Adding Reverb To Audio Tracks in Pro Tools

Now that we've had some time to learn about recording, let's get into adding some FX to what we've recorded. If you remember, we learned about adding FX inside of Reason. In Pro Tools, it's going to be different. There are different types of audio editing. Commonly used terms are Destructive and Non-Destructive editing. Destructive editing happens when you make edits directly to the audio file. These edits are non-reversible and therefor considered destructive. Non-Destructive editing is editing that doesn't have any effect on the audio file itself. The results of a Non-Destructive editing are reversible, so if you make a change now that you later decide you don't like, you can easily make adjustments without having to worry about your audio file being potentially damaged. Let's look at how we can use Non-Destructive Editing to add FX to an audio track in Pro Tools.


1. Open Pro Tools


2. Open a Pro Tools Session that contains recorded audio.


3. Create a Master Fader Track. This will help us to monitor and make any necessary adjustments to the volume of your session.

4. Notice the Master Fader track on the screen? You can now make adjustments to the overall volume if you hear any distortion in your session. Notice that there is no Mute or Solo buttons on this track.

5. Now that we have the Master Fader, let's create a new track. This track is called an Aux Input. If you want to add an effect such as Reverb, you may want to use a Mono Aux Input. If you want to add Delay, you may want to use a Stereo Aux Input.

6. Notice the Aux Input track has a Solo and a Mute button. Also notice that there is no audio input, indicated by the No Input on the I/O section.

7. We're going to add an input to our Aux track. Click "No Input" and change that by going to Bus > Bus 1 (If you have mono) or Bus 1-2 (If you have stereo).

8. Now that we have our audio input, we need to Insert an effect. For this demonstration I'll insert a reverb into our track.

9. With our reverb now created, we will take our audio track and send it to our aux input.

10. You should now see 2 things on the screen. One is the reverb effect. On the reverb effect we can control the type of reverb we want, the size of the reverb and a few other settings. On the other small pop-up we can control just how much of that effect do we want on our audio track.

11. Make adjustments to the reverb (or whichever effect you're using) until you feel that you have the sound you're looking for.


Keep in mind the following things:


1. Your Master Fader should ALWAYS be Stereo.


2. Your Aux Input tracks can be Mono or Stereo depending on the effect you want.


3. You can send multiple audio tracks to an Aux Input.


4. You can create multiple Aux Input tracks.


5. Your different Aux Input tracks will need to be assigned to different Buses.