Reverb versus Delay versus Echo?

[hduncan]

Here is my impression:
A) Reverb gives a smeared sound as it is a lot of small echoes so close together that your brain can't distinguish them.
B) Delay is a perfect copy of the source track played at a predetermined "lateness" once at a time.
C) Echo is like delay but each time it repeats, it loses the original character, simulating gradual decrease through absorption/diffusion of the environment on the sound.


Am I on the right track?

[Kiwiburger]

The meanings of words gets a bit blurred. To most people, an echo is a distinct delayed sound. But the early "echo chambers" were what we would normally call reverb.

Even reverb tends to be broken down into Early Reflections and Reverb. Although in reality it's all a big continuum. Only artificial delays can really give a single delayed copy - any real acoustic ambiance is multitudes of reflections.