This document provides an overview of reverb and listening skills for music technologists. It discusses how reverb is created by reflections in a room and how it affects the perception of instruments. Bigger rooms produce more reflections over a longer period of time, creating a feeling of a larger, more reverberant space. Examples are given of suitable reverb levels for different instruments. The document instructs students to create a melodic composition with added reverb and harmonic content, and to analyze recordings by describing microphone placement and techniques as well as reverb levels.

1. UNIT 14: LISTENING SKILLS FOR MUSIC
TECHNOLOGISTS
BTEC Level 3 Music Technology Year 1

2. BY THE END OF THIS SESSION YOU WILL…
• Be able to Identify how Reverb can effect an Instrument
• Be able to analyse Reverb on different instruments
• Be able to analyse different recordings for the suitability of the
microphone techniques used and the Reverb applied

3. REVERB
What is happening when we hear Reverb?

4. REVERB IS
Reverb is the sound we hear after we hear the direct sound (The
instrument/singer/speaker we are listening to)
• Firstly we hear the direct sound –(An instrument/singer/speaker)
• Secondly we hear Early Reflections
• Thirdly, as the sound continues to bounce of reflective surfaces,
a continuous stream of sound fuses into one entity, which
continues after the original sound ceases (giving us Reverb)

5. BASIC REVERB REFLECTIONS

6. ROOM SIZE
The size of the room we listen in effects the amount of Reverb, but why?
• The previous image was based on a 20ft room
• If the room was larger, the reflections would take longer to reach our ears
• This means that there is more time for a build up of echos/other reflections to
happen during the time these reflections return to our ears
• The more reflections that occur, and the longer they take to decay gives us
the sound of a large reflective space
• The less reflections that occur and the quicker they decay the smaller a
space will sound, or with less Reverb

7. AN EXAMPLE OF REFLECTIONS IN A LARGER
ROOM

8. EARLY AND LATE REFLECTIONS IN A
40X20X12FT ROOM

9. SO HOW DOES THIS EFFECT AN INSTRUMENT?
When a string of a guitar is played many notes or harmonics are
heard, not just the note we perceive
The other strings slightly reverberate and add to the texture of the
sound
Although we only perceive one key harmonic called the
Fundamental harmonic, there are other harmonics adding to the
texture of the sound

10. SO HOW DOES THIS EFFECT AN INSTRUMENT?
When there are reflections in a room, the harmonics
carried in these reflections effect the sound of the
instrument by being absorbed into the wood (of a guitar)
and into the strings of the instrument effecting the sound
we hear

11. EXAMPLES SUITABLE REVERB
As with many techniques in music, the application of Reverb is
entirely subjective, however some examples of suitable Reverb are:
•
Vocals – Nearly all recordings apply some subtle Reverb here
•
Rock Electric guitar solos, or Clean guitar sounds sound nice with heavier Reverb
•
Most/All Drums in a Drum Kit sound good with subtle Reverb, Cymbals generally
sound better with less Reverb
•
Strings/Brass sound good with heavier Reverb as these are usually recorded in a
larger room as part of an orchestra
•
A Piano usually requires a good amount of Reverb to capture all of the texture of the
different harmonics from the many strings inside the Piano

12. TASK
• Open Cubase
• Select an Instrument
• Notate a melody
• Add some Harmonic content using other instruments – (You can
add an Harmony by making one instrument play the same line as the melody, raised
by two notes)
• Use reverb to create a suitable acoustic environment for the
instruments use.

13. MICROPHONE TYPES AND POSITIONS
Some common microphones
used:
•
Shure SM57 & SM58’s – Dynamic mics
used to record guitars, snare drums.
•
AKG D112 – Kick Drum Mic
•
Neumann U87 – Vocal mic.

14. MICROPHONES AND LISTENING SKILLS
For this Unit we do not expect you to name the Microphones used
However, it may be possible in some recordings to describe
• where the Microphone was placed
• And how many microphones were used
• Whether each instrument was recorded separately or all
performed at once

15. MICROPHONE POSITIONING

16. TASK
You are required to…
Write a 200 word review of an album you have heard in the last
year, it must:
• Critically describe and analyse the album
• Reflect on the artists other work (Albums, collaborations,
singles)
• Evaluate the album in context to similar artists
…save it, and email it to:
dvoss@shipley.ac.uk.

18. BY THE END OF THIS SESSION YOU WILL…
• Be able to Identify how Reverb can effect an Instrument
• Be able to analyse Reverb on different instruments
• Be able to analyse different recordings for the suitability of the
microphone techniques used and the Reverb applied