How Do You EQ Reverbs?

dannydawiz

dannydawiz

New member
Hey everyone. I ALWAYS see people advising to EQ reverb and I'm always just stuck wondering how do you do it?

How do you EQ reverb? Is it something that is included in the reverb plugin usually?
 
Mess with the lowcut and highcut of your reverb. (Those knobs should be in the reverb plugin itself). Pull up the lowcut to take out the lower frequencies and pull down the highcut to take out the higher frequencies.
 
I'll have to experiment with this the next time I get the chance. How important is it to eq your reverb really? So what you're saying is that there is only a low and a high cut? It's not like an equalizer where you can zoom in on a specific frequency?
 
It's super important to EQ your 'verb. Any unwanted frequencies you have going on will pretty much become louder and start muddying up your mix.

I'm not sure, but I'm sure that there are reverb plugins that have more than just two bands. (A low and a high band). But honestly, if you EQ your sound properly before hand, whatever you add in your reverb shouldn't need any further EQ'ing besides high and lowcuts.
 
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You can always slap an EQ plugin before the reverb if there are problem frequencies, but in general, as Ametrine said, low/hipass are the tools you'll mostly need. Taking some of the low end out is almost a given; the high end might need taming occasionally as well.
 
You'll pretty much always take out low end, as a wash of stereo reverb in the low end is detrimental to a mix.

Unless it truly is coming through clean, but generally we keep low end in the middle without a verb
 
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You can EQ your reverb by putting the reverb on a send.

Send the sound to another track, put reverb on that send track at 100% wet and adjust the amount of sound that you are sending to the track, then add an EQ after the reverb and cut out any unwanted frequencies.

Most people don't know about doing this, but its really convient - you get to keep the original quality of the sound and can just adjust how much you want to send to raise the volume of the reverb, then add a delay or whatever and you're set.
 
JRNova said:
You can EQ your reverb by putting the reverb on a send.

Send the sound to another track, put reverb on that send track at 100% wet and adjust the amount of sound that you are sending to the track, then add an EQ after the reverb and cut out any unwanted frequencies.

Most people don't know about doing this, but its really convient - you get to keep the original quality of the sound and can just adjust how much you want to send to raise the volume of the reverb, then add a delay or whatever and you're set.
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I usually do it the other way around on a send. Eq first, reverb second. I'm usually using high pass filters and depending on the pole you may not even get all the low end out if you are putting it after, but if you put the eq first you'll have a better time getting it out. At least that's how I do it.
 
Thanks a lot everyone for all of the replies. I can understand how lowcutting the reverb would help remove clutter from the mix. I do sometimes feel that the reverb in my mixes seem to clutter it up at times.

I hadn't thought of putting the reverb on a send. Admittingly I'm not to familiar with using sends. I'll have to experiment with this sometime in the near future.
 
crimsonhawk47 said:
I usually do it the other way around on a send. Eq first, reverb second. I'm usually using high pass filters and depending on the pole you may not even get all the low end out if you are putting it after, but if you put the eq first you'll have a better time getting it out. At least that's how I do it.
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Why not both? Like a pre-tone and a post-tone. (Not saying you must)
 
EQ first = you are changing the sound going into the reverb. If you roll off lows, those lows are not reaching the reverb. Your reverb will do it's thing based on your high passed audio and will generate its reverb signal based on that. It will sound like the natural reverb as it was intended. Depending on the particular reverb unit, it may generate some low freq spectrum signal to fill out the sound.

EQ after = you will be shaping the reverb itself. If you are rolling off lows, you will be filtering the entire reverb signal. Will not sound as "natural". May be a better technique if you want to boost a frequency area of the reverb itself as it will shape the reverb more.

Unless you are going for an "effect", you probably wont want to do too much with adding EQ to your reverb... the idea of reverb is to have it sound like natural reflections from a physical space... the reverb should grow out of the sound going into it. If it all of a sudden sounds different from the track being reverbed, it will stand out and be disconnected from the sound to which you are trying to relate it. If you are going for something more "effect-y", then that's a different story.


...but the whole "before" / "after" thing is really common sense if you just think about it and think about how the reverb is doing its job and what the purpose of it is.
 
dannydawiz said:
I'll have to experiment with this the next time I get the chance. How important is it to eq your reverb really? So what you're saying is that there is only a low and a high cut? It's not like an equalizer where you can zoom in on a specific frequency?
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How important that it is depends on the tone of your reverb.
When I use ValhallaRoom, I tend to roll off some of the reverb's lows most of the time -- each of the algorithms tends to generate a fairly "full" sounding reverb compared to some other units I've used.
With Waves' TrueVerb, on the other hand, I don't find myself feeling as though I need to roll off the verb quite as much.

What you're using the reverb for will also affect whether you should EQ it or not.
If you're running an entire song through one reverb unit or reverb send, it can be useful to roll off some extreme lows and extreme highs so that the reverb doesn't smear your low-end and steal the presence from your lead material. I find myself doing this fairly often when an artist sends a song for mastering that's just too dry or could use some reverb for some natural-sounding stereo width.
 
Great thread topic. I've experimented a lot and somehow EQing reverbs has never been something I've ever dabbled with. Gonna try it out.
 
Put the reverb on a return channel and put an EQ after the reverb on the return channel. Then adjust the send for how wet/dry you want it to be.
 
Hey,
I think the best way to EQ your reverb or any other Fx is to using sends.
For example:
If you have a snaredrum, and you would add some reverb.

1.
Make a send channel and give him the name Reverb.
2.
Now you can select your snare track and send it to your reverb bus.
3.
On the reverb bus you can add some plugins, but the first should be a EQ. the second one is your reverb.
4.
Select your EQ and know you can change the reverbed frequencies.
 
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I have my reverb in it's own channel and use it as a send. But that's how I'm able to EQ them. I have my processing chain to it. Usually, reverb -> compressor -> eq. I use a compressor because I find that it brings the reverb out a little more. Then I eq it, low cutting around 200-300hz, taking out some from around 750-1000khz, and boosting around 1500-2000khz. All that extra eq after the low cut is usually to my own tastes and really varies on what sounds I'm using.
 
All in all we can say that is dosent matter if you EQ after or before the reverb.
But pay attention with you compressor. I think compressing the reverb isn't a good way .
Try this channelstrip
Compressor---EQ---Reverb
 
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