In the world of audio mixing, sequence matters. This extends in routing, and this extends to your processing chain. As I covered in my overview on EQ or compression first, whether you compress an already equalized track or EQ an already compressed track, the results will be different. Likewise, and as I covered in my overview on reverb after delay, this has a different effect than using delay AFTER reverb.
With that in mind, let’s talk preceding your delay with a reverb, covering the pros and cons and the effect it has.
Delay After Reverb
While both delay and reverb fall under the category of spacial based effects, they have different applications to achieve different results.
Delay is generally the cleaner of the two effects and is good for giving a track width or even added sustain.
Reverb can be used for all of this, but it’s especially useful for adding depth to a track by simulating more natural reflections and the subsequent decay of sound in a real space. This makes it effective for sending a track or tracks farther back in the physical space that is your mix, utilizing that third dimension that is depth.
While doing this, reverb also colors the audio’s reflection(s) and decay by representing the actual physical space that audio is intended to be heard/recorded in.
Most modern reverb plugins even feature the ability to import and apply impulse response reverb files to your sound which capture the sonic characteristics of specific spaces like famous recording studios, venues, and other locations and impart it to your audio.
Because of the coloring which comes with reverb, it oftentimes makes more sense to apply this to your delay, thus following the delay to give it a more natural, real-world-space decay.
That’s not to say that you can’t use delay after reverb, or to put it another way reverb BEFORE your delay.
The effect which this has is to make the setup of your delayed audio instance take on the characteristics first of your reverb.
With that in mind, you can make that delayed signal darker, brighter, thicker, wider, etc.
This can make your delay throws a lot more interesting.
For instance, a short bright decay reverb can be applied to give that delay a bit more sustain but keep it relatively up front. Conversely you can apply a darker, longer reverb to a delay throw to make it feel like it’s coming from the back of the mix.
While there’s no hard and fast rules, the way I typically approach this is I like to follow the shorter instance of the two with the longer of the two, regardless of which is the delay and which the reverb.
And just a reminder that this can be done as serial inserts on the track we’re affecting itself OR as Aux/Return tracks.
In the case of the latter, you can put your delay and reverb of choice each on their respective Aux/Return tracks, then turn up the corresponding send dial on one Aux track on the other.
This can be done either by sending reverb into delay to give a tail of a reflection its own reflection, or by sending delay into a reverb to color that delay with more of the authentic characteristics of a room’s reflections as mentioned earlier.
