Reverb for rhythm

[JediMasterThrash]

I've been wondering what's the best reverb for rhythm metal guitar.
Styles including 80's thrash, prog, power, melodic, neo, aor
Not considering death/djent styles

I've always typically found straight up distortion a bit too "harsh" on it's own and just a slight touch of reverb softens it up to make it listenable.
I find that a ton of reverb gives great 80's rock solo vibe. Big bends and finger tapping and fast hammer-on licks just soar with a ton of 80's reverb.
But the rhythm tends to muddy out with too much reverb.

For the type of reverb, I tend to find reverbs labelled as "hall" or "arena" give the sound I like. I'm not a fan of things labelled "plate", "spring", and I find smaller revers like "room" and "church" kinda honky.

I've got a Polara right now for my reverb. I've been trying to find a setting that's just good for always on. But I tend to find I prefer more reverb on solo and less on rhythm. And I feel like even with the reverb at it's minimum decay length on hall mode is still a bit too much for 80's metallica/staccato palm mutes (I have no need to perfectly emulate any given album tone, just looking for something I like).

just wondering if there's like a holy grail reverb for metal rhythm out there.

 

[Necky379]

I wouldn’t call it a “holy grail” but reverb and delay effects are what I use my POD XT Pro for mostly. I run it in the effects loop of a 6505+, amp sims off. It’s a wet/dry setup with an MP-1 running though a Roadmaster power section as dry. This is the rig I go for when I want to get the sounds I think you’re after. It also does 90’s VH beautifully (intended purpose), hair and other rock stuff too. Old pods are dirt cheap, the effects sound great to me and offer a lot of tweaking options. I don’t remember which reverb I settled on but I can look if you have any interest in knowing. There are a bunch of reverb options, I can’t imagine not being able to find one that works for you. The delay can go 100% wet which is how I set it. Built in noise gate and EQ options are also nice. The POD takes care of all wet duties except for a pitch effect I use a pedal for and I kick an SD-1 on/off to go between mid gain and high gain.

 

[Emperoff]

If it sounds good to you, it is good. I would never use reverb on rythm sounds when playing live (because usually there is enough natural reverb anywhere), but people like Rabea Massaad have reverb always on in their rythm sounds.

 

[laxu]

I tend to like a little bit of reverb no matter what. I mostly use a fairly low mix setting plate or room reverb. The lower the gain the bigger the reverb can usually sound.

 

[budda]

When i was playing post hardcore our main reverb was strymon plate. With my axefx at home, anything not drenched in hall+ has medium room at stock settings.

If you want 2 sounds, strymon bluesky is a good pedal.

 

[sleewell]

i like a little bit of room reverb on my main dirt tone. i think i have the mix set down to like 10% or something very minor so its just a touch. i think for cleans i bump it up to like 40% so its more noticeable. for the sections that are heavy on reverb i use the heliosphere which is a delay and reverb combo.

 

[StevenC]

just wondering if there's like a holy grail reverb for metal rhythm out there.

No. Obviously.

Reverbs are the sound of a space. If a hall is too much, try a big room. If that's too much, try a smaller room.

Maybe try running it in parallel to your dry rhythm sound also, or wet dry.

 

[GreatGreen]

A *very* small amount of room reverb can be really cool because if you do it right, it sort of puts the whole jam space in the mind of the listener and gets them to visualize dudes in a room cranking gear and going to town.

 

[JediMasterThrash]

One trick is I like to shoegaze as little as possible. Like one footswitch to turn "solo mode" on and off. And all my pedals are on the rack since they go in the FX loops, so I just have a midi pedal and exp pedal up front.

I've been thinking a stereo reverb+delay combo pedal with midi/footswitch option is probably just what I should get. There aren't a ton of options and they're pretty spendy. The source audio collider seems like the best one.

 

[RevDrucifer]

For metal rhythms? None.

For non-metal stuff I use it all over, but palm muted chugging stuff, no fuckin’ way. Just gonna slop everything up.

 

[Alex79]

The only reason to put reverb on metal guitar is to make the South of Heaven intro sound properly ;-)

 

[KailM]

I don’t really like reverb on for rhythm. Definitely not for staccato/palm-muted riffs. For black metal rhythm/tremolo picking chords, a little can be okay.

Lately I’ve been enjoying a little delay with a medium length, lower mix, and only 2-3ish repeats. When playing chugging chords you can barely tell it’s on, but if I break into tremolo picked single string lines it adds a lot of depth and size. The repeats also pop out more during lead runs and when muting single notes. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to having one setting for both tight rhythm and lead playing, without having to change a thing.

 

[Baelzebeard]

I always have a little reverb on. For rhythm, I like to use kind of a large,long reverb, but with the mix set pretty low. To amp it up for leads, cleans, atmospheric parts, I just kick on another reverb and/or delay to make it stand out.

If you need two settings, I would suggest having a pedal with multiple settings you can switch between on the fly, or multiple pedals.

 

[Drew]

For like 99% of things (basically, reverb as ambience, not reverb as color), I'm generally an advocate of having the same reverb on everything, by setting up a reverb bus and sending things to it, to help create the feel of a mix happening in the same acoustic "space." So, I'd just put a send from the rhythm guitars to my reverb bus, but turn the send way down to the "only audible as something missing when you turn it off" level.

I DO like a little bit of delay on rhythm guitars for a Devin Townsend sort of vibe, but I'm definitely in he minority there.

 

[Drew]

Also - is this for studio, or live, use?

Studio, absolutely, SOME reverb should probably be on there, even if its almost inaudible.

Live, don't worry about the sound from your cab or monitors. If possible, try to audition your tone from the middle of the venue. Plenty of natural room ambience is already going to be there - I'd be very hesitant about adding any more.

 

[JediMasterThrash]

Primarily for home recording. But I tend to run the same everything live, once it's all dialed in I don't like to change it. I just adjust the end-of-line bass/treble 10-band eq to adapt to the venue.

I typically run all my effects at that level where it's just barely doing something. If you turn it off/on you can hear a difference, but if you're just turning the level know up/down you feel you're at that threshold where the effect just starts to make a difference. I find this is enough to enhance the tone and give it depth, but without overwhelming it. I Find if the effect are on much higher than that, as soon as you crank the volume suddenly they just overwhelm.

Except delay in some solos. I really like to hear that clear repeat. But I think that's common, lestining to like eric johnson or adrian smith solos you can hear those very clear repeats.

I also like that just a touch of delay on rhythm, So like when you finish a song and it goes from a wall of sound to all instruments off, you hear that trailing last rhythm guitar chord fade-out repeat a copule of times.

 

[ExMachina]

One thing you can do that not full reverb is run two cabs and mess with the phase. So Leon do it on doom tone video.

 

[The Thing Upstairs]

When using my axefx I use the studio setting for rhythm, except for lead where I'll use one of the others - London plate, church etc depending on what I'm going for.
Using my amps and pedalboard through my blue sky I'll use small room or maybe reflections. I like the rhythm not to feel too dry but don't want it wet either so use very low mix settings as I like the chugs

The room I play in has some treatment so doesn't add much so am really just giving it a bit of air

 

[wheresthefbomb]

shoegaze as little as possible

I understand what each of those words mean individually but not in the order that you've used them

One thing you can do that not full reverb is run two cabs and mess with the phase. So Leon do it on doom tone video.

two amps with reverb tanks into two cabs in stereo makes a surprisingly juicy "fake" stereo reverb effect, but I still prefer the sound of a split stereo reverb effect into the two amps (and then also with their individual spring on top)