Reverb

[djdarwin]

When you guys are mixing and processing tracks how many different reverbs do you use on your mix?

I know... the answer will be: depends. Let me clarify.

If you apply some light reverb to your Vox and pick a "hall" algorithm then your vox will sound like they are being performed in a hall.

If you apply some reverb to your drums and pick a "church" algorithm then your drums will sound like they are being performed in a church.

How can you have your vox being sung in a hall and your drums being performed in a church in the same song??

What im asking is do you pick one reverb unit/setting for the whole song and apply different amounts of that single reverb unit/setting to individual tracks or do you use several different types of reverb and settings for individual tracks depending on the mix and what "sounds good?"

What do you guys tend to do?

Thanks.

[Jayarre]

About the church and hall thing, I'd say if it sounds good just do it.

But most of time I just use one reverb type, but if several reverb types sound good, then it doesnt matter what's logical to me.

Just my two cents

[noisewreck]

Depends. Bear in mind that I am 100% electronic here. No miced instruments, vox or anything like that... sooo...

Oftentimes, I may use a relatively long, wet reverb for some background pads, drones, where the individual sounds need to be rather indistinct, and just contribute to the overall atmosphere. Over this, I may have some relatively dry drums, where the kick (specially electronic kick) will be dry, and maybe some reverb on the snare and hats and such. I may have elements that are completely dry, and others that have some reverb or delay on them...

Sometimes I may chain 2 reverbs and use one to contribute more early reflections, and the other the reverb tail to create hybrids, for example do "room" early reflections and "plate" tail.

[Robert D]

It's pretty common to use a few diffrent verbs on a song, within reason. There is the one band, one room approach, but even in recordings where nothing but natural ambience is used, different rooms are often used for isolation purposes, and for different sounds. Even if you use one verb, but different send levels, you've blown the one band in one room concept.

[blueroommusic]

If i'm mixing anything with drums, often I will find the verb that fits the song, and use it twice...one with a shorter decay, one with a longer decay...I'll route all the drums except the overheads to the 1st verb, and the OH's to the verb with the longer decay...

as far as halls, cathedrals and what not, there is absolutely nothing wrong with putting different elements in different environments...but once again, it all depends on the song...I mixed an album one time, and the guitarist was like, "I want a different verb on each element"...so I did it, and it actually came out fairly interesting...not what I would normally do, but if you could get the right mixtures & textures, it's not such a bad thing.

[tarnationsauce2]

Certain rooms sound better for certain instruments.

That's why most studios track vocals and drums in seperate rooms.

It really does depend on what you want the final outcome to be. In a real live setting the band would all be in the same room of course, so all instruments would have the same ambience. Though different mics / placement / instrument volume will all have an effect on how much ambience will be captured on the particular microphone.

But I digress. I think It is normal to choose what sounds best for the song. And usually that will be different reverb sounds / decay time for different parts of the band. In fact in most situations having a different reverb sound will help seperate the instruments so it's not one big ball of the same sound.

[DrJones]

Vox generally is like a plate or small room used with some kind of chorus or delay to add a doubling effect. you can use the predelay on some reverb plugings to acomplish that dbl effect. a snare, a wet plate or light "hall or church". so the answer is yes, you can use different settings in any one song. now over use is just like anything else is going to sound like crap. watch your parameters. that is my opinion.

but (and this is my opinion) plugin reverbs kind of suck. they sound like crappy reverbs anyway ("You can only polish a turd so shiny"). i have used reverbs from different software and many 3rd party pluging (Waves, BF, ect...) and i have not found any that sound good. i ended up purchasing TC Electronic M-One XL. not the best, but best bang for the buck. worth $400. better than any plugin i have heard. hope this helps.

[littledog]

I suggest you explore more of the plate algorhythms, and not load up your mix with churches and large halls, which can get muddy in a hurry.

Plates have the advantage of no early reflections, and will give you a "cleaner" sound.

That's not to say that real spaces aren't useful. But when you start getting into the really large spaces, like cathedrals and concert halls, it will definitely place your music in that exact space - which is fine if you are trying to simulate a live concert in a church - but that's not what typical pop music goes for.

When I use real spaces, and I'm not trying to create a "live concert in a big space" sound, I'll typically use smaller rooms to add some natural sounding ambience to a vocal or guitar. Maybe a medium size wood room for some drum tracks - especially if I want to hear the snare ring out a bit.

For the rest - I tend to try plates first.

Dr. Jones mentioned predelay - which is a very useful parameter. By delaying the onset of the reverb by 30-50 milliseconds, you can really clean up the sound without hearing noticeable delay. Some people will use as much as 100 milliseconds of predelay, but that is usually for a very subtle (bordering on subliminal) amount of reverb, because with any heavier reverb treatment, that much predelay will sound like a second delayed attack.

[chazba]

With reverbs, less is more in most cases. I will use a "Room" for drums . I'm not a drummer, so all drums, and most other instruments are MIDI'd. A light touch of "room" gives them some air and life, and places them in the same imaginary acoustic space. It don't take much, and any more than just enough will be too much. For vox.....depends on the song, the mood, the singer...no hard and fast rule. The point of all efx is to enhance the perception of the listener.


chazba

[T Sat]

I use different reverbs for different instruments and voices. One thing I have learned is I keep a copy of a track without reverb in case I go back the next day or week and decide I really didn't like that reverb as much as I thought, or what the artist thought. Generally less is better, reverb is one of those things that gets overly used and some times vocalists like to hide behind them.

[SonicAlbert]

In general, I use enough reverb to be able to hear it when the track is soloed, but not conciously notice it when the whole mix is being played. You can certianly hear it in the mix and miss it when it's gone, but it doesn't call attention to itself. But you should be able to noticably hear it when the track is soloed.

Also, I've found layering reverbs to be very helpful, often on vocals. I might use 3 different reverbs on vocals at the same time, plus a delay. Same for strings.

I think the key is to avoid the huge washy reverbs of the 80's. So a "cathedral" preset with a long tail is probably going to be overkill most of the time.