Unlock Depth - The Crucial Reverb Setting Most Mixers Miss

If you’ve ever felt like your mix sounds balanced but still sits on one flat plane, the missing piece may not be EQ or compression. It’s often how space is being created. In this video, I break down one of the most important depth cues our ears rely on: early reflections. These first reflections tell the listener where the boundaries of a space are and how close a sound is to those boundaries, which is what allows us to perceive front-to-back placement.

Using a simple room reverb on an acoustic guitar inside a mix, I demonstrate how adjusting early reflections can move a sound from close and intimate to naturally placed, and then further back into the environment. Once you can hear the difference between early reflections and the reverb tail, depth stops feeling mysterious and becomes something you can place with intention.