Try a fast delay instead of reverb

You know how sometimes you want space and context around a vocal, but reverb doesn’t feel right? Especially in denser or faster songs, it can be hard to get a vocal reverb as wet as you want without swamping out the rest of your mix.

In situations like this, I sometimes like to use a fast delay! Like 80-130 milliseconds. (What works best is context-dependent.)

If you leave the feedback at 0%, that’s a slap delay. And, depending on the tempo of the song, a slap delay can work great — especially if the slap is dark and almost the same loudness as the original vocal, and timed roughly to the 16th note. You can get a nice little internal rhythmic thing happening.

But here’s a twist; try turning the feedback up. Try a fairly healthy amount of feedback, like 50-70%. What this will give you is something that has a decay like a reverb, but is made up of discrete echoes like a delay. It’s like halfway between!

(I wouldn’t necessarily be timing the feedback version of this idea to the 16th note; I might go a bit faster. Generally I just use my ears.)

If you want the sound to thicken in the decay, turn down the treble EQ in the feedback path (most delays have EQ in the feedback path); this will make each successive delay tap a bit darker.

And if you want the sound to “evaporate” in the decay, turn down the bass EQ in the feedback path.

This is a nice trick in a dense or fast-moving mix; it stays out of the way while also giving the vocal its own space.

Thanks for the feedback — jamie