How Much Does Reverb Change a Mix? Three Producers Compared

I heard a J-pop foundation, with a lo-fi feel and touches of dance music. My concept was to bring out the song's own character naturally.
Rather than exaggerating the effects, I wanted to create a natural atmosphere around the song.

I used Neoverb for natural depth and space, and UAD emulations of classic reverbs such as the Lexicon 224 and EMT 140 on the vocal.

My concept was to bring an EDM-style sound into J-pop.

To define the rhythm clearly and give the mix a dance-music character,
I kept the kick and bass free of reverb,
while giving the vocal and synths deep reverb.
I wanted that contrast to be clearly audible.

I used several products from Valhalla DSP, whose reverbs are popular in EDM.

Although the tempo is moderate, the song has a dance-like feel. I wanted to add natural depth and width while preserving as much of the groove as possible.

The only reverb plug-in I used was Seventh Heaven, which recreates the Bricasti Design M7 hardware reverb.
It was a recent favorite of mine, so this was also a challenge to see what I could do using just that one reverb product.

I used reverb on the kick too, to help it fit naturally into the song.

I wanted a tail with a little depth, so I chose a hall-oriented sound in Neoverb.

I wanted a similar slight sense of depth, so I used Neoverb here as well.
The blend is mainly hall with reflections. I chose small- to medium-sized hall settings for a moderate sense of depth and width.

I used a send so I could reduce the low-frequency resonance while preserving the definition of the original sound.
A send lets me apply effects to the reverb signal separately. I use it for tracks where I want detailed control of the ambience.

I set a slightly longer pre-delay and used EQ to cut the low frequencies in the reverb signal.
That helps prevent unnecessary energy from overlapping the kick's range and making it muddy.

I wanted the rhythm to remain firmly up front as the foundation of the song. I left the kick dry, while making the other rhythm parts feel as though they were resonating in a broad space.

For the rhythm parts other than the kick, I used three processes: Valhalla Room for depth and width, H-Delay to extend the rhythm, and EQ to remove excess low-frequency weight.

I used a longer reverb pre-delay so the original attack remained audible, and a long ping-pong delay to widen the hi-hat image.
EQ cuts on the reverb signal were also important to keep the low frequencies from building up and becoming muddy.

I wanted to widen the bass image to fill more of the song's space, and use low-frequency reflections to give it more weight.

I used a send on the vocal so I could control the original signal and reverb separately.

For a rich EDM-style lead vocal, I combined several reverbs and delays to build up the ambience.
However, a deep effect can make the original harder to hear. That is especially problematic for a lead vocal, whose clarity is central to its role.

To address that, I applied sidechain compression to the reverb, triggered by the dry vocal. When the dry vocal gets louder, the reverb is reduced, allowing a long tail without blurring the vocal's definition.

As on the other tracks, I used more pre-delay for longer reverbs to separate their timing from the original signal.
When extending the tail, I also used delay feedback to create a clearly audible continuation rather than relying only on diffuse reverb.

I treated the chord track as a decorative part and wanted it to sit clearly behind the rhythm and vocal.

The key was to insert the reverb and use a high wet level. I chose a chamber, using its early reflections to soften the definition and adding a long tail.

I also considered a plate for the long decay, but chose a chamber because I wanted the width and spatial positioning created by its early reflections.