I hate reverb.

[MadAudio]

I would love if you allowed me to send you an mp3 of a song I made recently using my spring reverb and tastefully over-using it in context. In my opinion it does not sound horrible and it definitely does have a "use". And you WILL notice it. but you might not like the song. it's just a matter of differing opinions.

I also agree with the posts about room mics. I also like to use the reverb on my amp sometimes when recording guitars.

its a shame that nowadays people dont start out on a pair of boomboxes where you HAVE to do stuff like that........

Oh, there's nothing wrong with that at all, IMO, but at that point you're really crossing the line into producer.

I just finished doing a CD project for a local band, and on one song I had a different drum reverb for the verses and choruses.

 

[FALKEN]

I just finished doing a CD project for a local band, and on one song I had a different drum reverb for the verses and choruses.

yeah man..that's where its at.

 

[soundchaser59]

I'm with southside and grn on this one.......the best way to tell is solo the track. If it's too much verb, it will be obvious to you right away. Easy to use too much, and if you add reverb in the context of the whole mix, you will use too much. bring down the other tracks so you can hear what it's really doing....

 

[BRIEFCASEMANX]

if a reverb muddys up a mix too much use it in mono and pan it where the instrument is. Or maybe use a stereo widening plugin after the reverb on the send but make it collapse more towards mono instead of widening it out more- I haven't tried this but maybe it could work?

 

[peopleperson]

I answered yes wholeheartedly. I wouldn't say I hate it necessarily because I do use it, and when dialed well, it does really help bring things to the foreground, however, I do think it rivals compression as far as being overused. I don't think it's as integral as most would think. There's such a thing in this world that says the room must be dead and dry, and then hit it with reverb later. Why is this? If you want something natural, why not record the room too or have we all spent all our money on making our rooms dryer than Egyptian pussy? A condenser on drums two rooms away done properly sounds better to me than any processed reverb in the world.

Besides all of that, riddle me this. If you want to make a recording that doesn't sound like every other recording in the world, why not severely ditch out on popular techniques?

Just my two cents. As a listener, I notice 'different' way before I notice 'perfect'.

 

[NYMorningstar]

Now I will say that I hate spring reverb. I have yet to find a useful appliction for spring reverb unless I purposely need something to sound like it has a horrible spring reverb on it .
G.

I can't believe you don't like the sound of old twin amps. An where else can you get that great crash when some idiot decides to move the amp a few inches? That's what I'm on about~

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

where else can you get that great crash when some idiot decides to move the amp a few inches?

That's why I keep slapping the sides of my monitors anytime I here a spring in a mix. Nothing like temporarily turning the sound of a cheap reverb into the sound of a cheap ray gun from an Ed Wood sci fi movie!

G.

 

[killmachine]

Yes thank you,

If I do use reverb I try to make the most subtle I can dial in. Plus honestly how many units really sound like good studio room. I mean I myself don't have a good studio room, but I do however have access to 2 living rooms that are large enough to let things sound a bit roomy when mic'd right. You look at some of the photo shots of big studio's and the rooms are nice and large with specifically placed materials to make it sound a certain way.

 

[Flowerpot]

Surely it all just depends on the music involved, eg. if I felt a certain moment of a piece required/would sound good with reverb, I would add it so you could notice it, but otherwise I'd just use the essential reverb you need to make a track sound good.

 

[noisewreck]

I'm gonna go against the grain and say there is no such thing as too much reverb... and I'm not even that old (only 100) However, the trick is not to use that on the whole mix, unless you're after ambient mush

When using obvious amounts of reverb, the quality of the effect is very important. No plugin I've heard really cuts it, including the convolutions... For this my choice would be Kurzweil KDFX or KSP8, Lexicon PCM 80/90, Eventide, and such. It is also important to apply the right kind of EQ both pre and post reverb.

Coventional wisdom says that the lower frequencies reverberate longer because they have more energy. I say this is a load of BS. It is completely dependent on the acoustic space, and in many places where I've conducted my highly unscientific tests (clapping and listening) the low frequencies tend to die out rather quickly compared to the mids. So, the point is, if the material you're sending to reverb doesn't have much low end to begin with, and your reverb unit has separate control for low and high freq. reverb times, decrease the reverb time for the low frequencies and adjust its frequency anywhere between 100-800Hz, depending on the material.

A lot of subpar reverbs, this includes stuff such as Waves RVerb tend to sound grainy and boxy. You can help these somewhat buy applying some EQ cut in the midrange around 650-1000Hz, low Q settings usually work best, as well as cutting the highs sometimes even down to about 1500Hz. Another approach is not to fight the grainyness and use it to your advantage... Slap a severe compressor after it, something like 1176 with all buttons in, and follow it with flanger or chorus. Natural sound is not the point here, but then again, if natural sound is what you're after, you'd not be using subpar reverbs to begin with.

 

[chessrock]

I consider reverb to be sort of a "time stamp" that aids in dating when a particular song was made. Kind of how hair styles will help identify when a particular picture was taken (like if you see Mullets and stonewashed jeans, you know the picture was taken in the late 80's). It's like carbon dating.

Like if you hear the reverb explode and then suddenly just die right out ... like it has a gate on it ... then you know the song was produced in the 80's.

On the other hand, if you hear this really big and resonant, mid-rangy verb that you know couldn't have been done in a real space ... and you hear it on the tamborine and blocks, then you know it's a spring verb and that it was probably recorded in the mid 60's ala Motown.

And if it has a Whitney Houston - style plate sound to it with a noticeable pre-delay, then you know it was done in the early 90's (ala Tesla and/or Skid Row).
.

 

[Robert D]

.......making our rooms dryer than Egyptian pussy?

Man , that was cold...... colder than Eskimo pussy! But enough about cats.

I love reverb. I love when Seal belts out "My power, my pleasure, my pain....." and the music halts for 2 seconds on that last word leaving nothing but that luscious, fat vocal reverb tail. Of course the trick is knowing what kind and how much is appropriate, and that changes with every song, on every track, and often in different segments within the same song. Reverb is often like an instrument that needs to be played, not set and forgot. In the Seal example, his vocal comes right back in relatively dry. The effect is dramatic and emotive.

Why can't we just use natural room ambience? One reason is because only large facilities provide the dimensions necessary to have a large room response. We're stuck with physics here. Also, only large facilities have a variety of rooms to track in. One or two rooms to choose from is like having a reverb with no controls, just 1 or 2 presets. Yes, you can set a room up to have some convertable absorptive/reflective surfaces, but it's very limiting. So a good reverb is, to me at least, a powerful sonic sculpting tool. And yes, like any tool, you can completely trash the project with it, or you can put a finish on it that glows.

 

[noisewreck]

The way I look at it, expecting artificial reverb (including convolution) to sound natural is the same as expecting synths and samplers sound acoustic, you can cheat, but in the end you know it doesn't sound like a real acoustic space... and this is why I say abuse the shit out of them, make them artificial and revel in their beauty. Afterall, Lexicons aren't revered because they sound natural, they're revered because they sound lush.

Just like synths and samplers, electronic and electro-mechanical reverb allows wone to do things that aren't possible in any other way... take spring reverb for instance... you can't get that jangly sound by kicking a wall in a room now can you?

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

take spring reverb for instance... you can't get that jangly sound by kicking a wall in a room now can you?

No, but I can get it by kicking a spring reverb into a wall in a room .

G.

 

[noisewreck]

No, but I can get it by kicking a spring reverb into a wall in a room .

Now THAT's audio abuse for generation eXtreme!

 

[Halion]

I love what a reverb can do in different situation.

But, it really is depended on the sound you want. I wouldn't put a Cathedral verb on 50 cent either.

 

[BRIEFCASEMANX]

I love what a reverb can do in different situation.

But, it really is depended on the sound you want. I wouldn't put a Cathedral verb on 50 cent either.

I would

 

[metal_god]

Over reverberated snare drums are essential to me. And also i like to use 12s reverbs on choirs + church organ and string sections about 40 - 60% wet mix. Sound epic =)

 

[noisewreck]

I like to put a bitcrusher after reverb then automate sample divider sweeps on it and revell in its noisy, aliased glory.

Sometimes it's great to send it out of the soundcard, put iot through some harsh stompbox such as E-H Big Muff Pi, and sometimes I send it out to the Kurzweil and put it through WRAP... What can I say... audio abuse is fun

 

[Cult_Status02]

I didn't read all responses, but I hate when people add it for the hell of it. It's as if they think it's like turning down the suck knob.