Here's a lesson from my mixing session yesterday that you can learn from.

It's about the importance of taking your time with the right reverb.

This song was a fun singer/songwriter style song from Leila Lopez, a really great local artist here in town.

She's a really great singer and a killer guitar player so it was a pleasure working on her song.

The rest of the arrangement consisted of drums, bass and violin.

After the usual two-dimensional mixing of balance, panning, EQ, and compression it was time to make the mix stand out with some reverb and effects.

So I thought I'd give my UAD EMT140 Plate Reverb a try. It sounded fine, but it wasn't great.

I tweaked the reverb a little more, EQ'd the return and try balancing my sends a bit more but to no avail.

It was just getting in the way and making the mix cluttered and unclear.

Instead of struggling with that reverb even further I simply started over.

I deleted the plate reverb and looked for something different. I settled on the Valhalla Room, one of my favorite plug-ins that has a permanent place in my mixing template.

I immediately found a better sounding reverb mode that gave the song the depth and space it needed.

Sometimes it simply isn't worth it to argue with the reverb mode and try to force it to work. If it's not working, spend five minutes finding some different spaces and see how they sound.

A plate isn't always going to work. Sometimes you need a small room, a large chamber or a diffuse hall.

Taking the extra five minutes to find that out can make the difference between a muddy mix and a clear, spacious one.

Make Bigger and Better Mixes With the Right Reverb

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