Sound in Space

Reverb, reflection, and why rooms have character.

The room is part of the sound — for better and worse.

+40 XP

// WHAT IT DOES

When sound leaves a speaker, only some of it hits your ears directly. The rest bounces off walls, floor, ceiling and furniture, arriving milliseconds later. That bundle of reflections is what we call .

A small bathroom feels 'splashy' because reflections come back fast and close together. A cathedral feels 'huge' because reflections take seconds to die away.

Your brain uses reflections to figure out room size and source location. That's why a dry mix can sound 'flat' — there are no spatial cues.

Think of it like → Throw a ball in a closet versus a gymnasium. Same ball, very different bounces. Sound does the same thing.

▸ WHY YOU CARE

• Reverb and delay in a mix are imitations of natural reflections.
• Treating a room (foam, bass traps) controls which reflections you hear while mixing.
• Reflections affect bass response — same speaker, two rooms, totally different low end.

// SEE & HEAR IT

No simulator for this mission — read & quiz only.

▸ HOW IT WORKS

▸ Signal flow — watch the dot

▸ SIGNAL FLOW

Glowing dot = your signal travelling through Live.

▸ LISTEN FOR

• Reverb tail length giving a sense of room size.
• Early reflections colouring the tone.
• Bass nulls when you move 30 cm in your room.

▸ WALKTHROUGH (5 steps)

1. DO: Clap in a small tiled room, then in a carpeted bedroom.
▸ LISTEN: Tile = splashy short reverb; carpet = dry damped.
2. DO: Play a mix on the same speakers in two rooms.
▸ LISTEN: Bass response changes dramatically — that's the room, not the speakers.
3. DO: Compare a dry vocal and the same vocal with a hall reverb.
▸ LISTEN: Reverb makes it sit 'in a space' instead of in your head.
4. DO: Add 30 ms pre-delay to a vocal reverb.
▸ LISTEN: Vocal stays upfront; room sits behind it.
5. DO: Walk around your room while a sine sweep plays.
▸ LISTEN: Nulls and peaks expose room modes you can't EQ away.

▸ COMMON MISTAKES

✗ Mixing in an untreated room and trusting the bass.
✗ Using too much reverb to hide a weak source.
✗ Ignoring headphone vs speaker discrepancies.

// QUIZ (QUICK)

Question 1 / 40 correct

Reverb is caused by

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