Gated reverb has become something of a cliché - though you shouldn't let that put you off using it altogether - but similar results can be obtained by using ambience settings. "The effect of too much reverb is to 'smear' percussive events, reducing the contrast between beats and the spaces between those beats." The high level of reverb stretches percussive sounds, but then it suddenly stops, leaving plenty of contrast with the following quieter sounds.)
(Incidentally, it is possible to make peaks sound even louder by extending their duration slightly, which is why gated reverb sounds so powerful. The less contrast there is, the less loud the peaks sound. Though the average signal level of a reverb-processed sound may be higher than the untreated signal, the chances are that it'll actually sound less loud with the reverb added, because one of the ways in which we perceive loudness is to subconsciously register the difference in level between peaks and the lower-level sounds that come between them. By its very nature, reverb occurs after the sound that caused it, so the effect of too much reverb is to 'smear' percussive events, reducing the contrast between beats and the spaces between those beats. But when the whole mix is playing, there's a danger that reverb can fill all the important spaces that let the detail within the recording shine through. That's because a solo'd track usually has plenty of space between the sounds. Take any solo'd track and add reverb to it, and the chances are that it'll sound bigger (in a spatial sense) and more impressive. Problems arise, however, when the type and amount of reverberation are wrong. The same is true of electronically generated sounds that have no natural ambience of their own - they need some added reverberation to make them sound believable. Pop music is rarely recorded in a natural acoustic environment, unless you have access to one of the top studios with a really good live room, so what tends to happen is that sounds are recorded in a fairly dry room, then treated with artificial reverberation to make them sound natural. Most studio musicians appreciate the importance of reverb in recorded music, but a large number of demos are still spoiled either through over-use or inappropriate use of this crucial effect. PAUL WHITE explains why a great reverb doesn't always make a mix sound better.