YouTuber Hainbach discovers psychedelic reverb trick by accident

In a video, music technology content creator Hainbach has shown off an intriguing way of creating a psychedelic-sounding reverb effect, discovered by accident.

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Hainbach, a content creator and music producer, accidentally achieved the psychedelic reverb when he mistakenly wired the left and right outputs of his Bandive Great British Spring reverb in reverse.

The effect that’s created is an inverted reverb, so sounds panned to the right reverberate on the left-hand side and vice versa. The result feels unnerving and unnatural and drops your instrument, voice or sample into a unique, “impossible” space. As described by Hainbach, when applied to a piano it makes it sound “floating, less rooted in reality”.

“Is this effect good for everything?” he asks. “Absolutely not. You lose clarity and your ear can’t pick up where the instrument really is. But if you want this out-of-this-world effect, it’s a wonderful trick.

“One of the most beautiful things we can do in music production is create spaces that are unreal – that are impossible in the real world. To create these spaces and tell our music by walking through them – that’s why I am really into making music. It’s always good to try a wrong thing and see if it sounds right.”

Another benefit of this experimental reverb technique is the fact that it can be translated nicely into mono, since the spring reverb signal is so different from the original signal.

Elsewhere on Hainbach’s YouTube channel, the producer talks about composition, and experimental music techniques, and studio tricks and explains studio techniques from the early days of electronic music production. He also has videos about his recent synth purchases and gets hands on with rare and vintage hardware.

Check out and/or subscribe to Hainbach’s YouTube channel.