Difference between echo and reverberation

Like any wave, a sound wave doesn't just stop when it reaches the end of the medium or when it encounters an obstacle in its path. Rather, a sound wave will undergo certain behaviors when it encounters the end of the medium or an obstacle. Possible behaviors include reflection off the obstacle, diffraction around the obstacle, and transmission (accompanied by refraction) into the obstacle or new medium. In this part of Lesson 3, we will investigate behaviors that have Reflection and Transmission of Sound When a wave reaches the boundary between one medium another medium, a portion of the wave undergoes reflection and a portion of the wave undergoes transmission across the boundary. As discussed in the echo or a reverberation. A reverberation often occurs in a small room with height, width, and length dimensions of approximately 17 meters or less. Why the magical 17 meters? The effect of a particular sound wave upon the brain endures for more than a tiny fraction of a second; the human brain keeps a sound in memory for up to 0.1 seconds. If a reflected sound wave reaches the ear within 0.1 seconds of the initial sound, then it seems to the person that the sound is prolonged. The reception of multiple reflections off of walls and ceilings within 0.1 seconds of each other causes reverberations - the prolonging of a sound. Since sound waves travel at about 340 m/s at room temperature, it will take approximately 0.1 s for a sound to travel the length of a 17 meter room and back...

Is reverberation caused by echo? Is echo the thing that we hear inside of our rooms? Or is it reverberation? Once such definition states that - Reverberation is the persistence of sound after the sound source has been stopped. It results from a large number of reflected waves which can be perceived by the brain as a continuous sound. On the other hand, an echo occurs when a pulse of sound can be heard twice. Meanwhile the other one says - An echo is a single reflection of a sound wave off a distance surface. Reverberation is the reflection of sound waves created by the superposition of such echoes. I am also interested in knowing about what affects echo and reverberation. Like distance for echo must be around 16-17 m, right? But reverberations don't work that way right - as long as the sounds bounces off the walls? What about temperature? Surface of the reflected wall? Density of the medium? Humidity? Is that the same for reverberation as well? An echo is the reflection of sound off a hard object, that your ears perceive as a single (or possibly multiple) repeat(s) of the original sound after a transit time delay. Reverberation is the same thing, except that there are so many different reflections occurring at almost the same time that all the individual echoes blend together and you do not perceive them as discrete, individual echoes. Echoes occur usually outside, from something like a rock cliff or wall, where the echo leaves the scene and doesn't come back. Reverberatio...

June 15, 2018 When you find yourself standing in a long hallway and decide to shout out your name, you might just hear your name repeated back in waves. This return of noise is an example of echo. The sound reflects back to the listener as the frequencies bounce off hard objects such as ceilings and walls. The sound of a humming guitar string that continues after plucking is referred to as “reverberation.” While you might think reverberation is just a fancy way of referencing an echo, it’s not. To find out the difference between reverb and echo, you must first have a general understanding of each sound effect. Table of Contents • • • • • • What Is Reverberation? Do you ever find yourself singing in the shower and gaining a sense of confidence at your seemingly improving voice? There’s a reason why most people love to sing in the shower: it’s packed with reverberation! It’s easy to see how people mistakenly confuse reverbs for echoes. However, reverberation is entirely different. When you sing in the shower, your vocal notes don’t ring out in repetition. Instead, your singing produces a more desirable sound because it mingles with the other sounds bouncing off the hard surfaces which surround you. Many musical producers create synthetic or artificial reverbs that they manually add to a song after recording to optimize the sound produced. In other surroundings, however, reverberation generates unnecessary sounds that can provide excess noise. How an Echo Differs from Reverbe...

Click to expand...So, if I understand correctly, reverb is generated by being in a booth, room, church, etc. How about echo? How do you get this on a recording? I mean back in the good ol' days of analog tape. See, I used to think that echo was generated by a chamber, and reverb was generated electronically. So I was backwards. Could you provide some recorded examples of each (Beatles, Simon & Garfunkle, etc.)? Thanks So, if I understand correctly, reverb is generated by being in a booth, room, church, etc. How about echo? How do you get this on a recording? I mean back in the good ol' days of analog tape. See, I used to think that echo was generated by a chamber, and reverb was generated electronically. So I was backwards. Could you provide some recorded examples of each (Beatles, Simon & Garfunkle, etc.)? Thanks Click to expand...See, it's tricky. An "echo chamber" like Capitol and Abbey Road/EMI had in the good old days really were REVERBERATION chambers. Echo in that sense would be a delay, like a Sun Elvis record, "slap-echo" as it was called. When you combine the two you get that famous Abbey Road or Columbia sound. Listen to I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO/Tony Bennett or the stereo Beatles' FROM ME TO YOU, Hollies SO LONELY, etc. to hear both in action at the same time. Sun never used a chamber, just the tape head delay "slap" for the cheap way out. Had a neat sound though.. RCA-Victor sort of combined the two for Elvis' HEARTBREAK HOTEL... Norman Petty at his stu...

What’s the difference between echo and reverb? When sound is produced, and is put through the An echo on the other end is a simply organized deflection of sound over surfaces far away. Echo distance can be calculated alongside its time travel and other calculation. So let’s get the true picture of the two and get to understand the difference between echo and reverb. So, what’s the difference between echo and reverb? Let’s see Sound Production and Propagation The first step to really understanding e what we mean by echo and reverb would basic. Ally be understanding how sound is produced and propagated. Depending on where the sound is being produced, you can have very different rates of propagation of sound. Air is the basic medium of transfer of sound and sometimes when it has a high temperature or humidity rate it might affect how the sound comes out to be heard. In terms of echo and reverb, when sound is propagated over a long distance but eminently facing a barrier in a single direction, it produces an echo. This one is more organized and it tends to make some sense when there are calculations needed. A reverb comes from mixed-up sound channels that hit different surfaces at the same time deflecting at the same time. It varies with the place you are in. Reverb usually happens in empty enclosed spaces like empty rooms. Echo An echo as we have seen is a simple deflection of sound. It is made up of a single sound channel that has been deflected over an audible range dependi...

There are so many choices that it can be daunting to pick the right reverb for the right job. The many considerations needed to decide which reverb to use will be discussed in this article: I will present the points that I use to determine what reverb I employ in the mix process, that conveys the feeling for the particular emotion I wish to invoke in the listener. I will also discuss the many types of natural reverb and reverb simulators that exist in today’s world of music production. REVERB Secondly, in the world of mixing, reverb is definitely a sound that is wanted and useful in the creation of a wonderful listening experience! The type of reverb depends on the size and shape of the room that the sound echoes in. A square room provides many less reflective surfaces than a cathedral. The material of the reflective surface determines the frequency response of the initial reflections and subsequent echoes that result in the tail or length of the reverb. The harder the surface, and the more surface angles and lengths of the room, the longer the repetition of echoes occur, resulting in a longer tail or reverberation time. The first “REVERB” observed by humans was probably heard in a canyon or a cave when we were known as Neanderthal. The repetition of echoes in an enclosed or open space was probably quite frightening and intriguing. I remember as a kid a place in the mountains called Echo Rock where I would yell something and hear it echo after 1 or 2 seconds. Further down ...

Our blog offers a platform for a wide variety of creative professionals to share what they’ve learned. It’s a place for filmmakers to get answers to frequently asked questions that are often subject to unnecessary gatekeeping, and to read interviews, cultural commentary, and think pieces. Please Recent Blog Categories and Authors Echo and reverb are almost the same audio effect except for one variance, and that’s time. Reverb and echo are reflections of sound in a space. However, echo is the more common word and we know it as hearing a reflection of sound return to one’s ear quieter and later than what was said. Famously on television people shout into a canyon and hear what was said shortly after in fading repeats equally distant apart in time. Reverb is the same concept as an echo but with a smaller reflection time that often comes back within a second and conflates with the sound that hasn’t finished yet. For example, If I were to say, “I would like to hear my echo,” and applied an echo effect through some software, I might say the entire sentence and then hear the entire sentence back. However, if I said the same thing and applied a reverb effect, you could start hearing the effect before you get to the second word of the sentence. This replicates what it sounds like to hear reflections of sounds from rooms with hard walls. In some cases in real life, you may hear reverb and echo when short sound reflections (reverb) and longer sound reflections (echo) hit your ear sim...

Clarke Roberts Clarke is a Senior Marketing Executive and is responsible for helping people to find Cirrus Research's innovative noise measurement solutions by using all aspects of the marketing mix. He particularly enjoys writing content about product applications, including noise nuisance, occupational noise and environmental noise pollution. This is a question that we get asked quite regularly, especially from customers who are coming across the measurement of reverberation for the first time. I recently came across a simple, clear explanation that was written by Harout wrote: A lot of people are confused about the difference between reverberation and an echo. Reverberation is the persistence of sound after the sound source has been stopped. It results from a large number of reflected waves which can be perceived by the brain as a continuous sound. On the other hand, an echo occurs when a pulse of sound can be heard twice. It is normally assumed that if there is a delay of 50ms or more between the first and the second sound reaching the ear, then they will be perceived by the brain as separate events rather than one extended event. I hope the above explanation is a simple and a clear one. Here’s a simple diagram that helps to explain this: Did you know? The Cirrus NoiseTools software has an extension module that allows for the calculation of Reverberation Time (RT60, 30 & 20) in accordance withEN ISO 3382-2 using data that has been measured using an Optimus Sound Level ...

Our blog offers a platform for a wide variety of creative professionals to share what they’ve learned. It’s a place for filmmakers to get answers to frequently asked questions that are often subject to unnecessary gatekeeping, and to read interviews, cultural commentary, and think pieces. Please Recent Blog Categories and Authors Echo and reverb are almost the same audio effect except for one variance, and that’s time. Reverb and echo are reflections of sound in a space. However, echo is the more common word and we know it as hearing a reflection of sound return to one’s ear quieter and later than what was said. Famously on television people shout into a canyon and hear what was said shortly after in fading repeats equally distant apart in time. Reverb is the same concept as an echo but with a smaller reflection time that often comes back within a second and conflates with the sound that hasn’t finished yet. For example, If I were to say, “I would like to hear my echo,” and applied an echo effect through some software, I might say the entire sentence and then hear the entire sentence back. However, if I said the same thing and applied a reverb effect, you could start hearing the effect before you get to the second word of the sentence. This replicates what it sounds like to hear reflections of sounds from rooms with hard walls. In some cases in real life, you may hear reverb and echo when short sound reflections (reverb) and longer sound reflections (echo) hit your ear sim...

There are so many choices that it can be daunting to pick the right reverb for the right job. The many considerations needed to decide which reverb to use will be discussed in this article: I will present the points that I use to determine what reverb I employ in the mix process, that conveys the feeling for the particular emotion I wish to invoke in the listener. I will also discuss the many types of natural reverb and reverb simulators that exist in today’s world of music production. REVERB Secondly, in the world of mixing, reverb is definitely a sound that is wanted and useful in the creation of a wonderful listening experience! The type of reverb depends on the size and shape of the room that the sound echoes in. A square room provides many less reflective surfaces than a cathedral. The material of the reflective surface determines the frequency response of the initial reflections and subsequent echoes that result in the tail or length of the reverb. The harder the surface, and the more surface angles and lengths of the room, the longer the repetition of echoes occur, resulting in a longer tail or reverberation time. The first “REVERB” observed by humans was probably heard in a canyon or a cave when we were known as Neanderthal. The repetition of echoes in an enclosed or open space was probably quite frightening and intriguing. I remember as a kid a place in the mountains called Echo Rock where I would yell something and hear it echo after 1 or 2 seconds. Further down ...