FAIRLIGHT / SPACE / FX · 09
Reverb
Give sound a space. Preserve the source.
Connect ADR, Foley and object sounds to the picture. Separate the direct signal, early reflections and late tail, shape the room, then choose whether the effect belongs to one clip or the whole scene.
- 01Separate the source, ER and tail
- 02Shape the room and its tone
- 03Check the shared bus and scene ending
Separate reflections from the attack and reshape the tail. The teaching diagram shows three sound paths.
Start with the direct sound.↗
Choose speech, a footstep or a hit with a clear attack. Use it as the reference for reflections and the tail.
Check: the attack keeps its place.Change the controls to explore the diagram. No audio playback, native DSP or connection to Resolve.
Sources and scope · 8 October 2026
Reviewed on 8 October 2026 against the DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual: Chapter 181, Reverb, pages 4123–4125; plugin placement and bus sends in Chapters 177 and 180. The panel on page 4123 was visually inspected. Names and labelled ranges come from these sources; the mixing exercises and browser diagram are authored teaching material. Native DSP, room sound and export behaviour in an installed Resolve were not tested in this pass.
Read the source notes ↓On this page
01 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
Three paths inside one space
Fairlight Reverb models room reflections and can create multichannel reverberation. The manual describes three paths: Direct, Early Reflection and Reverb. This distinction helps identify what needs changing: source definition, early reflections or the lingering tail.
For ADR, start with a neighbouring production line. For Foley, choose a single footstep or object contact. Compare more than tail length: consider when reflections arrive, their tone and their balance against the direct sound. Make the creative decision with picture.
Direct
The direct path carries the source itself. Its level contributes to the final balance separately from the reflections.
Early Reflection · ER
Early reflections represent the first paths from the virtual source via room boundaries to the listener.
Reverb
Late reverberation forms the room’s tail. Its duration and frequency-dependent decay have their own controls.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
02 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
Choose a clip, track or shared bus
Add Reverb as a regular Fairlight FX. Open the Effects Library and apply it to the intended audio clip or Mixer channel. Clip settings appear in the Effects Inspector; a track plugin’s window opens from the Mixer Effects section or the selected track’s Inspector.
The built-in Track FX section and regular Effects inserts are different locations. Check the clip, track or bus name in the window title: the same Reverb panel can affect different scopes of material. A shared bus processes the sum of the sources routed into it.
| Scope | Useful when | Check |
|---|---|---|
| Clip | One sound needs its own perspective. | Adjacent clips and the end of the audible tail. |
| Track | Similar events should share one setting. | Other locations or perspectives on the same track. |
| Bus with Reverb | Several sources should inhabit the same room. | The send, return routing and separate direct path. |
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX · Blackmagic Design — Fairlight / FX, plug-ins and FlexBus
03 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
Room size, onset and tail length
Room Dimensions sets Height, Length and Width in metres. Reverb uses this geometry for both early reflections and late reverberation. Room Size describes the floor area, Width × Length, rather than room volume. Do not substitute Reverb Time alone for room size.
The ranges below are labelled on the Resolve 21 manual’s panel. The fields configure a room model; they do not measure the location in a recording. Real room dimensions can be a starting point, but matching the sound still requires listening.
| Control | Labelled range | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Pre Delay | −200…+200 ms | Offsets the time from the source to the first reflection, adding to or compensating for propagation in the model. |
| Reverb Time | 100…4000 ms | Controls the overall decay of the late tail. |
| Distance | 0…30 m | Changes virtual source-to-listener distance; the manual limits its effect to early-reflection processing. |
| Brightness | 0…100% | Changes how decay time varies with frequency. Lower brightness makes high frequencies decay sooner. |
| Modulation | 0…100% | Adds random low-frequency phase modulation to the early-reflection path; 0 disables it. |
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
04 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
Shape early reflections and the tail separately
Early Reflection Tone and Reverb Tone are separate post-EQ sections. One colours ER; the other colours the late tail. First locate the problem: a sharp initial response and a boomy decay call for different checks.
Brightness controls frequency-dependent decay, while Tone changes the level of frequency regions after processing. A darker tail therefore does not automatically require lowering both Brightness and High Gain: compare the two choices separately.
| In both sections | Panel range | Listening check |
|---|---|---|
| Low Frequency | 150…500 Hz | Choose the lower region where the reflections or tail sound too full. |
| Low Gain | −18…+6 dB | Adjust that region and compare against the voice or hit in the full mix. |
| High Frequency | 1…16 kHz | Locate the upper region that distracts from the scene or leaves the space too dull. |
| High Gain | −18…+6 dB | Listen to consonants, clicks and rustle: their reflections can stand out more than the overall tail. |
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
05 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
Shared reverb bus: one return, different sends
For one scene, send dialogue, Foley and SFX to a shared bus with Reverb while retaining their direct routes to the main mix. Adjust each source’s send separately. This provides one room setting with independent source balances.
Bus sends can be pre-fader or post-fader; the manual describes post-fader as the usual initial choice for a reverb send. Moving the source fader then also changes the feed to the effect. Pre-fader is a deliberate creative option: lowering the direct track leaves the send independent.
| Reverb output | Confirmed on the panel |
|---|---|
| Dry/Wet | 0–100%: original/processed mix. |
| Direct / ER / Reverb | Three independent levels, each from −∞ to +6 dB. |
Establish both routes
Create and name an FX bus, add Reverb and route its return to the intended main bus. Check the direct track and its send separately.
Check the plugin output
Reverb has an overall Dry/Wet control and separate Direct, ER and Reverb levels. For a reflections-only return, use fully processed output and remove Direct; verify by listening to the return.
Set the source sends
Raise each source send in scene context. Different sends to one bus change the spatial balance while sharing the same Reverb settings.
Check the combined signal
Restore the direct paths, clear solo and listen to the main bus. Check for duplicated direct sound and for an FX bus accidentally routed back into its own input.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX · Blackmagic Design — Fairlight / FX, plug-ins and FlexBus
06 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
A working pass: ADR and Foley in one location
Choose a reference
Collect a production line, an ADR line and one object sound. Keep pauses before and after each event so the space is easier to compare.
Prepare the source
Address obvious hum and steady noise before adding space. Compare the repair against the original: Reverb receives both the useful sound and remaining defects.
Match the early response
With the late tail restrained, adjust the room and first reflections. Change Distance and Pre Delay one at a time, returning to the source attack.
Set the tail and tone
Set Reverb Time, then Brightness and the relevant Tone section. Restore the complete line: the tail should not obscure the next word without a creative reason.
Mix the scene
Adjust ER/Reverb and the send or overall Dry/Wet. Compare ADR with neighbouring takes, Foley with picture, and both against music and ambience.
07 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
What to listen for in different material
Compare bypassed and processed versions of the same scene. A level change weakens the comparison, so watch the combined level and return to the original regularly. Solo helps locate a cause; the full mix reveals the consequences.
Dialogue and ADR
Listen to consonants, quiet endings and the transition to the next line. The room should support location continuity while preserving the words.
Foley
Check the contact time, object weight and camera distance. A long tail does not repair bad sync and can obscure a precise attack.
SFX
Compare the effect’s scale with nearby events. A deliberately large space should leave room for the next dramatic accent.
Music
Listen to rhythm and the speech region. A finished music mix may already contain reverberation; the new processing is added to all audible material.
08 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
Study diagram: read reflections and the tail
The lab uses a defined impulse, geometric first reflections and a separate schematic late-tail envelope. Direct arrival is the t=0 reference. Four walls, floor and ceiling provide reference reflections; a 3 m height and 343 m/s speed are fixed exercise assumptions.
Change width, length and Distance while watching early reflections. Distance does not change the late tail in this diagram. Then compare Pre Delay, Reverb Time and the three path weights. Direct/ER/Tail percentages are teaching coefficients; they are neither native dB levels nor a Dry/Wet control.
The exponential envelope and simple geometry do not reproduce Fairlight’s acoustic model. The lab does not measure your room, calculate Tone, Brightness or Modulation, or process a recording. Take listening questions into Resolve, not an expected native curve.
| Study window | Model boundary |
|---|---|
| Pre Delay · 0…200 ms | Positive-only window. Native panel: −200…+200 ms. |
| Reverb Time · 0.2…4 s | An authored envelope duration; the native panel starts at 0.1 s. |
| Width 10…24 m / Length 6…20 m | Dimensions of the study room, not claimed limits of native Room Dimensions. |
| Distance · 1…8 m | A position window in the diagram; the native panel is labelled 0…30 m. |
| Direct / ER / Tail · 0…100% | Independent weights for the drawn paths, with no conversion to native levels. |
Separate the direct sound, reflections and tail.
Move the first reflections with Pre Delay, then extend only the late decay. Changing the room alters the reflected paths. Distance moves the listener and changes the early reflections without rewriting the late envelope.
The drawing follows the controls. It does not generate audio.
Compare the two fixed time scales: the first 500 ms expose reflection timing, while 4.5 seconds show the tail. A longer decay does not move the first reflections.
How this teaching model is defined
The room is rectangular, its height is fixed at 3 m, and propagation speed is set to 343 m/s. Four wall rays appear on the plan; floor and ceiling reflections also enter the timing plot. The direct arrival defines zero. Pre Delay adds a non-negative offset to the reflected paths; this demonstration does not include native negative Pre Delay.
The authored tail falls to 0.001 of its starting amplitude after the selected decay time. This is a drawing convention, not a claim about Resolve’s native Reverb Time law. Distance affects only the early-ray geometry. The room dimensions can change the tail’s authored start time; no room modes, tone filters, brightness or diffusion are calculated.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
09 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
Choose the spatial tool
| Task | Start with | Compare |
|---|---|---|
| A shared room, depth, ADR and Foley continuity. | Reverb | The balance of Direct, ER and late tail. |
| Distinct repeats or a short doubling effect. | Delay | L/R Delay Time, feedback and repeat tone. |
| Control initial delay and feedback timing separately. | Echo | Delay Time, Feedback Delay and L↔R feedback. |
| Change the sound periodically. | Modulation | The separate effect and its modulation; it is not the Modulation knob inside Reverb. |
Delay
Control the timing of distinct repeats.
↗Echo
Separate Delay Time from Feedback Delay.
↗Modulation
Explore periodic movement in the effect.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
10 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
Problems revealed by context
| Symptom | First check |
|---|---|
| The next line loses definition. | Late-tail duration and level, then the send and overall balance. |
| The source mainly became louder. | The direct branch inside the return and duplicated routing, then level matching. |
| The room size seems to change between shots. | Different presets, clip inserts and tracks; compare events through one shared route. |
| Hum and hiss remain in the tail. | The source before Reverb and the tone of the affected ER or Reverb path. |
| Weight or definition changes in mono. | The sum of direct and processed sound; decide in the intended delivery format. |
| The room responds unexpectedly to a fader move. | The send’s pre/post setting, its automation and the FX-bus route. |
11 / UNDERSTAND & APPLY
Automation and preserving the tail
Fairlight can automate effect parameters and send levels. For a perspective change, decide what should move first: send amount, reflection balance or the room itself. Listen with time before and after the change.
For an accent on one event, try automating the send: new input to the effect stops, allowing you to judge the existing decay separately. Abruptly muting the return or bypassing the plugin requires checking the audible tail in your version. Do not assume bypass guarantees a preserved decay.
Export a short passage with time after the final event and listen to the file itself. Check the tail ending, main bus, channel format and accidental solo/mute states. If cache or bounce was used for playback, retain access to the original and record which processing is already included in the new file.
Automation
Record and verify a perspective change.
↗Bounce and cache
Distinguish editable processing from a rendered result.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX · Blackmagic Design — Fairlight / FX, plug-ins and FlexBus
PRACTICE / NO AUTOPILOT
A small task. A checkable result.
Work in a test copy, listen before and after, and write down what you actually observed. The checklist contains no pre-approved results.
Prepare the comparison
Choose a dry line or hit, a location reference and a pause after the event. Write down which aspect of the space should match.
Choose the route
Create one insert or one FX bus. Record the processing scope, input, main output and whether a separate direct path exists.
Separate reflections and tail
Compare Pre Delay and Reverb Time one at a time. Then check Distance with the tail settings unchanged and explain what you heard.
Match tone and balance
Choose ER Tone or Reverb Tone according to the audible issue. Set the balance without accidental Direct duplication; compare against the original and adjacent scene.
Check the transition and file
Listen through automation, mono and the scene ending. Export a short passage with its tail and record the final settings, scope and remaining limitation.
FAQ / BEFORE THE NEXT MOVE
Questions that matter in practice
Does Reverb Time set room size?
Reverb Time controls late-tail decay. Height, Length and Width define the geometry used by ER and late reverberation. Equal tail duration does not imply the same room configuration.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
What does negative Pre Delay do?
The manual describes adding to or compensating for propagation from the virtual source to the listener. This changes the initial reflection delay within the model and does not move the clip on the timeline. The panel labels a −200…+200 ms range.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
Should Distance lengthen the late tail?
In the Resolve 21 description, Distance affects only the early-reflection configuration. Use Reverb Time for overall late-tail duration. Compare the controls separately to keep their roles clear.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
Why check more than Dry/Wet on an FX bus?
Reverb also has Direct, ER and Reverb levels. If you need a reflections-only return alongside a separate direct route, check Direct within the processed signal and listen to the return. Overall Dry/Wet and internal path levels address different parts of the route.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
Do ER Tone and Reverb Tone replace Brightness?
The Tone sections separately equalise early reflections and the late tail. Brightness changes decay time as a function of frequency. Settings with a similar overall impression may behave differently at the attack and tail ending.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
When should I use a pre-fader send?
Use it when the Reverb feed should deliberately remain independent of the direct track’s fader. You can lower the direct sound while preserving the space. For the dry source and its send to move together, start with post-fader and verify the route.
Reference: Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX
Does the browser diagram show Resolve’s native result?
It shows an authored study model for reading reflection onset, decay and balance. It does not spatially process your recording. Check actual tone, intelligibility, stereo summing and export in Resolve using your own material.
REFERENCES / 2026-10-08
What this guide is based on
Reviewed on 8 October 2026 against the DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual: Chapter 181, Reverb, pages 4123–4125; plugin placement and bus sends in Chapters 177 and 180. The panel on page 4123 was visually inspected. Names and labelled ranges come from these sources; the mixing exercises and browser diagram are authored teaching material. Native DSP, room sound and export behaviour in an installed Resolve were not tested in this pass.
Blackmagic Design — DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual · Spatial and creative Fairlight FX ↗
Official full PDF, chapter 181 Fairlight FX: Delay on 4103–4104; Echo on 4107–4108; Modulation on 4118–4120; Reverb on 4123–4125. Text and panel illustrations reviewed. Parameter names, menu choices and confirmed scales checked on 8 October 2026. The teaching diagrams do not reproduce native algorithms or measure a particular recording.
Blackmagic Design — Fairlight / FX, plug-ins and FlexBus ↗
The manufacturer page confirms clip and track processing, plug-in order, saved chains, automation and FlexBus routing. Exact controls for these four effects are checked against the full Resolve 21 manual rather than inferred from the general product overview.