Zoom R16 reverb

[michielper]

This may be a trivial question, but how do I activate a reverb on an input of the ZOOM R16? The manual is not very helpful here. I can see all kinds of reverb and delay effects when I press "send return effects" but I don't hear any effects.

Thanks for any tips!
Michiel

 

[TalismanRich]

OK, activating reverb is a bit tricky. There are two ways they do effects... inserts and Send/Returns. Reverb and chorus are done via send/returns. Generally you record dry and add the reverb as an effect post recording.

To do that, first you need to choose the type of reverb (hall, room, plate, spring) and the parameters. Do that by pressing EFFECT, and on the bottom buttons, there should be one labeled REVERB. That's where you set up the parameters. Now that you have selected your style, press the PAN/EQ button and you should see REV SEND and CHORUS near the bottom of the list. Now you can select the track you have recorded, and adjust the amount of signal to send to the reverb channel.

Think of it as an external reverb chamber. You can send each recorded track to the reverb chamber with different levels, but the basic delay characteristics will be the same.

If you want to have a single track wet, you can run it through the "BOUNCE" operation, which is essentially an mixdown system. Set track 1 with the effect you want, turn on BOUNCE, arm your destination track, and press record and Play. It will process in real time, which will give you a wet track even though you might turn off the reverb processor later, or change the delay time.

I found this tutorial some time back and bookmarked it. It might explain it better that I did.

https://www.kevinselby.com/wp-content/uploads/zoom/R16_Effects_Tutorial.pdf

Hopefully this helps you get started.

 

[michielper]

OK, activating reverb is a bit tricky. There are two ways they do effects... inserts and Send/Returns. Reverb and chorus are done via send/returns. Generally you record dry and add the reverb as an effect post recording.

To do that, first you need to choose the type of reverb (hall, room, plate, spring) and the parameters. Do that by pressing EFFECT, and on the bottom buttons, there should be one labeled REVERB. That's where you set up the parameters. Now that you have selected your style, press the PAN/EQ button and you should see REV SEND and CHORUS near the bottom of the list. Now you can select the track you have recorded, and adjust the amount of signal to send to the reverb channel.

Think of it as an external reverb chamber. You can send each recorded track to the reverb chamber with different levels, but the basic delay characteristics will be the same.

If you want to have a single track wet, you can run it through the "BOUNCE" operation, which is essentially an mixdown system. Set track 1 with the effect you want, turn on BOUNCE, arm your destination track, and press record and Play. It will process in real time, which will give you a wet track even though you might turn off the reverb processor later, or change the delay time.

I found this tutorial some time back and bookmarked it. It might explain it better that I did.

https://www.kevinselby.com/wp-content/uploads/zoom/R16_Effects_Tutorial.pdf

Hopefully this helps you get started.

Thanks for this explanation. I have the effects working now. I do like the overall architecture of this device. The way you can directly access the wav files. I do wonder though if there is any garbage collection to delete unused files. I suppose one has to do that manually.

 

[TalismanRich]

I never worry about "garbage collection". I buy SD cards 10 at a time and use them like we used to use tape. Do a project on a card, then dump the data to computer and store the original card in an envelope in a file box. It's a rarity that I bother to delete anything from a card, unless I'm testing something. SD cards are cheaper than buying a Big Mac. It's 10 times cheaper than tape.

I primarily use my R24 for mobile recording. At 44/16, a 16GB card gives you 6 hours of 8 channel recording time. At 44/24 you get 4 hours. Try to do THAT with a reel of tape! Total media cost... about $6.

The part about directly accessing the WAV files is important for me. Once dumped to my computer, I use my Reaper DAW for all mixdown operations, including adding reverb, compression and EQ.