Better Than Reverb 

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I love watching Joe's videos because he says "if you can't do this in your DAW, here is a workaround." Very thoughtfully done video

I love adding a slap back with the slightest amount of reverb, usually a plate, just to sit the vocal in the mix and give it a sense of space and vibe. It always sounds cool especially on softer mixes

Hands down, he is the best teacher and he keeps things easy for people to understand. Thanks for all the experience you share!

Once again Joe...you've nailed it...it...it...it...it

Thank you! All these years I’ve been trying to make slapback fix with 10-20 ms, I was off by a mile. Huge improvement omg kind of a humbling experience for me but so worth it. ❤

Me using reverb: “I’ll just low-pass all these frequencies out. Then I’ll high-pass all these frequencies out. Oh well would you look at that. All the frequencies are gone.”

excellent Cash impression haha. As a shoegaze/dreampop fan, I tend to use way too much reverb in everything. I'll definitely be trying more slapback.

I've been doing something like that on my studio recordings for some time now. What I do, is do about a 3/4 pan to one side and then slightly delay to the other side with just a bit of reverb. Gives a nice stereo effect.

Nope. I love reverb. All kinds of reverb and I put it on e everything. I like delay too but reverb is awesome and it’s making a comeback!

A good slap back can really add dimension. One trick I’ve learned along the way is to route your Fx into your vocal bus. Makes it 100x more cohesive with very little Fx processing. But, do it only after you’ve keyed in the Fx to the best of your ability. The switch will sound amazing

I’ve been using 120ms slap back live for Rockabilly vocals. I love it!

Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over" makes excellent use of slapback delay on lead vocals.

And I’m set ‘cause I do have a copy of Studio One pro! This is Great 👍

Thanks Joe I'm learning something new everyday definitely incorporating this. Much appreciated.👍

I’m happy I watched this

Love your vocals so much

Crazy good impression !!

Thanks Joe! Perfectly timed as I’m mixing at the moment.

It's gotta be slap delay! I heard Kenny Gioia talking about it a while back in one of his tutorials, although I've been using it since the 80s. 🙂

Cool trick, thanks, answers some of my problems on some vocal tracks.

This is a great video. Thank you for sharing it!

This came at the perfect time! Beautifully well explained as well. Thanks Joe!

Pretty cool 😊 Thanks for great tips.

Thank you for all the good stuff you put out there Joe! You are an excellent teacher

Great video, thank you Joe

Thank you for sharing these awesome drops of hot sauce!

Nice Joe. Thanks.

OMG I never thought of adding the distortion after the vocal and before the delay. I'd sometimes add a little distortion to the vocal to give it more edge or a poor man's Motown clipping vibe but had I put it post vocal pre room effects I would have had much more control over the fuzz level and it would have sounded so much better. Thank you! This is a game changer! 🤘🤪🤘

thanks for this very helpful demonstration Joe! Big up!

Simply great 👍

Thanks for the tip. It will come in handy. I hope to use it somewhere. 🔷

A delay effect I like to use is to have a short delay on one side and a long delay on the other side. It's kind of like what Joe did with the stereo slap back, but longer delays. It adds some nice width and a cool ethereal effect. Obviously, you wouldn't use it on everything, but in the right application, it's really nice.

Love this! Gonna try it for sure :)

Great work! I love learning how others set-up their FX! One thing I do with slap-backs, parallels or reverbs; to level them; I play the whole mix with NO LEAD VOCAL; and aim to pocket time based effects into the tail/instrument bed slightly behind other driving elements almost so it meshes into the soundscape of the instruments.

I didn't know it was slap-back, but I concur. I pretty much put a stereo plate or tape slap on my lead vox as well!

This video changed my life

Always useful.

great advice Joe!

Excelente video y consejo. Me subscribo a tu canal. Saludos desde España.

Great video!! I love the Analog Delay in Studio One. It's one of my MVP plug ins.

This is a true work of art

Thanks Joe. Slap back is awesome. Like everything in life, best done in moderation.

parfait, bon résumé et petit rappel indispensable que parfois c'est exactement ce qu'il manque ! merci !!

Great process. I almost always try slapback on my vocals, but I've struggled getting it to work as often as I feel like it should. The high and low passes with the saturation is what I've been missing. It never ceases to amaze me that I'll know how and why to do something like that if I'm giving someone else advice, but when working on my own mixes, I sometimes forget that I'm not limited by the parameters of any single plugin. Thanks for the reminder and clear description of your process!

Nice stuff Joe....gotta try it on the lead vocal track I normally use a plate reverb on backing vocals.

Great tip Joe - thank you for sharing 👍

great, great, GREAT tip !!!

I just happened to run across your channel. I really enjoyed watching this video. You explain things very well so that everything is easily understood. Subscribed. Keep up the great work.

Merci ! I'll try it.

awesome video! thanks Sir

Great video. Love they way you explain everything in detail and give us examples. Everything you said makes great sense and I'll be tinkering with this next time I go into my home studio.

Thank you for sharing.

I have to say I've been sleeping on slap delay because it just always sounded kinda -- bad to me whenever I tried it. Besides reverb my go to effect for vocals is maybe some kind of chorus effect mixed under the vocal (might also cause some unwanted issues if not careful and mixed real low) I've gotta give the slap back another chance with the help from this video though, very useful tips!

Really appreciate how detailed and informative this video was! It's very cool to get a how-to-guide for an effect as neat as this one. 👍

I have been using this delay setup on live audio for years and it works great. Band pass EQ on the delay return is very important! Another trick for wide stereo is to return the delay on 2 separate channels pan them hard left and right and invert the polarity on one of the channels.

Thank you very much!

The only always-on effect in my guitar chain is a 112-118ms single-repeat delay, except I use a delay pedal that has a high cut control for the repeat, and I have *all* the treble rolled off, so it’s not a “slap” back, but just a thickened sound.

Oh wow this is a burner!!! I love this!!! Thanks as always Joe!!!

I like it, very useful and entertaining

Like this, I use this a lot and its way underrated. Thanks for sharing great tips 🕺🏻

Very interesting go-to regarding improving the sound of main vocals. Thanx a lot. :-) Subscribed! (/from Germany)

Nice work joe!! Its fairly early days for me in the producing, mixing world but clear on ooint videos like this are what people really need, top man 👊

Great video -- straightforward commentary and how-to. Joe has a great radio voice, he should be a DJ. Wolfman Joe Gilder!

Already using slap back delay from studio one on my second single release coming up. I’m going to try the widened out approach first, and then experiment with the grit and see if it’s right for the tune. Thank you!

GREAT info brother..... it was John Lennon's fav =slap back delay. But you've taken it and refined how to push it around.... I've learned and appreciate your skill. thank you, fr Navarre, Fl.

Thank you Joe, this video and your suggestion came at just the right time. My vocals and the chosen reverb did not match the rest of the song. Cool effect and yes, the low-cut is really a game changer

Thanx man, great video :)

Great tip! The Cash vocal is dead on 😂

current fav(s)... AudioThing's Speakers, Wires and Reels.

You do a great Johnny Cash!

Really cool video. This was a proving point for me. I listened to the effect before you built it, and said " Sounds like a slap back buss with a crunchy telephone filter and hi/lo pass." THEN you built it the way I heard it on my mind. Very hard earned moment when there's proof that my ears have grown. Could be a cool new segment. GET LIKE JOE. Id love for you to design and effect and we have a chance to guess how it's built as you build it. Great stuff. Really good stuff Joe.

What I usually like in a heavy mix is delay, not too much but a bit more of a delay than slapback. And usually tempo sync'd. Reverb tends to be hopless - too much mud no matter what you do with it EQ wise, because in a heavier sound the mid-range becomes more busy so not a super amount of benefit of just rolling off the highs and lows.

Hi Joe, greetings from Australia! Many thanks for this, and so many other superb tutorials. I am approaching completion of the mix for my band's first album, and your clear, well-presented videos have helped change this from a pretty-good result to a first-rate result. Also, am about to upgrade to version 6. Exciting times.

Awesome lesson. I did learn a good lesson today because I set up my guitar the delay and reverb, I never set it right, but I know what my main problem is. Thanks for the good lesson

This is a very good video.

Watching the video might seem a bit off at first with your personal sound effects, but you're really giving an in depth explanation of what it will do and sound like, which I like. Many kudos. 👏👏👏👏👏 Your a real wizard at this when also stating how to perform the effects on many DAWs🧙‍♂. Thank You🙏

Joe!!! I cannot understate how absolutely clutch this video was. I've seen other tips suggesting delay in the vocal processing chain, but this is the exact answer I've been looking for to solve a particular problem in one of my latest productions. THANK YOU!

Chorus, every god damm guitarrist love it

now I want Studio One because of you 😅

The only thing better than reverb, is a second reverb! 😝

he’s definitely going to be discussing delays, 10 million bucks, i bet, absolute definite!

great video bro. this exactly explains what slapback does. its not just having echo in the background its almost like a mirroring of your own voice. without the headache of 5 vocal stacks lol

Joe, I tried this on a vocal and it seemed to make the vocal much better. Thanks! The only thing I ran into was that I created a bus in S1 and added it there instead of the vocal track send. this made the vocal lag. but I found my error. Love your videos!

Well Joe, I don't have a "go to" vocal affect because I am new to recording and Studio One. HOWEVER, I love your videos and find them very helpful tools to learning. I have to admit that I have a huge learning curve to get by, but I think with all the videos you have as well as Gregor and others, I should be able to find my way around Studio One fairly well in the (hopefully not so long) near future. Thanks again for your videos. I love your approach. You are very articulate with getting across the information you want to teach as well as do that with a bit of humor. Have yourself a good weekend, week, day, or whatever it is you will be having.

Many thanks for this. I really needed this, having a terrible voice. I need all the help I can get!

Yes, yes and yes. Delay with top and bottom rolled off. I too have it on all vocals I do. It spackles the holes.

Slap back delay is almost my default for my vocals. Thanks for helping me validate this nearly automatic choice. LOL

I LOVE JOE ! ! ! So, what is that cool "Chrome" mic he is using?

wow. loved this video! I usually get the urge to skip forward in production video's like these but Joe is different. He doesn't ramble on and in a style completely void of any pretention he's clear, concise and very practical. h and yes; bonus points if your Johnny Cash imitation is so good :D

My go-to secret sauce for live vocals is a Peavey Kosmos. Surprise!

If you don't like reverb, it is probably because you don't know how to use it. It helps to have a good artistic sense to know what works and what doesn't. Professional engineers and producers know how to use it. Often, reverb is used in conjunction with delay.

Very entertaining Joe. My takeaways…. Hot sauce and stink face!

Nice primer for slap back delays. I'm a Cubase addict since a few decades and also I have IK Multimedia Tape Echo and they sound ... good! I guess you can find some space either by panning the slap backs hard left/right or if that space is already occupied find somewhere where you as a producer hear them a little as slap backs rather than just part of the mud. It's basically a producer's hobby because friends, family and fans only care for the refrains haha! And yeah ... huge delays are a little over used and over trusted to to the right thing. Delays and short tight reverbs could oftentimes be the right medicine, but there is still a place for huge reverbs! :D

My fav delay plugin is echoboy... But I'm sold by this stock one by you.

Thanks for this. You've convinced me I need a 2nd delay pedal. I've toyed with the idea for awhile but it seemed like such a nuanced, barely noticeable effect. Now I hear what it does for vocals, I want to hear what it does for guitar.

you should sing more baritony sounds great!

Hey Joe, what's the difference in adjusting the level of the effects from SENDS and FX channels? Here, you reduced the SLAP level from the SENDS.

Another helpful tutorial! And a bit of a laugh, too!

from Beinhorn, to Butch Vig, to Albini, the true legendary personnels nobody ever did used or put emphasis on this reverberation of fake illiterate production work flow. Joe Gilder is the only one ive found in YT who’s been honest to their true philosophy. the people so called yt producers suggesting using reverb, they themselves doesn’t even care about reverb. the exception would be the natural room reverb sounds, which adds a certain amount of depth to the original track.