Reverb burying your vocal? Use pre-delay

When reverb starts at the same moment as the voice, the echoes land on top of the words and blur them, pushing the vocal to the back. Pre-delay adds a short gap, often 20 to 100 milliseconds, before the reverb starts. The words come through clean first, and the space follows.

How to do it

1. Put the reverb on a send (aux) track, 100% wet.
2. Set the pre-delay to around 40 ms and turn it up until the vocal steps forward. 80 ms is a good place to try.
3. For tempo-locked pre-delay, use a 1/32 or 1/64 note at your BPM.
4. High-pass the reverb return so it doesn't add mud.
5. Blend the send until you can hear the space but every word is still clear.

Why it works

Your ears judge distance by how soon the echoes come after a sound. A short gap tells them the voice is close and the room is big, which is exactly the feeling you want for a lead vocal.

Free tool: BPM, Delay & Reverb Calculator → Tap the tempo, then get delay times, LFO rates and reverb pre-delay and decay that fit it.