Six principles govern effective reverb and delay use: space, size, distance, timing, conspicuousness, and smoothness

Owsinski distills effects use into six principles. (1) Picture the performer in a space and re-create it. (2) Short reverbs and delays under 100ms make things sound bigger, not farther away. (3) Long delays and reverb decay push sounds back — effect level determines whether it sounds big or distant. (4) Delays timed to tempo add depth without being audible as discrete echoes. (5) Untimed delays stick out — useful when you want to hear the echo. (6) Reverbs sound smoother when decay is timed to expire before the next snare hit. These principles shift thinking from ‘what preset sounds cool’ to ‘what spatial relationship do I want between this element and the listener’ — an intentional, spatial approach rather than an aesthetic one.

Examples

Principle 2: a room reverb with decay set to 0.1 s on a snare makes it sound bigger, not more distant. Principle 3: a hall reverb with 3s decay and loud wet level makes a vocal sound far away. Principle 4: a 125ms delay at 120 BPM disappears into the track; the same delay at 130ms is heard as an echo.

Assessment

A vocal needs to sound ‘big and present’ rather than ‘far away’. Using principles 2 and 3, describe the reverb/delay settings (decay time, level, and predelay) that achieve this, and explain why each setting matters.