Reverb & Space

Hybrid Reverb algorithms: which one for what

Hybrid Reverb has an Algorithm engine and a Convolution engine, a Blend control between them, and a Routing chooser (Serial, Parallel, Algorithm→Convolution, Convolution→Algorithm). Each algorithm has a personality; pick by function, then tune Decay, Size and Damping.

1. Load Hybrid Reverb on a return, enable the Send button so Dry/Wet sits at 100%.
2. Pick an algorithm by the table. Set Decay by tempo (see the per-genre table below), Pre-delay by distance.
3. Use the built-in EQ: low cut 150–250 Hz on nearly everything; high cut 6–9 kHz unless it is a shimmer return.
4. The Vocoder section can gate or freeze the tail — try it when you need the reverb to pump or hold.

Convolution deep-dive and custom impulse responses

Convolution multiplies your sound with a recording of a real (or invented) space. Hybrid Reverb ships IR categories (rooms, halls, plates, springs, textures and more) and accepts your own audio file as an IR: drop any sample onto the convolution area or load it from the IR chooser's user section. Any sound with a sharp attack and a decaying tail works: a snare hit, a modular ping, a reversed cymbal, a 2-second noise burst through a filter.

1. Make the IR: record 1–3 s of a sound with an instant attack. Normalize it, fade the last 100 ms, HP at 100 Hz (bass in an IR becomes boom on every hit). Consolidate.
2. Drag it into Hybrid Reverb's convolution engine. Routing: Convolution→Algorithm so the custom space feeds a smoothing hall.
3. Convolution Size stretches the IR (100% = original; 50% = half-length, pitched up — tighter room); Decay shortens the tail without changing its colour; Attack softens the early reflections.
4. Blend toward the algorithm when the IR sounds too "sampled"; toward convolution when you want the character.

The legacy Reverb: cheap plate, true Freeze

Live's original Reverb is still the fastest-blooming small plate in the box, and its Freeze (with Flat and Cut options) is a performance tool Hybrid Reverb only approximates via its vocoder section. Quality Eco is a sound of its own: grainy, lo-fi, great on dub stabs.

Reverb on returns vs inserts

Returns give every element the same room (coherence) and let you process the tail separately (EQ, compression, sidechain). Inserts give one element its own space and let you resample it. Default: two or three returns (short, medium, long) for coherence, inserts only for sound-design reverbs that are part of the patch.

1. Three returns as above. Enable each Hybrid Reverb's Send button (100% wet).
2. Sends in Post mode by default so faders carry the reverb along; switch a send to Pre when you want the tail to remain while the dry fades out (breakdown trick).
3. Insert reverbs: enable them only on sound-design elements (a pad with Hybrid Prism at 40% baked in, a snare with a short convolution plate) that you plan to resample.

Sidechained reverb: big and out of the way

Duck the reverb return from the kick (and optionally the dry lead) so the tail swells between hits. The space feels huge but never masks the transient.

Variations: replace Compressor with an Envelope Follower mapped to the return's Utility gain for a shapeable duck curve; or use Hybrid Reverb's own Vocoder gate for a self-ducking tail without external routing.

Gated reverb

Huge reverb cut dead after 100–200 ms. Snares and claps get a wall of room with no tail cluttering the next beat.

1. Insert the reverb on the snare track (or on a dedicated return fed only by snare). Big Size, long Decay, bright (Damping low).
2. Gate after it. Sidechain the gate from the dry snare (audio from the snare track, pre-FX tap) so the gate opens on the hit, not on the reverb's own level.
3. Hold 80–160 ms sets the room length; Release 20–50 ms is the slam. Floor −inf for the full 80s effect, −20 dB for subtle.
4. Tune Hold to the tempo: at 100 BPM a 1/32 is 75 ms, a 1/16 is 150 ms.

Reverse reverb (pre-verb)

A tail that swells into the sound. Classic on vocal chops, snare before a drop, pad entries. Two ways: the honest print-and-reverse, and the live approximation with a long pre-delay and Attack.

1. Put the dry hit on a track with Hybrid Reverb 100% wet, decay 3–6 s. Bounce to New Track (12.2) so the tail is printed.
2. Reverse the rendered clip (R). Slide it so the clip ends exactly where the dry hit begins.
3. Fade in the first 10% of the reversed clip so it emerges rather than clicks in. HP 300 Hz — a reverse tail with low end is a muddy swell.
4. Optional: a second normal reverb on the reversed tail for a swell with its own space.

Shimmer: octave-up tails without the preset

Shimmer is reverb whose feedback path is pitch-shifted, so every cycle climbs an octave (or a fifth) and the tail turns into a choir. Hybrid Reverb's Shimmer algorithm does it in one device; the DIY version in a return with feedback gives you control over the shift interval and the filter in the loop.

DIY variation: Audio Effect Rack on a return with two chains — Chain 1 Reverb (legacy) 100% wet; Chain 2 Shifter +12 st with a Utility at −6 dB feeding the return's own send (enable the return-to-itself send in the mixer's send options, keep it low). Lower the self-send until it stops running away. Noisier, more tape-like than the Hybrid algorithm.

Rumble reverb for techno kicks

The low, rolling bed under a techno kick is the kick's own reverb tail, low-passed, saturated and sidechained from the kick. It fills the gap between hits with weight without needing a bassline.

1. Create a return "Rumble". Send only the kick track to it, at −6 dB to start.
2. Hybrid Reverb Dark Hall, Decay tempo-tuned: at 140 BPM a beat is 429 ms; Decay 1–1.5 s so it rolls across the gap but has decayed by the next kick.
3. EQ Eight after: LP at 150–200 Hz, steep. HP 30–40 Hz to keep sub garbage out.
4. Saturator for density, then Compressor sidechained from the kick so the rumble ducks at the hit and swells after — the pumping is the groove.
5. Utility Mono. Rumble in stereo turns to mud on a club system.

Freeze: holding the room

Freezing a reverb infinitely sustains the current tail. Three ways in Live 12: the legacy Reverb's Freeze button, Hybrid Reverb's Vocoder section freeze, and Spectral Time's Freezer (which is a spectral snapshot rather than a reverb hold, but used the same way).

1. Map the Freeze button to a pad or footswitch. Hit it on a chord; the tail holds at constant level.
2. With Cut enabled new input is blocked so the frozen pad stays clean; disable Cut to keep adding hits into the frozen tail (it builds like a Looper with feedback 100%).
3. Modulate the frozen tail: Auto Filter with a slow LFO, or Phaser-Flanger, so it stays alive.
4. Resample it. A frozen chord re-ingested into Simpler is a playable pad.

Spectral Time as a reverb

Spectral Time's Delay section with high feedback, Spray and a Tilt toward the highs behaves like a reverb with per-frequency-bin decay: it smears rather than echoes, and the Tilt control is a damping curve you draw.

Depth placement: the front-to-back table

Depth is decided by pre-delay, wet level and high end together. Use the table to place each element; disagreeing cues (long pre-delay but dark and very wet) confuse the ear.