There is much more to know about reverb than only the reverb type and mix knob when picking the right pedal for your rig. The most extraordinary reverb won’t compensate for poor tone or playing, yet the right unit with the proper settings can drastically enhance your sound and performance.
A reverb pedal with pre-delay is crucial to get the right separation between your guitar tone and the reverb reflections. If used correctly, pre-delay helps brighten and clean up the guitar tone in the mix. As with all effects, though, training your ears to hear the difference pre-delay makes is the first step to perfectly blend your sound with the band and fit any room.
I did not realize pre-delay’s importance until I started recording professionally in the studio and always had the engineer come to my rig to tweak the knobs. All the pedals in this article and tips come from that experience of being around those pros who had schooled me for years.
Our Top Picks
- Strymon BigSky Multidimensional Reverb Pedal – Strymon is excellent at building workhorse pedals, with the BigSky being among the best modern reverb pedals you can fit on your board.
- Source Audio Ventris Dual Reverb Pedal – The Ventris dual reverb pedal is another jack-of-all-trades, smaller in size than the Strymon but with even more reverb types and an atmospheric guitarist’s dream with its option of layering two reverb types.
- Universal Audio UAFX Golden Reverberator Pedal – The UAFX is a stylish pedal focused on recreating the vintage spring, plate, and hall reverb tones.
- IK Multimedia AmpliTube X-Space Reverb Pedal – It’s a very ‘clean’ reverb that doesn’t add much coloring to the sound in true software fashion but in no way sounds metallic or robotic as a few not-that-great plugins do.
- No products found. – No list is complete without a Boss pedal. As in true Boss style, the RV-500 is an unbreakable workhorse – beyond multiple reverb types and dual reverbs, it adds a separate digital delay option for every reverb patch.
Contents
What Is Reverb Pre-Delay?
In simple words, pre-delay sets the time before the first reverberation is heard after the dry signal (without reverb) – It allows changing the room size without affecting the decay (reverb time). The larger the room size, the longer the pre-delay time.
Many people get confused by the concept of ‘after’ the original dry signal. ‘After’ does not mean after you stopped playing – it means after the first attack of your playing, in other words, from the moment the signal of your playing goes into the pedal.
Why Is Pre-Delay Useful For Guitarists
Pre-Delay separates the original guitar tone from the reverb, helping players avoid muddying or covering up their tone from the reverberation.
Too much reverb is certain to muddy up an entire mix, not just your guitar; pre-delay helps clean the mix when you need the space and can’t lower the mix or decay knob.
The above scenario is almost always the case when mixing guitar solos. Taking the reverb off makes the guitar feel small, yet adding too much hides the note’s attack – combining longer/shorter pre-delay times with shorter/longer decay time it’s the first thing to do before reaching for the mix knob.
Pro Tip: I learned from engineers to send the reverb of my lead guitar to another channel and balance wet/dry using faders. The visual approach with separate channels helps think of reverb as an individual instrument.
Pre-Delay Vs. Decay
Pre-delay refers to the time before the first reverb reflection is heard after the dry signal (that’s where the term ‘pre’ comes from), while decay (sometimes written ‘reverb time’) refers to how long the reflection stays in the mix.
Reverb Pedals with Pre-Delay
1. Strymon BigSky Multidimensional Reverb Pedal
Strymon is excellent at building workhorse pedals, with the BigSky being among the best modern reverb pedals you can fit on your board. It’s incredibly versatile, with over 12 reverb types and all the knobs you need to control the reverb on the stage or studio.
The pre-delay setting gets even more helpful the more knobs there are – think of it as your emergency switch to balance out all the other parameters on the Strymon.
Overall it’s a complete package, making it in our list of best pedals with a bpm display and best pedals with presets. It’s an expensive piece of gear, but it covers all possible scenarios and could very well be your only reverb pedal for decades.
2. Source Audio Ventris Dual Reverb Pedal
The Ventris dual reverb pedal is another jack-of-all-trades, smaller in size than the Strymon but with even more reverb types and an atmospheric guitarist’s dream with its option of layering two reverb types.
The unique thing about this pedal is the adjustable spillover setting that adds a smooth trail when you switch different presets – it doesn’t sound like a lot, but it makes a massive difference if you’re switching from lead to rhythm and the reverb decay doesn’t just cut off abruptly.
If knobs are not your thing, there’s also a phone app and desktop software you can use to make and store your presets. I’m not a fan of apps, but the software is useful if you work your music in front of a screen like most today.
3. Universal Audio UAFX Golden Reverberator Pedal
The UAFX is a stylish pedal focused on recreating the vintage spring, plate, and hall reverb tones. All the blues, classic rock, country, and metal tones can be molded with excellent results using only these three reverb types and the various knobs.
This pedal is a great fine line between being specific and also versatile. I like how the interface is simple and pushes the player to dig deeper into the same reverb types, but on the other end, you can edit those reverbs to sound nothing like the original preset.
It sounds fantastic, but it’s also pricey; however, If you are a vintage enthusiast, few options are better than the UAFX.
4. IK Multimedia AmpliTube X-Space Reverb Pedal
AmpliTube is a familiar name for players who record using plugins. The company has achieved massive success in software, and the hardware delivers studio-ready solutions on stage.
It’s a very ‘clean’ reverb that doesn’t add much coloring to the sound in true software fashion but in no way sounds metallic or robotic as a few not-that-great plugins do.
The X-Space is packed with features, and unlike any on the list, it even has built-in IR’s (impulse responses) in case you want only to use this pedal into the PA or mixing desk with no amp. I often do this in the studio as I like the dry DI clean sound of my Strat through the cabinets without any compression or alteration.
5. No products found.
No list is complete without a Boss pedal. As in true Boss style, the RV-500 is an unbreakable workhorse – beyond multiple reverb types and dual reverbs, it adds a separate digital delay option for every reverb patch.
The pre-delay knob is your savior when mixing delay and reverb, as it’s easy for both effects to ‘cancel’ each other out without the proper wet and dry signal separation.
I like how Boss thinks of everything, as much as to add a true bypass/buffered switch. I’ve discussed in length why this is an essential feature if you are stacking one pedal after the other and want to avoid signal loss.
How To Listen To Pre-Delay?
As for all effects, the hardest part is being able to listen to them individually, not only the impact they have on your tone. You don’t need to know all the technical sides of a mixing engineer, but some ear training is required along with basic knowledge of parameters.
The main way to do so is to record yourself in the studio or at home. Listening objectively to your tone while playing guitar can be deceptive; that’s why the engineer or producer’s external ear calls you out at times for having too much or too little of something.
Record yourself and put different tracks back to back, and if you’re already decent at recording, try playing around the pre-delay of different instruments to get a perspective beyond the guitar.