History of Reverb and Echo in Audio Production Recording Natural occurring reverb goes further back than man on earth. Since before man, creatures and nature made sounds that created natural reverb and echo. But now in today’s age with men and the modern technology that they have created there are all sorts of ways to create reverb and echo. From big metal sheets to plug-ins in a DAW on a computer, engineers have found ways to incorporate and benefit from reverb and echo on a recorded audio track. But before skipping into today’s ways of recording reverb and echo let’s shed some light on what reverb and echo truly is and where it came from. Reverberation or as most people refer to it as reverb, refers to the way sound waves reflects of …show more content…

The first units had one pickup for mono output; later models introduced two pickups for stereo use. A damping pad, made from framed acoustic slates, can attune the reverb time. The closer the damping pad is to the plate, the shorter the reverb time. However, the pad never touches the plate. Some expensive units also featured a remote control for ease of access. Some electronic forms of delay were to use bucket brigade chips that would hold for certain amount of time and release to the next chip. Now in these modern days a very popular way to produce reverb is through plug-ins or “programs” on a DAW or an outboard digital unit, this is called digital reverb. Digital reverb uses various signal processing algorithms to create the reverb effect. It creates multiple feedback delay circuits to produce a large decaying series of echoes. Digital reverb units or programs have many controllable parameters that can change different aspects of the reverb. Another form of digital reverb is convolution reverb. Convolution reverb is a process for digitally simulating the reverberation of a physical or virtual space. Many people prefer natural occurring reverb in a room than any processed artificial reverb. That’s why several studios have reverberation rooms where the music is recorded in, not processed. Many engineers would use different microphones mixed with each other. Many artists like to incorporate echoes or “delay” to their music. Noticeable duplicates