Let's look at the different common types of Reverb: Chamber, Plate, Spring, Room, Hall, Reverse, Ambience and Convolution! They are each suited to a specific mixing or production goal but can, of course, be used in any creative or artistic way.
0:00 - Intro
1:10 - Chamber
2:30 - Plate
5:15 - Spring
6:45 - Digital
8:30 - Hall
9:15 - Reverse
10:30 - Convolution
Chamber:
Widely used in the 1940s, 50s and 60s with famous examples being Capitol Studios, EMI and Sunset Sound Studios. These rooms (often with non parallel walls) were used to create artificial reflections. Chambers and echo rooms were built in all shapes and sizes, some designed to give short and snappy reflections and others to allow for lush, longer decays. The microphone and speaker placement and gain made a huge difference to the tone of the reverb. This meant that recalling previously used configurations was both time consuming and techincally complex.
Plate:
The EMT (Elektromesstecknik) 140 Plate reverberator was released in 1957 and coming in at 2.4 x 1.2 meters (8ft by 4ft) and weighing only 270kg, engineers no longer needed to build echo chambers to add some reverb to a dry recording! This was the first and arguably best plate reverb ever created, although there are no completely original sounding units left (they are over 60 years old and parts need to be changed) the modern refits sound absolutely stunning and are highly prized to this day. Plates are excellent on vocal recordings and instruments. Many engineers swear by using a subtle amount on a snare drum recording to provide presence and help it cut through a mix.
Spring:
Although these were invented before the plate reverb, they didn't come into full populatiry until the 60's. They have been a common place guitar effect for the last 60 years and you'll struggle to find a guitar fx processor with a spring option. The hardware spring units vary in dewsign but typically suspend an input and output trandsucer between 1,2 or 3 springs (more springs often gives a smoother, more controlled sound which is less prone to overloading).
Digital / Algorithmic:
From the 1970's until present day there have been thousands of reverb devices and plugins created which use complex delay feedback lines to trick our ears into hearing reverbereation. The repeated, filtered and cascading delays are so tighly spaces that we precieve them as only 1 long reverb tail. Each device varies in design and tone but they usually create everything from almost flawless room emulations to enourmous, engulfing hall reverbs. Some units can also create reverse and non linear reverbs which can be used as a creative effect.
Convolution:
These processors use Impulse Responses (IR's) to create reverb. An impulse is a short audio pulse, sometimes a full frequency sample, a click or a single cycle waveform. This Impulse is generated in the real space or inout into a reverb device and the output response is recorded. From the Impulse response, a convolution or IR processor can create a reverb profile for you to apply to any audio.
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Images and isometric credits and sources for video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2xpuux6kd0q1z99/Credits%20for%20Reverb%20Video.pdf?dl=0
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