CLICK and LISTEN carefully to what kind of sound atmosphere it can produce for you:
RV5 Digital Reverb
NOTE: You want to start adjusting your individual pedal by putting the control knobs at 12 o’clock. That is exactly the factory preset volume and gain.
Whenever we hear a sound what is caught by our hearing is always a mixture of the original sound and its surrounding i.e. when one sing in a room then what we hear is his original voice mixed with the echoes from the room’s wall and floor ceramics which arrives a few time afterwards.
Because the original voice is reflected by several different surfaces then we hear to more than one single echo aka delay. Instead we hear to mixtures of delay along with the echo fading. Those fading followers are referred to as “reverb” which is mostly used in guitar recording as sound effect or as a means to compensate dry acoustic of a sound recording studio.
Types of Reverb.
Digital Reverb.
Started at 90′s digital reverb has become a common thing, what’s interesting is this multipurpose effect is usually used to mimic one of the following three categories reverbs.
Plate Reverb.
Light reverberation effect is product through reverb metal plates between 60′s to 70′s. This plate reverb can produce beautiful guitar sound and that is why some sound effect manufacturers try to copy it with digital technology.
Spring Reverb.
It has rough metallic characteristic usually with long decay time of 2000 ms or more. It produces a specific “twank” sound on short staccatos.
Natural Reverb.
The most complex sound which is still being used by sound engineers for various guitar sounds. It may be created in studio by putting microphone away from guitar loudspeaker so the natural studio room sound can be heard.
How does it work?
Originally reverb is a natural characteristic of the space where the guitar amp recorded. Since the 1960′s guitar combo amps have spring reverb of which system works by passing the audio signal into a freely stretched spring. The spring vibration is collected by pickup that has a volume regulator. This signal is then fed back into the amplifier. Spring reverb is still common in most of the guitar amp head and combo amps today.
Since the 1980′s digital reverb already in common use which is actually made of usual delay of the circuit, in combination with some additional delays and fed back signal delays to create a wavy reverb effect that we hear.
Normally there are basic control knobs on reverb pedals:
Type.
Refers to room character or circuit to be imitated i.e. room, hall, chatedral, plate etc. This one is commonly found on guitar multi effects pedal.
Clue:
Room reverb is used for high tempo rock music.
Hall reverb is used for spacious effect.
Time = decay = decay time.
It refers to amount of time needed for a reverb effect to disappear completely. Between 500 and 3000 ms is the typical decay time setting, depend on the music tempo being played.
Mix.
The reverb amount associated with the dry signal. When being used it is advised to set not more than 50%.
Predelay.
This function is very important although it is rarely found at reverb pedal. It is to adjust the time before we star to hear reverb which is the amount of time to bounce back to our hearing.
Other than those mentioned above there are some parameters you can find at professional studio reverb or computer plugin i.e. early reflections, high frequency damping, room shape, room size etc.
There are many other reverb related parameters you may find. To master the above mentioned four basic parameters is enough to set your own guitar sound characteristic.
Typical Setting
’60 Twang
Type knob: 12 o’clock.
Time knob: 3 o’clock.
Mix knob: 10 o’clock.
This longer reverb is the most appropriate setting for slow tempo songs. Reduce the mix setting a bit to avoid over dominant reverb effect.
Rock
Type knob: 12 o’clock.
Time knob: 9 o’clock.
Mix knob: 11 o’clock.
Short and light reverb setting is the most ideal for rock music rhythm as fast decay avoids chords crash.
