REVERB

[⚖Hugh Wallington]

REVERB
 
A Google Search for REVERB tells you this:
 
Reverb, short for reverberation, is a phenomenon where sound waves reflect off surfaces, creating a series of echoes that gradually fade as the sound is absorbed by the environment. It's essentially the natural "echo" or "tail" of a sound in a space. Imagine clapping your hands in a large, empty room; the sound you hear after the clap is reverb. 
 
What is Reverb, and What Does it Sound Like?
At the end of this video he gives us an example of what a snare drum hit sounds like with different types of reverb.
 

 
At one point I had a Farfisa Balmoral organ, and this created ‘reverb’ mechanically using a ‘spring’. Sounded great, and was really effective.
 
With my Yamaha AR80 organ, reverb was created electronically, with a choice of ROOM, HALL, or CHURCH.
 
   
 
Listen to this track below, played by an organist friend of mine, Don Wherly. In the first part of the medley he has the reverb on ROOM .. and then he switches it to CHURCH. What a difference that makes!

  DW-IsItTrueWhatTheySayAboutDixie.mp3 (Size: 5.87 MB / Downloads: 7)

The REVERB on my Tyros 4 (and the other Yamaha keyboards for that matter) is found in the MIXING CONSOLE.
 
   
 
Press this once. If you press it twice it will go to STYLE PARTS .. and we don’t want that. We want the PANEL PARTS where our VOICES are allocated.
 
Move across to the EFFECT tab.
 
Choosing the ‘top’ band gives you the REVERB ‘across the board’ .. rather like the ‘Global’ one for the AR. This band also shows you which of the reverbs has been selected .. in this case, REVERB: BALLAD HALL. Each PANEL PART has it’s own setting.
 
   
 
Clicking on TYPE (shown by the green arrow) ...
 
   
 
... will bring up the page showing you all this.
 
But the most exciting bit of this EFFECTS page is undoubtedly choosing the bottom band, which will give you choices for DSP 2 – 7 (1 is already taken).
 
   
 
What is DSP?
 
On Yamaha keyboards, DSP stands for Digital Signal Processor. It refers to a computation chip and software that processes and alters audio signals to apply a wide range of on-board effects, such as delay, reverb, chorus, and distortion, to the instrument's sounds. The DSP allows users to creatively manipulate the sound to fit their performance or musical style.
 
Press TYPE (indicated by the green arrow) to see the page giving you the DSP choices.
 
   
 
You can see the many choices there are for DSP. These can be applied individually to RIGHT 1, RIGHT 2, RIGHT 3, and LEFT. This effectively applies whatever CATEGORY and TYPE you choose to the VOICE that has been chosen to play in that PART.
 
In this example I have selected DSP2; the CATEGORY as REVERB; and the TYPE .. out of the many showing .. as HALL L (Hall Large). And have applied it to the PART RIGHT 1.
 
The VOICE I have in RIGHT1 (which will now have these attributes) is ClassicalGtr, and I have been using this for playing You Are My Sunshine.
 
   
 
Click the below to hear how the ClassicalGtr sounds with the HALL L REVERB as set up above; followed by the default of NO extra reverb. I know which I prefer, and it was well worth the effort of using DSP to add some reverb into this voice.

https://app.box.com/s/wm2msoz7ma1gbqnkxwt4m7ghkmcy0la9
I have recorded these two again .. and then added CANYON as the reverb TYPE so you can hear what this sounds like, Reckon you would only use this last one for firing a bullet across the canyon!

https://app.box.com/s/mdoacdzgmyfp2v8wlr1khjdk46yfw90m 
   

I have SAVED all my choices for playing You Are My Sunshine to a REGISTRATION MEMORY BANK. When selecting the REGISTRATION MEMORY with the Classical Guitar I just checked visually that the DSP button was indeed ON.
 
   
 
It was also ON for the Nice Sax .. but OFF for the REGISTRATION MEMORY with the Trombone (indicator light is OFF).
 
   
 
Below is the ‘basic’ recording I made of this piece (no added harmony at this point).

  YouAreMySunshine.mp3 (Size: 2.86 MB / Downloads: 11)

Hugh

[⚖Hugh Wallington]

Do your VOICES sound as you are expecting them to?
 
I often look in the Music Finder for a song I am wanting to play, as this can give me ideas on STYLES and VOICES to use. This time it was Baby Love by Diana Ross and the Supremes I was looking for .. which was there.
 
The Music Finder sets it up using the OTS (One Touch System), and one of the VOICES they used (in VARIATION D) was Accent Brass. It’s always difficult to find an instrumental VOICE to replace that of the singer, and I thought this would be perfect for this song.
 
Now I already had several STYLES to use for Baby Love so my idea was to use Accent Brass in RIGHT 1 (R1) to play the melody. But what I got was not what I was expecting to hear! Have a listen to Accent Brass as it sounded from the Music Finder .. followed by what I got when using it with the STYLE I was trying out. In the DEMO I have repeated the two.
 
https://app.box.com/s/aiumobx9kamh2rkfjk806uyjqbpthjin
Clearly I am missing some REVERB here! So decided to take a look at each AccentBrass in turn in VOICE SET and compare the REVERB.
 
   
 
Clicking on VOICE SET I got this ...
 
   
 
They were both the same .. REVERB DEPTH 28.
 
Next, I took a look at the ‘overall’ (Global) REVERB by pressing the MIXING CONSOLE and tabbing across to the EFFECT page.
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
Highlighting the top bar .. there you have it. The STYLE I was trying out had re-set the overall REVERB to ROOM1. 
Is it the STYLE you are working with that sets the overall REVERB for the whole piece?
 
Press TYPE, and when the page comes up it shows you that. If REVERB is not showing it can be clicked on top left .. in BLOCK.
 
   
 
I have moved the TYPE up to BALLAD HALL ..
 
   
 
.. and now my AccentBrass sounds as it should .. with a bit of ‘echo’ in it.
Listen again to the DEMO above.
 
If you click on PARAMETER (as indicated by the red arrow) you get the screen below. Here, you can increase or decrease the REVERB level for BALLAD HALL from the ‘default’ of 64 by clicking EFFECT RETURN LEVEL. To keep this new value you would have to SAVE it.
 
   
 
I shall leave mine well alone, and can make sure my Tyros 4 doesn’t do this to me again by going to the PARAMETER LOCK in UTILITY:
 
   
 
And checking (ticking) all the things I want to remain as they were when I turn my keyboard ON (particularly my SPLIT POINT, and FINGERING).
 
   

[♔Chello]

⚖Hugh

Thanks for bringing up this crucial topic.

Clapping your hands gives a good picture of the acoustics of the room, and a studio/listening room for HiFi should not have audible reverb when clapping your hands.

Until I bought the Pa5X, I knew very little about reverb and how to adjust it.
The Pa5X turned this upside down, because with it it is easier to adjust reverb than with anything else I have tried, and very easy to understand.

Most users tend to use too weak or too strong reverb, but the worst thing is undoubtedly using too strong, because this destroys the dynamics; especially in lower frequencies.

Your tutorial is anyway a great help for anyone who wants to learn a little more about how reverb works and is used.

[⚖Hugh Wallington]

Chello,
 
Using headphones to listen to everything the thought of ‘reverb’ from your surroundings had never even entered my head, as I only get the reverb that comes with the audio file. But what you say makes sense. The room where you are listening to music needs to be ‘dead pan’ or you may get more reverb than you were bargaining for.
 
When an audio file has just the right amount of reverb applied it is a real pleasure to listen to the music. I particularly noted the 'perfect' reverb on a brass band played by whitecolin1 .. Remember My Name.
 
Click the below to listen:
 
https://chellos-keyboard-players-club.co...9#pid33709
Hugh