Reverb on your delay

You know how sometimes delay can just sound a bit too … overt? Too obviously delay-y?

Send some of your delay return into your reverb!

The ninja version of this is to make the reverb send from your delay return pre-fader, so that you can independently control the volume of the dry delay return and the delay send into reverb.

Taking it further: abusing this delay-into-reverb idea can be a great way to create a textural layer that helps ramp up the density and intensity in a particular section of a song, without the gesture being overt or obvious. If you send a delay-into-reverb off the vocal, and if you dramatically overbalance the delay toward the reverbed send, it can feel like a synth layer, but one that’s reactive to and subliminally related to what the vocal is doing.

Maximum-strength version: sometimes I’ll just straight-up park a reverb plugin on a vocal delay return and set it to 100% wet and put the stereo pans at like 50% width (EQing the reverb down as necessary, of course, to fit into the mix). Instant vocal intensity, while still keeping the vocal very clean and intelligible!

Generative textures ftw — jamie