whats reverb and digital reverb?
Reverb, or more properly reverberation, is just another word for echo.
Reverberate"
"to throw or bend back or reflect (from a surface); "A mirror in the sun can reflect light into a person's eyes"; "Sound is reflected well in this auditorium"
Be reflected as heat, sound, or light or shock waves; "the waves reverberate as far away as the end of the building"
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Digital reverb is reverb that is created using digital technology (computer), rather than analogue (tape, etc.).
so does it produce an echo? could i get by without one for awhile?
It's an effect. You really don't need effects to play, unless you are trying to cop a certain style. If you want to play surf you pretty much need to use reverb. Otherwise, reverb at low settings can be nice to add a little body to your sound, especially if you're playing solo blues. But, you certainly don't need it.
It takes the flatness out of a voice or instrument - just think of singing in a tiled bathroom
While technically reverb is a form of echo, the term echo usually connotes a different type of effect in music -- one where distinct delayed versions of the original signal are perceivable. Reverb is more precisely a very short delay, repeating echo. The delays are so short that they are not individually distinguishable as separate echoes, but seem more like a lively smearing of the original sound. The liveliness of a tiled room (as mentioned above) or a small to medium sized empty room are good examples of reverb.
Whether one prefers digital or analog (spring or plate) reverb implementations is really a personal choice. Got to try them out to find out.
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so does it produce an echo? could i get by without one for awhile?
How it works... well, your guitar has already translated string vibrations into an electrical signal... analog reverb takes that signal and changes it back to vibrations with a thing called a transducer. It makes something vibrate, either a spring (actually, usually a set of several springs) or a big metal plate, and at the other end it uses a second transducer to change the vibrations back into an electrical signal.
The difference is that your string was really vibrating in just one way, with the whole string shaking back and forth. If you make something big and heavy and thick vibrate, the sounds bounce around inside the thing, so some parts of the vibration arrive at the other end faster than others - that makes a very rapid echo, or reverberation. Think the difference in tone between clinking a glass and ringing a church bell - you can hear the church bell's 'echo'.
Digital reverb analyzes what happens to the electrical signal at each end of this transaction, and duplicates it through algorithms. You have far more control over the reverb effect with digital.
I have both spring and digital reverb. Spring gives me a sound that I can't quite get with digital, and digital gives me sounds I'll never get with springs. However, 95% of the time, maybe more, I play with no reverb at all.
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Thanks NoteBoat.
I'll prob go without one for now cuase its cheaper not to have it.