January 14, 2025 • 14 mins
In this episode of Inside The Mix, we tackle the challenge of managing unwanted reverb baked into audio samples. If you've ever struggled with excessive room sound or reverberation in your recordings, this episode offers practical solutions and expert insights to help you clean up your mixes.
I dive into the challenge of managing unwanted reverb baked into audio samples and explore whether it's possible to remove reverb from audio without compromising sound quality.
I break down the best deverb plugins, including iZotope RX De-reverb, Acon Digital DeVerberate 3, and Logic Pro’s Enveloper, comparing their effectiveness in reducing reverberation while keeping the audio clean and natural.
You'll learn how to get rid of reverberation in your tracks, understand what deverb plugins do, and discover if there's a plugin that truly removes reverb from audio samples.
Tune in and learn how to take control of your audio for cleaner, more professional mixes!
Do you want to listen to Out Run The Sun? Click here.
Got a question? I’d love to hear from you! Click here to submit a question, share your social media handles or website, and get featured in a future episode.
Plus, one lucky question will win a Starbucks voucher each month!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Marc Matthews (00:01):
You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast
with your host, mark Matthews.
Hello and welcome to the Insidethe Mix podcast.
I'm Mark Matthews, your host,musician, producer and mix and
mastering engineer.
You've come to the right placeif you want to know more about
your favorite synth musicartists, music engineering and
production, songwriting and themusic industry.
(00:21):
I've been writing, producing,mixing and mastering music for
over 15 years and I want toshare what I've learned with you
.
Hello, folks, and welcome tothe Inside the Mix podcast.
If you are a new listener, makesure you hit follow wherever
you get your podcasts and ifyou're a returning listener, as
always, a huge welcome back.
And, of course, if you'rewatching this on YouTube, make
(00:41):
sure you hit subscribe and chuckit a like as well.
That would be lovely.
Before we dig into this episode,I just want to let you know of
a new format that we're going tobe continuing into 2025 and
hopefully beyond as well.
So the episode that dropped onNew Year's Eve episode 175,
where you, the listeners,submitted your music wins of
2024 and your questions, andmyself and my good friend R9,
(01:02):
tim Benson, answered yourquestions on the episode, and
we're going to continue thisinto 2025.
So each month, myself and Timare going to answer your
questions on a podcast episode.
All you need to do to submit aquestion is click the speakpipe
link in the episode descriptionA short, up to 30 second audio
clip.
You don't need an account withspeakpipe.
(01:23):
You don't need an account withspeak pipe.
You don't need a specificmicrophone or anything like that
.
It's just like sending an audiomessage via WhatsApp or
whatever platform you use, andthis is an excellent opportunity
to give yourself a shout out onthe podcast and reach the
podcast audience.
So something along the lines ofhey, this is your name.
My question for Mark and Tim iswhatever your question is, this
(01:45):
is your name.
My question for Mark and Tim iswhatever your question is, and
then you can follow me or findout more about what I'm doing at
your website, social media,whatever it is, and remember
that is going to stay on thatpodcast episode forever,
basically.
So you're going to always havenew listeners finding and
discovering you when they listento that episode, and each month
I will draw a lucky winner froma virtual hat to win a coffee
on me.
And if you don't like coffee,you can just give the voucher to
(02:06):
someone else and pretend thatyou gave it to them.
So click the link in theepisode description and submit
your questions and get featuredon the podcast this year.
Let's dig into this episode now.
So I was working on this songof mine called Separation.
It's a melodic house tune andit actually dropped on January
the 10th.
Separation it's a melodic housetune and it actually dropped on
January the 10th and it's partof a 50 plus artist compilation
(02:28):
in aid of a fellow producer inneed who suffered an unfortunate
accident, and we are raisingmoney for this producer to help
him through this difficult time.
The producer's name isOutrunner and you probably heard
me mention him on the podcastbefore because I love his
productions.
So so so good.
So we're raising money forOutrunner and it dropped on
January the 10th.
There's a link in the episodedescription.
(02:48):
Please do go check it out.
As I say, there are someamazing artists and songs on
there.
It's a mix of all styles ofsynth music and some obviously
we've got Melodic House from mehere.
So please do go check that outand again, there'll be a link in
the episode description.
So in this song I importedsamples and in some of these
samples there is baked in reverband in particular this one
(03:10):
we're going to use today in thisdemonstration.
It's quite a nasty soundingreverb that's baked in.
To be honest, I don't reallylike it and I like to use my own
reverbs anyway and then bust myaudio out to these reverbs.
I don't like to have reverbs oneach individual channel or VST
instrument because it can getmuddy quite quickly.
So in this episode I'm going togo through three tools I've got
at my disposal here toattenuate the reverb that is
(03:35):
baked into this sample.
Now this isn't going to be medemonstrating how to use these
tools, okay, it's just going tobe me comparing them and
figuring out which one I likethe best.
So I'm not going to go througha an explicit demonstration of
each tool, it's just the three Ihave available and which one I
think is best.
So let's dive in.
So here we are in Logic Pro andwe are in the project for my
(03:57):
tune separation, and I've got mythree tools I'm going to be
using in this episode.
I've got the Logic Pro envelope, I've got the iZotope RX10D
Reverb and I've got the AkonDigital Deverberate 3.
So let's play the samplewithout any reverb attenuation.
And I've realized I haven't puta fade in between the samples.
(04:25):
There it's a slap on the wristfor me on that one.
There I thought I'd done themall.
Anyway, you can hear the reverbdoesn't sound particularly nice
and I wanted to attenuate it.
I don't necessarily need to getrid of it altogether, because
that could have a prettydetrimental effect to the sound
itself.
So I just want to attenuate itand then put my own reverb, or
rather bust it out to my ownreverb.
(04:45):
So let's start with RX D Reverb.
So D Reverb I do like, becauseit's got the learn feature on it
which I did use in thisinstance.
So toggles learning mode on andoff, which is quite useful
because it can then estimate thetail length rather than me
having to try and work it out,and it will also set the reverb
profile as well.
Now, admittedly, I did boostthe low and low mids of the
(05:06):
reverb profile.
So you've got low, low, mid,high, mid and high as well.
You can also enhance the drysignal, because what I've
noticed is when you do attenuatesome of this baked in reverb,
it can have an effect on theoverall signal level of the
audio.
So that enhanced dry signal isquite useful.
Now I would prefer if it werejust a gain knob that I could
use instead and I could tailorit the way I want.
(05:27):
Because when I did use it, itboosted it a touch too much for
my liking, so I actually turnedit off altogether, I disabled it
.
So let's have a listen to theRX-D reverb attenuation.
So let's enable it and let'splay.
It Sounds pretty good, right, Ican still hear some of that
(05:55):
reverb tail in there.
I don't want to attenuate italtogether because it has a
detrimental effect on theenvelope of the sound itself.
It starts to mute it, which isnot what I want when you get rid
of the reverb altogether.
And, what is more, I've got thereduction on 20, which in RX
reverb is the overall strengthof the processing.
So I can't go any higher.
Anyway.
Let's enhance the dry signal.
(06:17):
I'll pull that on, let's playthat anyway and let's see what
that sounds like.
Yeah, it's even more, so sortof pushing that reverb tail to
the back, which is quite nice.
So I could use a gain toolafter the rx10d reverb and then
(06:37):
just boost the not boost, ratherattenuate the overall gain of
the audio and bring that down.
So, thinking about it now,maybe I would leave enhanced dry
signal on, because it's makingthe dry signal stand out more,
which is what it's doing right.
It's enhanced dry signal.
So let's do a quick before andafter.
So this is without any reverbattenuation and this is with
(07:03):
RX-10 D reverb.
And this is with RX-10 D reverb.
It sounds pretty good.
I've still got some of thatreverb tail in there, but
overall the dry signal isdefinitely more prominent and
also I've got the full envelopethat I want of the sound.
(07:24):
It doesn't sound muted, whichis what I don't want when I'm
attenuating reverb.
So let's have a listen toDeverberate 3.
So with Deverberate 3, I'veused the other reverb estimation
and I've set the reverb time to3.2, which mirrors what I did
in RX-10 as well.
I've got the dry signal at zeroand then I've got the reverb
level at minus five.
(07:45):
So this is the amount ofreverberation in the input
signal specified in dB, and itsounds like this.
So with D-Verberate 3, thereverb has definitely been
attenuated, but you've got somesort of spectral anomalies
(08:09):
happening there.
So whereas with D reverb it wasjust attenuating the reverb and
you could still hear a bit ofthe tail, with Deverberate
you've got this sort of digital,not noise, but it's just
anomalies, artifacts happening.
But you do have this spectralsmoothing dial here in
Deverberate 3, which I've gotset at zero.
So let's boost that.
(08:31):
So I'm going to play it and I'mgoing to boost it and see if it
makes any difference.
Yeah, it definitely does.
I mean, with the spectralsmoothing it does smooth out
that sort of spectral, thosespectral anomalies, as it were.
But for ease of use and quickresults I'm leaning towards
(08:53):
rx10D reverb, to be honest withyou, because I want to attenuate
the level of reverb, not getrid of it altogether, and I find
it's kind of the most pleasingto the ear out of the two.
So in fact let's do an AB again.
I'm going to play the AkonDigital Deverberate 3, and then
I'll play the RX-10D reverb, andthis is RX-10.
(09:20):
Listening to it now I might bechanging my mind here.
I think I might prefer theDigital Deverberate 3 with the
spectral smoothing as well.
I'm thinking actually, now I'vecompared the two and listened
to the two, the reverb is just atouch too high with RX10.
(09:40):
I could probably go in andtweak it a bit more and
attenuate that reverb.
But for quick results I thinkmaybe the Digital Deverberate 3
might be the winner in this one.
So let's look at the third andfinal tool and that is the Logic
Pro Enveloper.
Now, in any DAW I could becorrected on this, but I'm going
(10:02):
to hazard a guess and say thereis some form of transient or
envelope shaper in a DAW so youcan do this in any of them.
And it's probably even easierto do this than the other two,
the D reverb and the D verberatethree, because all you need to
do with the envelope, you'reusing the right hand side of the
envelope in Logic, the releaseside, and I've got the time all
(10:25):
the way up to 2000 millisecondsand I've got the gain all the
way down at minus 100.
So, basically, if you'rewatching this, you'll see
there's almost well there's a 90degree angle on the release.
So it's just really isattenuating the release time of
this audio.
So I'm going to play it now andyou'll hear what I mean.
(10:47):
Now, to me it sounds kind oflike a hybrid of the D reverb
and the digital reverb rate.
So it's attenuated the overalllevel, but you've still got sort
of like this stunted reverbtail and you could play around
(11:07):
with this.
You could reduce the amount ofreverb or rather reduce the
amount of gain reduction on therelease.
I've got it set at minus 100%at the moment and I've also
boosted it by 1dB just tocompensate for that overall
signal level reduction becauseof the decrease in the release
time.
But out of the three, I'mleaning towards the Enveloper,
(11:28):
purely on the basis of how easyit is to use and it's free in
this instance.
Now it's going to depend on thesource material, right?
But my advice off the back ofthis is, if you've got a
transient shaper or an enveloperin your DAW, before you reach
out and buy an expensive or evenjust buy a D-Verb plugin, check
(11:49):
out what you can do with yourenveloper or transient shaper,
because you may well find thatyou don't need anything else and
you might actually have thetool that you need to attenuate
reverb at your fingertips nativein your DAW.
But again, it all depends onthe source material.
If you're a Logic Pro user andyou want to go more in depth
with the envelope, check outepisode 146 of the podcast.
(12:11):
Quickly remove reverb from adrum loop with Logic Pro's most
overlooked plugin.
So that's episode 146.
And also check out 145 as well,where I look at transient
shaping of a snare drum.
So let's do a quick playthroughof each of these three tools, in
order of what we've beenthrough in this episode.
So this is RX-10D reverb.
So this is RX-10 D Reverb.
(12:39):
This is Akon DigitalDeverberate 3.
And this is the Logic ProEnveloper and this is the
original audio.
So I'm going to play it in thecontext of the mix now with my
(13:06):
preferred choice, which is theLogic Pro D Enveloper.
So let's play it.
There we go, folks.
Let me know what you think.
(13:26):
If you're watching this onYouTube in the comments.
What have I overlooked?
Maybe something I've missed outon?
Do you have a preferred tool?
Please do let me know in thecomments.
Alternatively, you can DM me atInside the Mix podcast on
Instagram and let me know yourthoughts.
And please do click the link inthe episode description and
check out that compilation album50 Plus Artists Outrun the Sun,
including my tune here,separation.
(13:48):
So I hope that was useful,folks.
Until next time, happyproducing.
You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast
with your host, mark Matthews.
Hello and welcome to the Insidethe Mix podcast.
I'm Mark Matthews, your host,musician, producer and mix and
mastering engineer.
You've come to the right placeif you want to know more about
your favorite synth musicartists, music engineering and
production, songwriting and themusic industry.
(00:21):
I've been writing, producing,mixing and mastering music for
over 15 years and I want toshare what I've learned with you
.
Hello, folks, and welcome tothe Inside the Mix podcast.
If you are a new listener, makesure you hit follow wherever
you get your podcasts and ifyou're a returning listener, as
always, a huge welcome back.
And, of course, if you'rewatching this on YouTube, make
(00:41):
sure you hit subscribe and chuckit a like as well.
That would be lovely.
Before we dig into this episode,I just want to let you know of
a new format that we're going tobe continuing into 2025 and
hopefully beyond as well.
So the episode that dropped onNew Year's Eve episode 175,
where you, the listeners,submitted your music wins of
2024 and your questions, andmyself and my good friend R9,
(01:02):
tim Benson, answered yourquestions on the episode, and
we're going to continue thisinto 2025.
So each month, myself and Timare going to answer your
questions on a podcast episode.
All you need to do to submit aquestion is click the speakpipe
link in the episode descriptionA short, up to 30 second audio
clip.
You don't need an account withspeakpipe.
(01:23):
You don't need an account withspeak pipe.
You don't need a specificmicrophone or anything like that
.
It's just like sending an audiomessage via WhatsApp or
whatever platform you use, andthis is an excellent opportunity
to give yourself a shout out onthe podcast and reach the
podcast audience.
So something along the lines ofhey, this is your name.
My question for Mark and Tim iswhatever your question is, this
(01:45):
is your name.
My question for Mark and Tim iswhatever your question is, and
then you can follow me or findout more about what I'm doing at
your website, social media,whatever it is, and remember
that is going to stay on thatpodcast episode forever,
basically.
So you're going to always havenew listeners finding and
discovering you when they listento that episode, and each month
I will draw a lucky winner froma virtual hat to win a coffee
on me.
And if you don't like coffee,you can just give the voucher to
(02:06):
someone else and pretend thatyou gave it to them.
So click the link in theepisode description and submit
your questions and get featuredon the podcast this year.
Let's dig into this episode now.
So I was working on this songof mine called Separation.
It's a melodic house tune andit actually dropped on January
the 10th.
Separation it's a melodic housetune and it actually dropped on
January the 10th and it's partof a 50 plus artist compilation
(02:28):
in aid of a fellow producer inneed who suffered an unfortunate
accident, and we are raisingmoney for this producer to help
him through this difficult time.
The producer's name isOutrunner and you probably heard
me mention him on the podcastbefore because I love his
productions.
So so so good.
So we're raising money forOutrunner and it dropped on
January the 10th.
There's a link in the episodedescription.
(02:48):
Please do go check it out.
As I say, there are someamazing artists and songs on
there.
It's a mix of all styles ofsynth music and some obviously
we've got Melodic House from mehere.
So please do go check that outand again, there'll be a link in
the episode description.
So in this song I importedsamples and in some of these
samples there is baked in reverband in particular this one
(03:10):
we're going to use today in thisdemonstration.
It's quite a nasty soundingreverb that's baked in.
To be honest, I don't reallylike it and I like to use my own
reverbs anyway and then bust myaudio out to these reverbs.
I don't like to have reverbs oneach individual channel or VST
instrument because it can getmuddy quite quickly.
So in this episode I'm going togo through three tools I've got
at my disposal here toattenuate the reverb that is
(03:35):
baked into this sample.
Now this isn't going to be medemonstrating how to use these
tools, okay, it's just going tobe me comparing them and
figuring out which one I likethe best.
So I'm not going to go througha an explicit demonstration of
each tool, it's just the three Ihave available and which one I
think is best.
So let's dive in.
So here we are in Logic Pro andwe are in the project for my
(03:57):
tune separation, and I've got mythree tools I'm going to be
using in this episode.
I've got the Logic Pro envelope, I've got the iZotope RX10D
Reverb and I've got the AkonDigital Deverberate 3.
So let's play the samplewithout any reverb attenuation.
And I've realized I haven't puta fade in between the samples.
(04:25):
There it's a slap on the wristfor me on that one.
There I thought I'd done themall.
Anyway, you can hear the reverbdoesn't sound particularly nice
and I wanted to attenuate it.
I don't necessarily need to getrid of it altogether, because
that could have a prettydetrimental effect to the sound
itself.
So I just want to attenuate itand then put my own reverb, or
rather bust it out to my ownreverb.
(04:45):
So let's start with RX D Reverb.
So D Reverb I do like, becauseit's got the learn feature on it
which I did use in thisinstance.
So toggles learning mode on andoff, which is quite useful
because it can then estimate thetail length rather than me
having to try and work it out,and it will also set the reverb
profile as well.
Now, admittedly, I did boostthe low and low mids of the
(05:06):
reverb profile.
So you've got low, low, mid,high, mid and high as well.
You can also enhance the drysignal, because what I've
noticed is when you do attenuatesome of this baked in reverb,
it can have an effect on theoverall signal level of the
audio.
So that enhanced dry signal isquite useful.
Now I would prefer if it werejust a gain knob that I could
use instead and I could tailorit the way I want.
(05:27):
Because when I did use it, itboosted it a touch too much for
my liking, so I actually turnedit off altogether, I disabled it
.
So let's have a listen to theRX-D reverb attenuation.
So let's enable it and let'splay.
It Sounds pretty good, right, Ican still hear some of that
(05:55):
reverb tail in there.
I don't want to attenuate italtogether because it has a
detrimental effect on theenvelope of the sound itself.
It starts to mute it, which isnot what I want when you get rid
of the reverb altogether.
And, what is more, I've got thereduction on 20, which in RX
reverb is the overall strengthof the processing.
So I can't go any higher.
Anyway.
Let's enhance the dry signal.
(06:17):
I'll pull that on, let's playthat anyway and let's see what
that sounds like.
Yeah, it's even more, so sortof pushing that reverb tail to
the back, which is quite nice.
So I could use a gain toolafter the rx10d reverb and then
(06:37):
just boost the not boost, ratherattenuate the overall gain of
the audio and bring that down.
So, thinking about it now,maybe I would leave enhanced dry
signal on, because it's makingthe dry signal stand out more,
which is what it's doing right.
It's enhanced dry signal.
So let's do a quick before andafter.
So this is without any reverbattenuation and this is with
(07:03):
RX-10 D reverb.
And this is with RX-10 D reverb.
It sounds pretty good.
I've still got some of thatreverb tail in there, but
overall the dry signal isdefinitely more prominent and
also I've got the full envelopethat I want of the sound.
(07:24):
It doesn't sound muted, whichis what I don't want when I'm
attenuating reverb.
So let's have a listen toDeverberate 3.
So with Deverberate 3, I'veused the other reverb estimation
and I've set the reverb time to3.2, which mirrors what I did
in RX-10 as well.
I've got the dry signal at zeroand then I've got the reverb
level at minus five.
(07:45):
So this is the amount ofreverberation in the input
signal specified in dB, and itsounds like this.
So with D-Verberate 3, thereverb has definitely been
attenuated, but you've got somesort of spectral anomalies
(08:09):
happening there.
So whereas with D reverb it wasjust attenuating the reverb and
you could still hear a bit ofthe tail, with Deverberate
you've got this sort of digital,not noise, but it's just
anomalies, artifacts happening.
But you do have this spectralsmoothing dial here in
Deverberate 3, which I've gotset at zero.
So let's boost that.
(08:31):
So I'm going to play it and I'mgoing to boost it and see if it
makes any difference.
Yeah, it definitely does.
I mean, with the spectralsmoothing it does smooth out
that sort of spectral, thosespectral anomalies, as it were.
But for ease of use and quickresults I'm leaning towards
(08:53):
rx10D reverb, to be honest withyou, because I want to attenuate
the level of reverb, not getrid of it altogether, and I find
it's kind of the most pleasingto the ear out of the two.
So in fact let's do an AB again.
I'm going to play the AkonDigital Deverberate 3, and then
I'll play the RX-10D reverb, andthis is RX-10.
(09:20):
Listening to it now I might bechanging my mind here.
I think I might prefer theDigital Deverberate 3 with the
spectral smoothing as well.
I'm thinking actually, now I'vecompared the two and listened
to the two, the reverb is just atouch too high with RX10.
(09:40):
I could probably go in andtweak it a bit more and
attenuate that reverb.
But for quick results I thinkmaybe the Digital Deverberate 3
might be the winner in this one.
So let's look at the third andfinal tool and that is the Logic
Pro Enveloper.
Now, in any DAW I could becorrected on this, but I'm going
(10:02):
to hazard a guess and say thereis some form of transient or
envelope shaper in a DAW so youcan do this in any of them.
And it's probably even easierto do this than the other two,
the D reverb and the D verberatethree, because all you need to
do with the envelope, you'reusing the right hand side of the
envelope in Logic, the releaseside, and I've got the time all
(10:25):
the way up to 2000 millisecondsand I've got the gain all the
way down at minus 100.
So, basically, if you'rewatching this, you'll see
there's almost well there's a 90degree angle on the release.
So it's just really isattenuating the release time of
this audio.
So I'm going to play it now andyou'll hear what I mean.
(10:47):
Now, to me it sounds kind oflike a hybrid of the D reverb
and the digital reverb rate.
So it's attenuated the overalllevel, but you've still got sort
of like this stunted reverbtail and you could play around
(11:07):
with this.
You could reduce the amount ofreverb or rather reduce the
amount of gain reduction on therelease.
I've got it set at minus 100%at the moment and I've also
boosted it by 1dB just tocompensate for that overall
signal level reduction becauseof the decrease in the release
time.
But out of the three, I'mleaning towards the Enveloper,
(11:28):
purely on the basis of how easyit is to use and it's free in
this instance.
Now it's going to depend on thesource material, right?
But my advice off the back ofthis is, if you've got a
transient shaper or an enveloperin your DAW, before you reach
out and buy an expensive or evenjust buy a D-Verb plugin, check
(11:49):
out what you can do with yourenveloper or transient shaper,
because you may well find thatyou don't need anything else and
you might actually have thetool that you need to attenuate
reverb at your fingertips nativein your DAW.
But again, it all depends onthe source material.
If you're a Logic Pro user andyou want to go more in depth
with the envelope, check outepisode 146 of the podcast.
(12:11):
Quickly remove reverb from adrum loop with Logic Pro's most
overlooked plugin.
So that's episode 146.
And also check out 145 as well,where I look at transient
shaping of a snare drum.
So let's do a quick playthroughof each of these three tools, in
order of what we've beenthrough in this episode.
So this is RX-10D reverb.
So this is RX-10 D Reverb.
(12:39):
This is Akon DigitalDeverberate 3.
And this is the Logic ProEnveloper and this is the
original audio.
So I'm going to play it in thecontext of the mix now with my
(13:06):
preferred choice, which is theLogic Pro D Enveloper.
So let's play it.
There we go, folks.
Let me know what you think.
(13:26):
If you're watching this onYouTube in the comments.
What have I overlooked?
Maybe something I've missed outon?
Do you have a preferred tool?
Please do let me know in thecomments.
Alternatively, you can DM me atInside the Mix podcast on
Instagram and let me know yourthoughts.
And please do click the link inthe episode description and
check out that compilation album50 Plus Artists Outrun the Sun,
including my tune here,separation.
(13:48):
So I hope that was useful,folks.
Until next time, happyproducing.
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