These days, nearly all digital reverb pedals, and all plug-in reverbs, offer pristine full-range, 24-bit sound quality. But in the early days of digital, reverbs were often limited to 12- and sometimes 8-bit resolution. Those old reverbs were replaced because the newer reverbs are much better, but sometimes a lo-fi, grainy reverb can also be used to create an interesting retro or “garage” vibe.

Now we can have the best of all worlds — a high quality digital reverb, and the ability to customize the amount of “dirt” we want in our ambiance. You can do this by placing a bit crusher effect after the reverb; this way, the reverb, not the signal going into the reverb, is being affected by the bit crusher. You can then adjust the bit depth and waveform parameters of the bit crusher effect to get the desired amount of grain and dirt in the reverb tail.

It’s possible to use an overdrive effect instead of a bit crusher, but overdrive/distortion effects tend to muddy up the reverb more than a bit crusher will. While this tip is especially suited to mixing in a DAW, where you can instantiate a reverb and bit crusher plug-in on a dedicated reverb auxillary track, you could also use this live by plugging effects into a mixer, and mixing in the “dirty verb” with your live instruments.

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Effects Tip: Dirty Up Your Reverb with a Bit Crusher

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