How to create an authentic vintage drum reverb for synthwave and chillwave music stylesThe story of how gated reverb came about at the end of the 70s is a well-read chapter in the Book of Music Production Lore. We aren’t going to rake over those old coals here, but the effect, best exemplified by that drum fill in Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight, became a defining element of 80s music production.

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Overuse of the effect saw it fall out of favour and become increasingly clichéd, but the growing popularity and influence of synthwave is driving a resurgence of interest in the effect.
Many modern reverb plugins feature algorithms and presets for gated ‘verb, but used in isolation these rarely deliver that quintessential 80s sound, especially when it comes to drums. With a little bit of additional work, though, the sound and spirit of the age can be resurrected.
Create a Beat
Create a new project in your DAW and add a drum machine, sampler, or other instrument that can create drum sounds. We’re using Native Instruments Battery 4.

The 80s was when all the now-classic drum machines appeared, so load up a patch or sample bank that mimics a machine of the age. The ongoing popularity of 808s and 909s means their sound can be somewhat timeless, so we suggest looking for something that isn’t so widely used today, for example, a 707 kit (which is what we’re using).
Choose a tempo and create a few bars of a simple beat. We’ll be using the reverb to create interest and impact in the drum sounds, but it doesn’t work so well on rapidly played parts. So keep the beat simple and avoid rapidly repeating parts such as hi-hats, shakers, etc.
Choosing A Reverb Plugin

We aren’t going to create a gated reverb effect entirely from scratch here, but we are using a plugin dedicated to producing the effect: SSL GateVerb. This has an authentic sound and full control over both the gate and the reverb so, if you don’t already have it, grab the demo to follow along closely. If you’re using a different reverb, be sure it has a gated algorithm or impulse – most of this should translate well enough.
We want to use the reverb as a send effect, so create a new bus track (or whatever your DAW calls such things) and insert an instance of your chosen reverb plugin.
Route the Signals

Unlike regular reverb, where typically the aim is to simulate an acoustic space, the aim of gated reverb on drums is to add something that becomes an intrinsic part of the sound itself. The source drum sound does little more than trigger the reverb and provide a transient, and it is the reverb itself that constitutes the majority of the overall drum sound.
Create a send from your instrument track to the reverb track. Set the reverb’s wet/dry balance to 100 per cent wet, turn its channel up to 0dB (remember, we want the gated reverb to be prominent), and then start playback.
Configure the Reverb

Set the reverb’s pre-delay to zero. Adjust GateVerb’s reverb time, trigger threshold and hold time, with the aim of creating a snap of reverb that partially fills the gaps between drum hits.
Keep in mind that, even though the gate hold time deals with the length of each burst of reverb, if you use a long reverb time those bursts may still contain the sound of previous hits, which sounds messy. Conversely, if you use a shorter time, the natural decay of the reverb will kick in before the gate shuts, changing the nature of the effect. So be sure to explore balancing these three parameters until you get a crisp, clean reverb snap after each drum hit.
Adjust the other GateVerb settings to hone in on a sound that you like, and adjust the effect track’s fader to get a good balance with the source drum sounds.
Tuning the Reverb Sound

The gated reverb should now sound like part of the drum sounds themselves. But to get the effect just right we need to do some sculpting with EQ.
Insert an EQ plugin on the effect track, positioning it after GateVerb in the chain. Typically, we want to shape things so the reverb blends well with the snare, and we don’t want too much boominess. Experiment with your reverb until you get to a sound you like.
Further Enhancing the Effect

The varying energy of different drum sounds and hits can create an unevenness in the sound of the gated reverb, and can also make it tricky to set a “just right” trigger threshold for the gate itself. Fix this by adding a compressor plugin prior to GateVerb in the effect chain.
Turning down the source drum track can make it easier to hear the compressor’s effect during setup. To do this you will need to switch the drum track’s effect send to operate in pre-fader mode and then turn down the track’s fader; it will also help to disable GateVerb so you can focus on the compression.
Load a compressor. Set a very fast attack and fairly quick release, and configure the threshold and ratio such that every drum hit has a very similar output level from the compressor.
Re-enable GateVerb, return the drum track to post-fader mode and turn up the drum channel once you’re happy with the compression. Tweak GateVerb’s parameters, in particular the gate Trigger level and Hold time, to accommodate the now compressed input signal.
Different Verbs For Different Drum Sounds

Whilst applying the same gated reverb to kicks, snare, toms and like can work just fine, the point of gated reverb is to enhance each drum hit, and so ideally you should add different gated ‘verbs to match each drum sound or group of sounds. This becomes particularly important with hi-hats, shakers and other drum sounds that are higher in pitch and that tend to have shorter gaps between each hit (shorter gaps demand a shorter reverb time and gate hold time).
The solution here is to create separate outputs from your drum machine/sampler/instrument, and send each to its own effects chain. Some sounds may warrant their own dedicated output (kicks, for example) while others may be happy sharing the same chain (snares and claps, for example).
Configure your drum sound source to use multiple output channels (if it can), and then use the techniques above to create perfect gated reverb effects for each drum channel.
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