From the course: Audio Mixing Master Class
The Abbey Road reverb trick - Pro Tools Tutorial
From the course: Audio Mixing Master Class
The Abbey Road reverb trick
- [Voiceover] Let me show you something that I use all the time. This is a great trick, it's the Abbey Road reverb trick, and it's called Abbey Road reverb trick because this is something that Abbey Road uses on their reverbs. It's basically two filters, a high and a low pass filter, and it really makes a difference in the way the reverbs sound and the way they meld into the track. So first of all, let's listen to this vocal, just with some basic reverb on it. Now, what I'm going to put on is the deverb, which is one of the standard reverbs that comes with Pro Tools. It's actually very good, and I use this all the time. Even though it is a native plugin, it really does sound good. So let's just have a listen to the vocal with it in. ♫ Even though you don't say much ♫ I feel like I can tell ♫ - [Voiceover] Now, there's a lot of reverb there, the vocal is swimming in reverb, or it seems like it, anyway. Let's listen in the track. (full alternative rock music) It actually doesn't sound all that bad, but we can make it sound better. And here's how. What we're going to do is we're going to add an EQ in front of the deverb. Now, the whole secret to the Abbey Road Reverb Trick is the fact that they use these two filters. The first is a high pass filter, and I'm gonna put 12dB per octave, you can go 18, either one works, but here's a secret. You roll it off at about 600 cycles. Now, it could be, give or take, a little bit, it doesn't have to be exactly 600. But, it'll make a difference in the way it sounds. And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna roll off the high end as well. And this is a 10K, so these are the magic frequencies that Abbey Road uses. Now let's have a listen. ♫ Even though you don't say much ♫ I feel like I can tell ♫ - [Voiceover] Listen again, with it bypassed. ♫ Even though you don't say much ♫ I feel like I can tell ♫ - [Voiceover] Ok, let's listen to the track now. (full alternative rock music) Now, you can hear the reverb, but it's not nearly as prominent. It just melds into the track and does the thing that we really want reverb to do. It glues everything together, and yet it sounds really good. It adds that sheen onto the vocals, sounds really good. We're gonna do one other trick, and this isn't part of the Abbey Road reverb trick. This is something that you can do. I use it all the time. What we're gonna do is actually add a notch right around the vocal frequencies at 2K or so. So all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna lower this by 3 or 4 dB. Now let's have a listen. ♫ Even though you don't say much ♫ I feel like I can tell ♫ You're just about done and you had enough ♫ Now, all of a sudden, the vocal pops out a little bit more because that reverb is not in the way. So let's listen to the track. (full-bodied alternative rock music) Listen again, and I'm gonna have it bypassed. (full-bodied alternative rock music) And now listen with the Abbey Road Reverb Trick built in. (full-bodied alternative rock music) Now this sounds really good. You can add this in on just about any reverb, and you'll find that suddenly you'll have the reverb sound glue things together a little bit more. What happens is when we get rid of the low frequencies, none of those low frequencies that are on the original track will actually get in the way. And the same thing with the high end. Once we roll the high end off, it's gonna sound a little bit better because we're not going to hear as much as the reverb. Now, if we really want this to work a little bit better, what we can actually do is we can even lower that high end even more. So instead of 10K, I'm doing 7K. Let's have a listen. ♫ Even though you don't say much ♫ I feel like I can tell ♫ Big difference there, huh? Let's listen in track. (full-bodied alternative rock music) Now basically, there, I never changed the send to the reverb, so the same amount is there, but we've changed the energy spectrum of the reverb. Now, you can use this, not only on reverbs, but you can use this on delay as well. And you can use it also on just about any effect you can think of, to just keep it out of the way of whatever element that you're adding. Here's a summary for the Abbey Road Reverb Trick. The first thing to do is insert an EQ before the reverb plugin. Not after, because it does sound different. It's a little bit smoother if you insert it before the reverb plugin. Second thing is roll off the highs at 10k and the lows at 600Hz. You can use your high and low pass filters for this, but you can actually use the EQs as well. The high EQ and the low EQ. Now, just because Abbey Road always used 10k on the high end doesn't mean you have to stay there. You can actually lower this to as low as 2k if you want, for things like drums and percussion. But whatever it is, just experiment. Anything 10k or less usually sounds pretty good. And finally, if you really want that vocal to stick out, dip a little at 2k and you'll find that the reverb is going to fit better with the vocal. Also remember that any of this can be used with other effects as well, so don't just limit it to your reverb plugin. It works really well with delays and modulation too.
Contents
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The Abbey Road reverb trick6m 7s
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The Real NYC compression trick8m 52s
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The secret to "punchy" drums6m
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Give your vocal an awesome airy sound4m 13s
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Dr. Pepper 1176 setting4m 8s
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Low-volume listening for a great mix balance6m 59s
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The secret SSL buss compressor setting4m 36s
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Using a short reverb for a massive sound5m 43s
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Make your mixes hot and loud10m 11s
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The Van Halen guitar sound trick5m 40s
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Give your bass some low-end definition5m 42s
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Make your vocal shine with a stereo delay7m 13s
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Add some excitement to your boring pad tracks5m 2s
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Make your programmed hi-hat come alive5m 37s
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Get that old-school delay feedback5m 33s
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Eliminate unwanted track noises like the pros4m 37s
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Short reverb decay is your friend5m 17s
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The 1176 British "nuke" setting4m 8s
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The mono spring vocal surprise4m 6s
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Put some "smack" in your snare1m 52s
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"Space" for your keyboard tracks3m 1s
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The secret to panning background vocals3m 35s
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The “nail In the paddle” rock kick sound3m 57s
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The Hank Marvin multihued delay trick4m 21s
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Emphasizing the beat with a pumping rhythm guitar5m 17s
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Simulating a tape delay6m 45s
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Parallel compression for punch with dynamics7m 26s
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How to get reverse reverb7m 48s
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Tweak your track timing like the pros6m 9s
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The biggest sound from the shortest delay3m 53s
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The ultimate 80s guitar room sound3m 7s
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Taming the picked bass5m 18s
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The secret to gated drums4m 50s
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The exploding snare trick4m 11s
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The awesome double-effect trick3m 33s
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The moving filter trick3m 9s
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The terrific timed reverb trick7m 48s
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Acoustic guitar peak limiter trick4m 39s
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The Tommy Lee thunder drums trick5m 6s
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The mono listening trick5m 1s
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The pitchy vocal coveruo trick3m 48s
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Tighten up releases4m 1s
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The large and thick background vocal trick3m 31s
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The legendary layered reverbs trick6m 33s
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Bones Howe 1176 setting4m 17s
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The big pad reverb trick4m 26s
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Effective effects automation5m 33s
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Eliminating clicks and pops3m 35s
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EQing the mix buss4m 49s
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The magic of mono reverb5m 9s
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Adding presence with flanging3m 58s
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Insanely big room sound4m 19s
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EQ your vocal with multiband compression4m 19s
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The Abbey Road double-track trick5m 28s
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The secret Pultec bass setting3m 42s
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Increase your background vocal energy3m 13s
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EQing the perfect club kick2m 34s
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Another exploding snare trick4m
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Perfect DI and mic'd bass phase3m 34s
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Finding the Elton John piano sound4m 39s
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Effecting the effects5m 41s
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Panning outside the speakers5m 25s
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The wisdom of dotted and triplet delays4m 42s
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Increase your room mic presence5m 15s
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The dbx 160 punchy drum setting6m 8s
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Dual untimed vocal slaps5m 3s
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Tuning the kick to the song4m 28s
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De-essing the reverb4m 36s
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Let's hear it for mid-side processing3m 54s
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Dial in your low end with an RTA5m 36s
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Add some air to that piano5m 55s
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Lock the feel of the bass and kick4m 41s
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Swept midrange guitar trick5m 16s
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Hat pad trigger trick4m 9s
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Big thump snare3m 57s
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Single word delay3m 48s
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Drum replacement4m 47s
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Keyboard life4m 4s
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Balance kick and bass8m 51s
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Ducked reverb5m 52s
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Autopanning5m 38s
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Tame peaky acoustic guitar5m 9s
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Snare ambience5m 3s
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Pitchy vocal4m 13s
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Snappy snare4m 58s
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Super big reverb5m 52s
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Spectral widening4m 37s
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Clean overheads4m 38s
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Argo vocals4m 21s
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EMT short room6m 19s
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Massive snare5m 1s
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Compressed reverb4m 30s
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Bass wide4m 47s
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Vocal control3m 42s
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Compressed guitars5m 26s
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Snappy snare4m 47s
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Dry vocals2m 44s
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Bass trigger4m 15s
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Hard snare4m 51s
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Drum phase3m 25s
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Floppy kick2m 56s
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Rough mix5m 58s
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Make your drums fills more dynamic3m 23s
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The filter boost technique3m 5s
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Add some sizzle to your snare3m 3s
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That big wide guitar sound5m 53s
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Hear every hat nuance4m 25s
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Micropan for greater track separation8m 33s
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Make those toms bombastic5m 11s
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The power of the high-pass filter3m 53s
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Add some ambience to your percussion5m 9s
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Flat fader mixing8m 45s
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Get control of your cymbals2m 16s
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