But for those of you interested, read on to find a list of plugins that will do the job for you.Ī new take on an old classic, this plugin emulates the iconic digital reverb of the 80s but without the tiny screens and fiddly buttons. It's so simple to set up a gated reverb aux (and save it!) that it's worth doing to get an in-depth understanding of the process.
#Valhalla vintage reverb manual manual#
While these are handy, some would argue that they just don't sound as good, lacking the subtlety you get from a manual set up. Here's my snare with the noise gate and compression added.Īs mentioned there's the option of using a dedicated plugin that creates a gated reverb without manually setting it up yourself. Use the hold on the gate and the auxiliary fader to balance the levels of the effect and the original snare. What you're aiming for here is for the hold to be long enough to hear the reverb sound, with an abrupt shut off that's slow enough to make a smooth transition.Īt this point you should be hearing the gated reverb coming out behind the original track. The hold tells the gate how long to stay open for, and the release tells it how fast to close. Of the song, but this is a good place to start. On the noise gate set the hold to 0.5 - 1 second, with a fast release.
When the snare drum plays the noise gate will open up and your new effect will be heard in all its glory. Instead, you'll need to use a sidechain trigger from the original drum sound. Obviously the aux channel isn't going to do this by itself because it's compressed unvarying level. In order to create the distinctive gated sound you'll need something to trigger the noise gate. Set up an auxiliary bus and send the original drum track to it While it's totally possible to route the audio from your workstation to an outboard hardware reverb unit, it's more common to drop in a plugin on the track.
#Valhalla vintage reverb manual how to#
In this example I'll demonstrate how to set up a gated reverb sound on a snare drum channel, but the process can be replicated for any track in your There's two ways to go about doing it: the DIY method where you create the effects chain needed yourself and using a dedicated gated reverb plugin. Experiment away, but use your judgment to decide if it's adding to the song or not.Īnd now to the hands on practical section!
Since it's such an unusual and unnatural sounding effect it's always best to go with the less-is-more approach. The effect can also be used to create unusual textures and ambience on other instruments, for instance, vocals. In live situations, a gated reverb can be used to make the drum sound powerful and punchy while maintaining clarity and transparency to the overall mix. It works particularly well on snare drums and toms, but can also be used on a kick. Typically gated reverb is used on drums to help them punch through the mix, providing space without the
And thus was born the gated reverb effect. Traditionally, talkback mics were compressed and gated to cut through the noise as musicians carried on playing long after the tape stopped rolling.Īt one point during a session, Phil Collins was playing drums in the studio while the talkback mic was still active, and Hugh Padgham heard the natural ambience of the drum room come through the monitors heavily compressed and gated. While recording Peter Gabriel's self-titled third album at Townhouse Studios engineer Hugh Padgham and producer Steve Lillywhite were using a talkback microphone to communicate between the control room and musicians in the instrument rooms. More accurately, the folks who accidentally stumbled on it. While this article is predominantly about how to set up a gated reverb for use in your music, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the folks who invented the sound. History Today: Who Invented This Sorcery? It produces an unnatural but distinctive sound. To the reverb effect the tail is cut short, or gated. Normally reverb is intended to sound natural, emulating spaces you might hear in real life. But if you're in a hurry, you need to know 'regular' reverb has a decay that rings out smoothly, gradually reducing in volume until it decays into silence. If you're new to all things 'verby check out It's important to understand how reverb works in order to understand how to use it in conjunction with a noise gate to get the gated ambience sound so beloved by the 80s.