Best practice on when it's time to add reverb?

[keithpurtell]

I get the impression from reading various articles on the Web that some people are adding reverb to individual instrument tracks before they get ready for the mixdown part of the process. Seems to me that's pretty risky. Especially since I want *my* final mix to sound like each instrument was part of a live band being recorded all at once. Shouldn't the reverb be part of tweaking tracks and even the overall mix that takes place during the final steps? Maybe there's a good definitive tutorial on this somewhere?

 

[mjbphotos]

It's all in the sound that you want. I sometimes add some reverb to piano, strings or a solo guitar part to give it a certain 'feel'.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I think "risky" is a bit strong. Nothing's going to break if you put reverb on early. Everything interacts so adding reverb may make you want to tweak the mix, which may in turn make you want to tweak the reverb again or fiddle with compressors and eqs and so on.

If "adding reverb to individual instrument tracks" means inserting them right on the tracks then I'd say it's not a great idea most of the time but it's a great idea occasionally.

 

[grimtraveller]

Especially since I want *my* final mix to sound like each instrument was part of a live band being recorded all at once.

That's kind of ironic, given that the very existence of multitrack machines has ensured that many many many of the most live sounding together band in a room playing eyeball to eyeball songs over the last 50 years......haven't been, in reality.
I honestly couldn't tell you if a band recorded together on any particular song. Neither do I care.

 

[heatmiser]

I tend to use many different reverbs on each tune applied in different ways to each track (or not at all on some).

For electric guitars, I really like the reverb from my old amp, so I almost always record the guitar with the reverb from the amp. I don't remember ever adding digital reverb after the fact to an electric guitar, but I may very well have. I don't remember ever getting burned by that and later on regretting the verb I applied, but I agree that there is some risk of that happening.

Keep in mind, my goal is not necessarily to get everything sounding like it is in the same space being played live. Sometimes I like some elements to be very dry and others dropped far back drenched in verb.

The one area I've begun adding verb after the fact is the drum kit. I have found that applying the same verb to the whole kit ties it together a little bit better in most cases. Oddly, I don't have that same feeling about all of the other tracks in a mix.

 

[guitaristic]

I get the impression from reading various articles on the Web that some people are adding reverb to individual instrument tracks before they get ready for the mixdown part of the process. Seems to me that's pretty risky. Especially since I want *my* final mix to sound like each instrument was part of a live band being recorded all at once. Shouldn't the reverb be part of tweaking tracks and even the overall mix that takes place during the final steps? Maybe there's a good definitive tutorial on this somewhere?

Dude you're just overthinking it....it honestly doesn't matter. If you put verb on "too early" you can always change your mind later and turn it off with a click of the mouse.

Whatever sounds good!

 

[keithpurtell]

Whoa ... my mind has been altered and expanded on this topic. And I didn't have to smoke anything. Thanx all.

 

[CFox]

I get the impression from reading various articles on the Web that some people are adding reverb to individual instrument tracks before they get ready for the mixdown part of the process. Seems to me that's pretty risky. Especially since I want *my* final mix to sound like each instrument was part of a live band being recorded all at once. Shouldn't the reverb be part of tweaking tracks and even the overall mix that takes place during the final steps? Maybe there's a good definitive tutorial on this somewhere?

Know your reverb types. You got a spring on the fender and nice ambience or slap back delay on the main vocals with a large space or "live room" sound on the drums and you got the classic rock mix - even a live mix will sound close to that.

What you describe sounds like a jazz setup. Easy, record everything flat then run the whole mix through a furnished room or small studio reverb.

 

[Justsomeguy]

i normally add reverb quite early on in my mixing as i see it as one of the three fundamentals to mixing - balance, pan, depth. in theory, if every part is recorded perfectly for the track so that everything fits without the need for extra EQ, compression, etc then you should be able to get a great sounding mix by just balancing the tracks appropriately, panning tracks (unless you're aiming for a mono mix) and then adding reverb/delay to create a sense of depth. normally, at this stage, you should have a pretty solid rough mix.

like many, i would say the important thing here is to not over think the reverb process and try and find the "right" or most appropriate reverb for the track. there are plenty of articles around the net looking at different types of reverbs and how/when to use them to get the most out of them. with modern convolution reverbs the choice is sooooooo vast that you can waste weeks playing around with all the different reverbs before settling for the one you like (believe me, i have!) but if you at least have a vague idea of the difference between a small plate and large hall and how it will sound it makes the choosing process much easier. sometimes, when i find myself getting too bogged down with finding the "right" reverb from the 100's in Altiverb i resort to using my old Alesis Microverb I to intentionally limit my choices. if i can't get anywhere close with the microverb i know it's time to take a break from the track and go and have a cup of tea

in terms of adding reverb whilst tracking, it can be risky but if you do want to record with extra reverb just think it about it as being part of the sound of the instrument. for example, as heatmiser said, recording electric guitars with the amp reverb on is sometimes part of the sound of the instrument and sometimes turning the reverb off when tracking can have a huge effect on the playing and performance as player will expect to hear the reverb. Drums in a good room will sound big and sweet and using room mic's to intentionally capture this sound is common practice.

well, that's my 2 cents