Sculpt Perfect Drum Reverb with Convolution

Capturing that Studio Sound

When it comes to working with live drums, more often than not, the biggest factor in getting a great sound is the room in which the drums are recorded. Whilst the power of home studios has increased dramatically over the past couple of decades, larger commercial studios are still bringing in business mostly because of their capability to provide a space to capture drums in big rooms. 

Purpose-built live rooms with (at least) a pair of stereo mics capturing the sound of the room have been the key to huge, explosive, energetic drum sounds for years. Unfortunately, for a lot of producers and engineers working from smaller studios, we don’t have the space to record drums in huge rooms, and with budgets becoming increasingly tight, hiring large studios to make records in isn’t always an option. So what do we do?

Searching for Solutions

Emulating the sound of large drum rooms in a convincing way has always been tricky. I’ve tried countless plugins over the years in an attempt to enlarge the sound of drum recordings made in smaller rooms, but the result always sounded a bit fake and left me wanting more. Some classic popular reverb plugins came close, but I felt I was always compromising in some way or unable to do what I wanted with only a single plugin. 

The other option was to set up a multitude of effects sends to different delays and reverbs to try and emulate the natural ‘slap’ of a room combined with a nice decaying reverb, and then also blending in something that had the tone of a natural sounding space to create something convincing. But as you can imagine, this is all very… convoluted, if you’ll forgive the pun. 

That was at least until I discovered the awesome REmatrix plugin from Overloud.

Introducing REmatrix Multilayer Convolution Reverb

What makes REmatrix different from other reverb plugins is that it allows us to load a range of impulse responses into a single plugin and control them all from its own IR mixer. The IR mixer features five channels: ‘Hall,’ ‘Room,’ ‘Plate,’ ‘Early’ and ‘Special.’ The first three channels are fairly self-explanatory, but the ‘Early’ and ‘Special’ channels provide us with something even more unique.

Sculpt the Entire Room Ambience

‘Early’ refers to early reflections; these are the first reflections of a sound hitting a surface such as a wall or ceiling, and reflecting back to the ear of the listener. These reflections help us perceive the size of a room and are necessary in creating an authentic sense of natural space. 

Most reverb plugins allow the user to control the amount of early reflections and sometimes even the decay time of the reflections themselves, but REmatrix goes a step further in allowing us to control every aspect of the reflection from the tone (using a dedicated EQ for the channel) to the width and placement within the stereo field. 

This control is particularly handy for shaping a convincing drum room sound. Many software reverbs feature bright early reflections that can quickly become harsh or dominate the mix when responding to transient-heavy material such as drums. Being able to shape the exact tone of just the early reflections means we can place them perfectly in the mix and still maintain a convincing sense of space. 

Combine this with a ‘Room’ of your choice to give the drums some depth, along with a ‘Hall,’ which can be blended to taste and adjusted to fit the tempo of the track, and you’ll already have close to the perfect sounding drum room. 

The ‘special’ fader in REmatrix allows us to load in some ‘special effect’ type IRs such as spring reverbs or other modulated reverb patches. Whilst this wouldn’t typically be present in a natural room sound, sometimes blending in a small amount of spring reverb can add a grit and darkness to the sound, giving it more depth and allowing us to create something even more unique. 

Adding Automation

What’s more, every aspect of the plugin can be automated, which can allow us to manipulate the levels of each IR according to different sections of a song. Automation can be super effective if you require a tighter, mono-sounding room for a verse before exploding into a wide, energetic chorus in which the drums open up across the whole stereo field.

Expand Your Sound with IR Libraries

The impulse responses are available in a vast range of packs that allow us to pick and choose from an enormous array of different impulse responses and blend them together. In my initial experiments with the plugin, I really enjoyed the sound of the Dusty Racks Vol. 2 pack, which extensively captures presets from legendary hardware reverb units such as the Lexicon 300, the Alesis Midiverb and much more. 

There are, however, many more packs to choose from, which offer all kinds of different reverb sounds and spaces.

Final Thoughts

The uniqueness of REmatrix lies in its ability to blend every element of a reverb and manipulate each part individually, giving us unlimited precision and control. This convolution is of course ideal for drum room reverbs, but it is capable of so much more. 

I’m personally a big fan of spring reverbs, particularly on electric guitars and lo-fi vocals. This is a place where I find a lot of plugins really fall down. REmatrix has now become my go-to plugin for these great-sounding spring reverbs, notably the ones featured in the Modulated Springs & Plates pack.

With the flexibility and features on offer, along with the stellar sound of the impulse responses, you may never need anything else. 

Try it, you won’t be disappointed.

Written by Guy Britton

Guy Britton is a seasoned music producer, mixer, and mastering engineer from the UK, with a focus on pop and indie genres. Guy has helped independent artists achieve breakthrough success, with his work being featured on radio and TV in the UK and Europe, as well as major Spotify editorial playlists. His expertise lies in delivering a unique and commercially appealing sound, with a passion for combining modern and retro elements to create deep, exciting tracks.