of working artists. So far in the series they have tackled equalization and compression, but now they have moved onto some of the more fun stuff, like reverb and delay.

They have compiled tips and opinions from some seriously heavyweight producers, including:

• Bicep (London – Feel My Bicep, Aus)
• Ambivalent/LA-4A (Berlin – Delft, Valence)
• Palms Trax (Berlin – Dekmantel, Lobster Theremin)
• Avalon Emerson (Berlin – Spring Theory, Icee Hot)
• Brenmar (New York City – Fool’s Gold, Grizzly)
• Lakker (Berlin – R&S)

who all offer advice on how they use delay and reverb, alongside suggestions on how you can improve your own productions. Bicep said:

We basically have “Primary” and “Secondary” reverbs and delays. “Primary” ones will come from outboard units like a Roland Space Echo delay or spring and Eurorack reverbs. These have a lot of character and can really alter whatever is going through them, although they can be slightly coarse and clumsy, so we also implement some “Secondary” softer digital reverbs and delays when mixing as these we can use with subtly and real accuracy. We also alter delay timings quite a bit on each element as that helps add different movement to rhythms.

If you’d like to find out more about how some of the world’s best producers use reverb and delay, click on the link below to read the full ‘Modern Approaches’ article from the Red Bull Music Academy.

Click here to read the full Red Bull Academy article