Try it Out: Room/Ambience Reverb on Your Synths

If you're like most electronic musicians, you probably get the most use out of delays and hall or plate revers on most of your synths, leaving the other parts dry or with a touch of compression and EQ. I highly recommend, however, trying to send some of these 'dry' synth parts through just a touch of ambience or room reverb. You won't want to do it on every single track, but adding a tasteful amount of these shorter reverbs to selected synth parts can sound really nice. It adds a bit more of an organic quality, as it sounds as if it exists in some real acoustic space and not just some imaginary, acoustically dry nether world. It's a very subtle thing, but I personally think it can make a nice difference. Just try to keep it away from bass-heavy parts or you'll be looking at some serious sonic mud.

For some good examples of this technique in use, check out Nitzer Ebb's "Belief" album, or any of the recent Infected Mushroom albums...