Abbey Road Reverb Technique - Into The Lair  

Thanks Dave. Something I do with long reverbs is stick a compressor before the reverb. This helps to tame loud peaks hitting the reverb, and when dealing with long reverbs, particularly ambient music where the reverb is up in the mix, you don't want huge peaks activating the reverb that might swamp the mix.

I've been using EQ before my reverb for years, a technique taught to me by my dad, but that Saturn adds some magic! Never would have thought to use that before a reverb. Great tip, thanks Dave!

"What I like, a boat uuuuu" Amazing difference mr. Pensado, just absolutely impeccable work.

This sound can be acheived with using the Waves Manny Marrouqiun Reverb plugin. It's lush, with a nice compressor, eq , phaser shifter, and distortion.. All the things this video expalined, but withing one plugin..

I like how you take the time and really go through what you're doing. A lot of videos are good but they run through things too fast and don't really dig into a whole lot. You take it slow and really pull it apart, and you show how you experiment instead of just giving a final "here's what you can do".

I love the bit where he says he doesn’t mean to be condescending but he’s so right it does take time for your ears to learn how to hear these things

You just explain things in such a natural way. That's what I like about youuuuuu.

Maybe it's a taste thing, but I really liked the 1,2kHz boost on those vocals, gave the song an ethereal, less commercial feel. Nothing wrong with cutting, of course, if you like things the conventional way.

Hi Dave - I've been working all night on my orchestral mixes with vocals, but logged on to my laptop and into RU-vid to say a massive thank you!!!! Honestly, this video helped so so so much. When I mix vocals dry and get the EQ and tone I want using the right compressors. But then when I add reverbs, despite how good they are, the vocals always became murkier unless the level is so minimal that you can't even notice or appreciate the reverb. I then try your reverb EQ tricks and the FabFilter Saturn and the difference is night and day!!! Thank you sooooooooooo much for these videos. I truly appreciate everything you do and have learnt so much from Pensado's Place over the years. The interview with Jack Joseph Puig was life changing for me - would be great to see him on then again sometime soon. You guys rock, thanks a million! Joseph

I quite honestly thought everyone did this. Was one of the first things I learned about setting up reverb sends. Roll off the highs and the lows before the signal hits the reverb. As soon as I set up a reverb send I set up HPF at 500-600Hz and LPF at around 9-10kHz (sometimes lower). The only time I don't do this is if it's a thick, dense, deep reverb on a solo synth part in a sparse mix - sometimes that low end mud can sound great in the verb. But as soon as you're putting other instruments in the mix, roll off that low end before the reverb!

A tip to do with fabfilter Saturn. Send park of vocal to a buss and use the "boutique" preset and adjust to your taste but the main thing is the sound. When you load that preset you will understand instantly. Got this tip from a tutorial on image lines channel. Saturn is free to download with a 30 day trial btw

So just what is the "Abbey Road Reverb" technique ? This guy's all over the place horsing around with endless EQ possibilities, and NO mention of Abbey Road throughout the video ! I'll tell you what it is. Plate reverbs, etc. don't like low end (Bass drums, etc.) or high end (overtones, etc.) so in the old days we rolled off at the 600 Hz. point and below, and 5K or above on the high end. Now you know.

So, pass-filters and equalizing... I already did that because a lot of reverb-plugins have pass-filters or equalizers built into them. Put one and one together, and I already figured it was technique when I started out. - The reason it helps is the same principle as equalizing; You prevent the same frequencies to stack up and you prevent it from becoming muddy or crowded in certain frequencies.

Wad I like a boat you

4:02 - very nice. The voice already becomes clearer and the reverb more apparent. It sounds like there is more "breath" in the mix.

I really liked the HP filter without the LP filter or tube emulation. Great examples!

Dave, thank you so much! It was a golden tip to me. Greatly appreciate your sharing.

I enjoyed that with and without reverb the track had reverb. This line will haunt my dreams.

wow, I am using this technique!

Absolutely awesome! Totally changed my way of looking at and using reverb. Cheers!

saturn really is the best saturation plugin

"that's kinda' cool...".

Enlightening! Very clear instruction

Great video, thank you! Like distortion on a way to the reverb.

thanks Dave! you are certainly a perfectionist!

I don't know why this technique is unique to Abbey Road. Lots of people filter the input signal to Reverbs to make them less obvious. He's rolling off 600 on the front end. Is there even anything near that coming from her voice in the first place? I guess the advantage is getting rid of the crap of her moving around the mic. Other than cleaning that up, I don't think it's doing anything for her voice.

great tutorial Dave, I really got a lot from this one, thankyou

that chair seems comfy, mind sharing what type it is? I am not 100% happy with my aeron

I used to have a couple of the old Langevin (passive) 2-band "cassette" EQs - which were AWESOME on guitars, but were also quite useful on the aux sends to 'verb for just this purpose. Bottom line, I guess I was using "Abbey Road Reverb" before I even knew what it was! Also, nice of you to vindicate DVERB (to some extent). It may not sound particularly like a natural space - the way that Bricasti and Quantec do - but's that doesn't make it a BAD reverb. All 'verbs are useful in one context or another!

This was a very helpful segment. Thanks for showing us these educational items, I always enjoy your ITL. Cheers from Canada eh :-) Bruce

Gracias dave, muchas gracias, DIOS te bendiga hermano

dave, u r a bad, bad man.

Good stuff Dave

good ol d-verb, man...I'm gonna have to break that plugin out again...I've been so busy with valhalla vintage and acon verberate lately that I've almost forgotten how great d-verb actually is for certain things

This one is cool!

Dave is one of God's colors

"What I like G bout you" is all I hear in the end result of the reverb. Maybe clip gain that syllable down a tad.

I think Bobby and others learned this trick from a certain book on Abbey Road and the Beatles....

This is why mastering guys make big bucks, they will pick apart your track with a microscope and put it back together ready for cd, radio, tv, whatever. I cant mix to save my life, my ears have been destroyed by years of blistering electro metal, but I can write a badass track to make ppl jump all night, so I takd my tracks elsewhere to get mastered, and he does the same voodoo shit to it. He thinks Im insane, and gives me a good rate. Never mix your own tracks if you want them live, pay a guy who knows what hes doing, but sit in on the session if possible.

Wet I lake a boat, you?

When the music comes in she suddenly sounds off key.

that don't sound like jill scott lol

I'm gonna need to hire some breathy female vocalist to sing material I don't have.

Computers trying to recreate oldskool soundgear...You may work in Abbey Road,but i think you got it all wrong. Its NOT the same. And its very uncool.Stop looking at graphs and numbers on a screen.Start listening again.Preferably with your eyes closed.Relax...and float downstream.

close your eyes...does he not sound exactly like Brit Hume?

That audio clip is just so awful

I couldn't hear a damn difference. LoL.

Terrible song

WHEN AM I GONNA LEARN WAT SHE LIKES A BOAT MEEE??!????!??

dat smile at 10:02 when he activate the saturn. Priceless. How to sell a plugin. Where is my mastercard?

Don't bother reading the comments section on this particular video. Usually I get something out of it ...this time, the video is all you need.

That saturation/drive thing really gives it that air that one seeks so desperately

Soloing the reverb at the end was very helpful - it was VERY clear what the EQ cuts and saturation were doing.

You have some sensitive ears. I'm hearing the reflection of the verb more than the quality of the voice - without the filtering. It's damn near imperceptible in the mix.

I can't tell the difference after RU-vid encoding, through android and cheap Bluetooth headphones and then finally my untrained crappy ears :(

I was hoping that "Abbey Road Reverb" refers to the big Abbey Road 60's sound of instruments miked closely and panned all the way to one side, and bleeding to a far mic, which is panned all the way to the other side, creating an amazing spatial effect and a wall of sound, which is heard on The Zombies' "Oracle and odyssey", among many other albums of the era. Can you give a hint of how to do that kind of a reverb in a DAW?

"What I like...about you!" Thank you for once again giving a tremendously helpful video. You look good Dave! Do you take internships?

This guy can’t multitask..

What i like bout dave hes dope as fuck :)

So you effect the signal going into it not the reverb itself? Thanks I‘ll try it out.

I never used this may be it's because I'm using logic x pro

I was doing the eq and saturation all this time after the reverb, ill do the comparative

Regardless of the reverb plug I'm using - Eventide, Lexi, T-Racks, Waves...or even "stock" DAW verbs; I rarely keep anything over 4k on the verb's EQ, (sometimes even lower than that). But, the reverb I typically use for the style that I produce is more subtle than what others will use...I'm personally not a fan of bright, crispy-sounding reverb). I also rely quite a bit on the pre-delay of a verb; I don't always want the reverb to respond ( happen) at the exact same time as the dry track. I've been able to get really nice results, using very "deep" reverb, by adjusting the pre-delay ( mostly based on song tempo, 60,000(ms) divided by the project BPM will give you the quarter note value, at which point you can divide that in half to get 8th, or divide again to get 16th note... or even 32nd note values for reverb response time) and using the Effect ( aux) return level, tucked way back; keeps the intimacy of dry track without the reverb "getting in the way". It also helps - A LOT - to have a great-sounding front end to begin with (mic, pre, room, converters) as many people will often use reverb too heavily in an attempt to "mask" the sound of cheaper gear. The better your front-end is, the better your recording quality, and the nicer your added effects will sound ... and quite often, the less effect you'll need to use. I'm sure Dave doesn't have that particular problem, as I'd be willing to bet that he's not using a $70 Behringer mic and $89 Tascam preamp. I'm sure his front end is top notch, as are the tracks he receives for mixing from other studios. IMO, of course.

At the end I tried to hear the difference with saturation on and off, and tried and tried and I couldn’t. Then I tried to feel it and I got the difference right away! The reverb sounds much fuller and warmer with Saturn.

The Abbey Road reverb trick is on the reverb return channel or on the plug in itself, cut everything below 500hz and everything above 5Khz. Anything else is fooling around. The 500/5000hz trick works. If you start fiddling with it and doing some weird 600Hz and 4000hz cutoff that's not the Abbey Road Reverb Trick anymore.

*Begins watching video* "That reverb sounds great." *10 mins later* "Damn the 'before' sounds like crap!"

So basically it's Pultec bass EQ trick except it's on mid-high frequency. I could imagine cutting off some high frequency would leave up spaces for other stuffs contribute the shimmeries that we needed which vocal reverb just won't work as that good. Nice tips.

Possibly the most annoying loop I've ever heard. Ugggghhh... enough already.

excellent ideas. can't wait to pimp my reverb now!

0:56 keep clicking it lol i love this man

The technique is rolling off the low and hi end with EQ. That's it.

Thank you!! Great insights!!

I have an interesting suggestion. Record the vocal with a cassette tape (yes cassette not reel to reel or emulations) then use that as a reverb send. The cassette tape cuts out the highs, saturates it and the speed changes in cassette tape will create variations delays in the reverb along with wow and flutter which is the reason i suggest cassette tape. Haven't tried it out yet,but it's an idea i thought of since recently have been recording with cassete tape as a doubler to mix in. Real pain to work with on long recordings from speed changes though, but sounds great mixed in. Also i have been hearing cassette tape is coming back? kind of sounds like a joke to me,but it a nice effect to mix in instead of recording a whole song with it.

Great video. I have typically made adjustments post verb so this gives me a lot to play with. Thanks Dave

why insert and not send ? any particular reason ?

Subtle is good…thanks Dave.

The number of times I've had a horrible problem mix where I've tried everything, only to have everything magically work by putting an EQ on the reverb send is to many to count.

She jumps up an octave and the reverb kicks in on the about you line and you don't hear it on what I like. You could do that with automation too.

Sometims is needed to worm some cold reverb. But I've never tought about saturation on verb)) All cool things are easy! Thanks for tip Dave)

Interesting. If know advancements , or rather , changes , have always occurred ; otherwise , the types of music I like ! , could never have been created. But , this is not music : it's technical development. Musicianship is what a Musician can do for themselves , live , or , with minimal technical help. It's the Technicians , now we are so distant from , say , early Popular-Music's beginnings who should be on the ' Label ' , for the pretty-faces are just their Fronts.

Why you cut lows in eq of verb and added warmth to saturn? Its again adding sm lows..

i don't see Abbey Road Studios in the entire video, I only see bunch of plugins which can be bought, installed and used at your homes. "Abbey Road Reverb technique". :D Right, and pigs fly... LOL

I like this guy he is very, very informative, and experience, of course, counts no doubt. You can tell he has been doing this for decades and must practically live in that studio. I love "old salts" like this I can just envision them eating a cheeseburger and having a coke while mixing. The only thing is he probably should get out more and get some exercise to be more healthy, ha, ha, ha. Otherwise, he's great.

That eq ing out of the mids is a greaaaatttt ideaaaa. Man oh man. I’m guessing you wanna eq out parts slightly where the range of the vocal is no ??? Just a thought. In addition to any metallic spots perhaps like you say

Bobby Owsinski is awesomski

Awesome, now I have a name for what I´m doing for so long - thanks Dave!

Are that McDSP plugin still available or it has been upgraded? Nice video by the way. That voice sound like pure honey when you do your thing.

I'm a video person. When it comes to audio, I'm a complete idiot. I can't hear a damn difference!

what im hearing is an annoying digital loop, why dont you make a nice loop without bothering the ears so you can make your point better :)

Well, 5 years a go I didnt hear it all that much. Today I heard it fine (same monitors) Thanks for the tips!

Getting rid of "sewer pipe" effect is awesome advice that has not reached quite some of live guys. Yet, it is so simple and easy to do.

can anyone recommend a serious reverb unit for around $1000? even if its second hand but legendary, i just want a legit reverb unit

Sir, I understand that, you created a Aux track for the lead vocal. But one question, was it a Mono Aux or Stereo Aux track?

What are you going to do about the nasty pop in that loop you made on the playbacks? Hurts my ears man.

I would have never thought of cutting some of the mids and using saturation on the reverb. It was subtle but it made the reverb more clear and pronounced

I'd like to see what you can do to your reverbs and perhaps delays with diamond color eq

Is the eq in front of the reverb? Is anything even happening

that high pass really made the vocal sound more emotional, and also of course more clarity

You're awesome. Thank you SO much for making these videos. Such an incredible resource. Cheers!

Thanks for wasting my time Mr. Abbey Road