The short answer
Delay into reverb makes each repeat excite the same acoustic space. The echoes soften and blend as the reverb wraps around them. Reverb into delay repeats the reverberant signal itself, so the rhythm carries a copy of the room or tail.
If you want a connected, natural bloom, start with delay → reverb. If you want the atmosphere to become part of the rhythm, try reverb → delay.
What happens when delay comes first?
The delay produces discrete repeats. Every repeat is then sent into the reverb, which places the original sound and its echoes inside one apparent environment. Reverb diffusion reduces the hard edge of the repeats, while a longer tail can connect them into a continuous texture.
This order often works well when the delay should be felt as depth or movement rather than heard as a separate effect. It is useful on lead vocals, melodic instruments, and sparse parts where a pristine echo might feel too exposed.
Listen for
- Repeats that become softer and less distinct over time.
- A single shared sense of room around the dry sound and echoes.
- Rhythmic taps that dissolve into a cohesive tail.
What happens when reverb comes first?
The reverb creates an acoustic envelope first. The delay then captures and repeats that envelope, so each echo can include the early reflections and tail. This tends to sound more obviously processed and can turn a simple source into a pulsing spatial texture.
Because every repeat may carry a broad, sustained signal, density can build quickly. Shorter decay, lower feedback, filtering, and ducking are useful when the chain begins to mask the dry performance.
Listen for
- Repeats with a soft cloud or room attached to each tap.
- A rhythmic re-triggering of the spatial character.
- More audible texture and faster density buildup.
How to choose in a real mix
Start from the job the effect needs to do. For support and cohesion, delay → reverb is usually the faster route. For an ear-catching transition, ambient pulse, or sound-design layer, reverb → delay often exposes more character. Neither is universally better.
Make the comparison at matched output level. Louder usually sounds more exciting, which can disguise whether the routing actually serves the arrangement. ALEVRB includes both serial orders and a dry FX Off path so the decision can be made without rebuilding a chain.
Useful starting settings
Connected vocal space: Delay → Reverb, quarter- or eighth-note delay, moderate feedback, short pre-delay, medium decay, and enough ducking to keep words forward.
Rhythmic ambient texture: Reverb → Delay, modest reverb send, shorter decay than expected, tempo-synced delay, filtered feedback, and restrained wet level.
Sanity check: switch to Parallel. If the serial version is obscuring the part, the independent paths may preserve more definition.