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Gated Reverb:
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| Phil Collins productions
(in the early 1980's) made the gated reverb a very popular digital
reverberation program. Although less popular today, it still is often used for drums and
percussion. It is a very unreal effect that was originally achieved by putting a
gate on the output of a plate. The plate was set for reverb that was the longest
lasting. The gate. however, cuts if off shortly after it began. The result was a
big reverb that didn't hold over to mush up the sound, making the percussion
sound very big. This is shown in figure 1. |
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Figure 1 - Gated Reverb |
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| When the reverb time of a plate reverb is
increased, you get a very dense reverb at the beginning. In digital
effects units, the reverb time chosen for gated reverb is usually 30 - 60 seconds
(compared to a normal reverb time of 1 to 3 seconds). Thus the
initial hit of reverberation is very dense and dramatic. The gate,
however, cuts the reverb off
quickly. |
| In the 1980's the gated reverb was
mixed very loud on rock productions. Today it is often used at lower
levels to "fill-in" the pre-delay time associated with the Hall
program. Engineers discovered very quickly that by blending a hall
and plate program, they could get a snare reverb that was dramatic but had
a natural reverb tail to it. Effects units began to feature HALL+GATE
programs. |
| Figure 2, shows how the dense gated
reverb tends to "fill-in" the pre-delay of the hall program and
how reducing the pre-delay time of the hall program is desirable to get
the full pre-delay time filled in evenly - thus having a smooth transition
from the one reverb program to the other. |
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Figure 2 - Blending Gated Reverb With Hall
Reverb |
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Early Reflections:
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Early reflection programs just generate the early
reflections
associated with halls and rooms. Using this program by itself gives an effect
similar to a multiple slap echo for very percussive instruments. This program can be used before a Chamber or Plate program
by patching the output of one device into the input of a second device; doing
this makes these programs sound more like a Hall program.
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| Shortened Plate |
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engineer can substitute a plate program with the reverb time parameters
set very short (under 1/2 second) to fill-in the pre-day on a hall program
used for percussive instruments. The short plate sound is more
natural than the gated reverb program. To help the transition
between the two programs, you may have to increase the pre-delay time
parameter on the hall program. |