I hate reverb.

  • Thread starter Thread starter nddhc
  • Start date Start date

Do you often avoid using reverb?

  • Yes

    Votes: 120 24.8%
  • No

    Votes: 363 75.2%

  • Total voters
    483
I use it on my voice but rarely on anything else. I think it's always good and logical on the voice...but seems to be not so much of a go to thing for guitar or for drums or anything else.

On a slightly different note....I can't work out why so many reverb plugs seem to have hall, stadium, church reverbs...these huge echoing massive reverb sounds. What's the go with that? Never ever use anything that huge...but every plugin seems to boast them. Must be easy to make or something.
 
I'm actually a huge fan of reverb and use a lot of it throughout my mixes... the catch is how it's used though. I'll add a bit here and there to keyboards and electronic drums and depending on the song, I'll play around with some for vocals, whether it be the main vox of backups.

The thing is that if used in a smart way, it'll add life to otherwise dry recordings, it'll let you move things further away in the mix to create the image that something is closer or further from the listener... in a sense, it's a great pan control for front to back as opposed the standard left and right.

Does all this use of reverb make my music sound like it's stuck in some other decade? No... but without it, my songs would probably sound pretty dull. It's rare that I'll use something to excess, but when I use a small touch here and there, it really makes things come to life.
 
I love reverb. I use reverb on almost every track. That's essential to the mix.
 
IMO like most effects reverb has it's place but you can over use it.

For guitars I generally use a subtle amount of the amp's own spring reverb (I've never heard a good digital simulation of one - they always seem either in-audible or too extreme)

For drums I tend to opt for a small to medium plate (digital, not a real one).

Occasionally I add reverb to vocals if I'm looking for a particular 'open space' effect but I tend to stick with a fast tape style delay.

In isolation lots of instruments can sound really huge with a heap of hall reverb but in my experience this rarely works well within a mix. Subtly is the key!
 
I guess I was referring more to "Hard Rock"
Yeah, I knew you were probably exaggerating a bit, just poking a bit of fun, Rami :D.

And once again, my mistake. I can't help it; I keep forgetting that on this board there is only one type of music: either metallurgy or hip hop, dpening upon which side of the tracks you were born on, and that there are only two bands in the whole world that are the tiny exception: the Beatles and Britney Spears. Nothing else exists. :p

I know you guys get tired of me bitching about that, but you guys have no idea how fatiguing, exasperating and depressing it gets when the majority of people interested in home recording these days are just not into music in general any more. It wasn't that long ago that recordists and hobbyists tended to be musicologists first, and recordists second. Now things seem to have flip-flopped in that regard, and I feel like a dying species :(.

Excuse me while I go eat my Soylent Green and lay down to die... :D

G.
 
Bull. I listen to Steeleye Span and Jefferson Airplane. Harry Parch, John Cage, Mussorsky, Juliana Hatfield, Charlotte Church, Faith Hill, Black Flag, Carrie Underwood, Alice Cooper, Queen, and Pavarotti. The Grateful Dead, The Tokens, The Kinks, The Who, Stravinsky, The Police, Brahms, The Eagles, Silly Wizard, The Roches, The United States of America, Steppenwolf, Handel, Clannad, Bartok, Saloom, Sinclair, and the Mother Bear. It's a Beautiful Day. Everything from Twisted Sister to Barry Manilow.-Richie
 
Bull. I listen to Steeleye Span and Jefferson Airplane. Harry Parch, John Cage, Mussorsky, Juliana Hatfield, Charlotte Church, Faith Hill, Black Flag, Carrie Underwood, Alice Cooper, Queen, and Pavarotti. The Grateful Dead, The Tokens, The Kinks, The Who, Stravinsky, The Police, Brahms, The Eagles, Silly Wizard, The Roches, The United States of America, Steppenwolf, Handel, Clannad, Bartok, Saloom, Sinclair, and the Mother Bear. It's a Beautiful Day. Everything from Twisted Sister to Barry Manilow.-Richie
I think that's wonderful, Richard. What do you record with your studio?

There's always exceptions and minorities. We also have regulars here like David K and Sonic Albert who actually make a living recording stuff that's about as far from metal or hip hop as you can get.

But go ahead and go through the Recording Technique and Mixing/Mastering forums and actually take actual counts. Go ahead, I'll wait :D. You will find that, when identifiable, the genre breakdown is roughly along the following lines: ~75% some form of ____metal or ____core, ~20% hip hop (though this seems to be rising somewhat), and about 5% every other genre on this planet put together. These are rough figures, but they're not far from the truth, and they make the point.

Iif the only thing anybody knew about record where what they got from these forums, you'd think that everybody only plays and records metal. Certainly the majority of people posting here are pretty much assuming that everybody else is playing and recording the same kind of music they are. And it seems that the only major music source that anybody wants to talk about outside their base is the freakin' Beatles. My god, haven't most of us had our Stairway To Heaven-ish fill of Sgt. Pepper yet? Apparently not.

You're not the first to say that they listen to a wider range; I believe it was Legionserial the other day who laid a similar complaint on me that he listened to a wide variety of music also. But he also said in so many words that he played and recorded metal almost exclusively. And for those of us who mix home recording clients, how many clients do we get that are metal bands? I'll bet you you it's a majority without even breaking a sweat.

Again, my whole point is that these numbers are just so disproportionate to the real world. It's not like metal/core is even close to 75% of the current music out there (and that's not even counting the last century of music including hundreds of genres and sub-genres that most people born post-Watergate have never even heard of, let alone heard.) Yet to believe this board, it's the massive, burning red giant sun of distortion around which a few other tiny planets of music orbit.

I'm forced to use those three words that make me sound like an old man; "I remember when", but I DO I remember when we were in our basements with our Teac 3340s and Pioneer 2-tracks and dbx compander boxes and Utah speakers (which was a typical-style beginning gear list for "home recording" that would be roughly the equivalent in class then of today's typical Firebox/Cubase home setup, though the feature list and capability, if not the sound quality. of the gear today is greater by a magnitude.) When we'd have friends and friends of friends drop by and contribute to a stone soup of recorded material that included styles from analog space synth to baroque zither to acoustic folk to electric reggae and so on.

I had one friend in college that played bass in a Floyd-ish or Hawkwindish style space rock band of dubious quality that would want to come over and record himself play the Spanish guitar. We always bugged him to bring his buds to come over over and lay down some of their spacey stuff, but he wasn't interested. That gig is what he used to get gas money and get laid, but musically (he felt) it just wasn't how he wanted to spend his creative recording time.

I just wonder what happened to that culture. Because, however you or a handful of others may protest about what you listen to in your car or in your home, it sure seems hard to find on this board. That's all I'm saying.

[WARNING: Another food analogy approaching, because I'm hungry and about to fire up the grill :D]:

It's like going to a home cooking forum, and all anybody wants to know is how to make burgers. Now I love burgers just as much as the next guy, but my god, there's so much more to cooking and eating than re-inventing McDonald's 24/7. :D.

G.
 
Glen,
I can fully understand your point of view: you are are a professional and it's in your heart to use your recording skills in as many musical directions as you can. And for that you are respected here and your advice is always valued greatly. But most of us home-recordists got into this to be able to project the music we love, whether metal or not. I for one remember what it was like 20 years ago to get my band to record a demo. Today there's simply no comparison, it's all become so easy to be creative at home. And I've listened to a lot of stuff here in the mp3 clinic and a lot of it isn't metal or hip-hop, even if Rock remains in the majority. But hey, this is primarily an American site and America invented Rock'n'Roll....:D
So what I mean is, everyone should just record whatever they find to be fun. I grew up with the Beatles, Stones, later Hendrix, David Bowie, Elton John, Marc Bolan and the classic heavy bands. But I've also sung in Jazz-rock bands, Mainstream Pop/Rock, etc.

But Metal still remains the music that makes me feel best;)(...now where the hell did I save that blazing guitar track?:D)

Cheers
Joe
 
Reverb is great except when everything is saturated with it. All my old recordings are ruined because I loved Reverb way too much (like so many other people have done before me)

Now I go by the method that a little is a bit too much. A pinch is just nice.
 
I love reverb. I have a very dry room, so I use it to create a nice ambient "room". I think the key to reverb is getting the decay rate to be inline with the speed of the music, and not over do it on the amount you use. For me, this makes it sound more natural.
 
I can fully understand your point of view: you are are a professional and it's in your heart to use your recording skills in as many musical directions as you can....But most of us home-recordists got into this to be able to project the music we love, whether metal or not.
Apologies for ressurecting this sub-thread after 6 months, but I was just informed of this loose thread that I waned to respond to:

Joe,

I appreciate that and don't knock it. Contrary to what I have been accused of in the past, I have nothing against the genre even though I admit that I left it for other personal interests quite a while ago.

But you demonstrate my point as to how things seem to have changed over the years; you say (and I agree): "most of us home-recordists got into this to be able to project the music we love". It used to be kind of the reverse of that, it was the love of music in general that made us want to get into home recording. The more someone was a musicologist, the more likely you were to find a home studio in their bedroom or basement.

It wasn't a matter of recording one's own band so much - though that was a big aspect of it for many, sure. Your average home recordist was just as likely not to even have their own band as they were likely to have one, and even if they did have a band, that band tended to be more of an eclectic mix of musicians and musicologists then they were a band that could easily be IDs as being of a genre. It wasn't so much "getting our music out there" as it was getting everybody else's music closer to us.

I'm not judging. I'm just observing how things have indeed seem to changed to at least some degree. Change happens. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. Either way, it can be difficult :o.

G.
 
I just saw Reverb, passed him on the sidewalk. We stopped, chatted for a while. He told me he hates you, too, nddhc. Nothing personal, he just hates you.
 
The more someone was a musicologist, the more likely you were to find a home studio in their bedroom or basement.
G.

I don't even have a basement, and I hate Reverb pretty much. I didn't see a poll?

Musicologist's!

I had been wondering where all the musicologist were hanging out though...now I know,..in their basement or bedroom.

at least they have a basement. maybe Reverbs better in the basement?

I had some reverb once in my little drywall bedroom studio and I put panels up to get rid of it.

There weren't any musicologists in my bedroom hanging out though?:confused:

My son allowed some kid to live in my bedroom without asking me once, hell he was so quiet, he'd been her elike 4 weeks and I didn't even know he was living in my house!...he doesn't record music except on an Ipod.

what a weird post.
 
I kinda feel like im the only person that feels this way - most people I know love adding reverb to stuff. I think it really makes the recording muddy and cluttered sounding. However - when I listen to nice studio recordings, I can tell theres a nice amount of reverb in there that sounds great.

I admit good mixing, experience, and equipment can do wonders - But could it just be that im using really bad reverbs in the first place?
I personally love using reverb in certain ways...

One great way to get a natural reverb is to use 2 mics at different distances away from an amp. Place the amp at the bottom of the stairs and a '57 close to the speaker while you have a large tube condenser at the top of the stairs. This creates a really nice natural reverb.

I also prefer to use reverbs that are built into guitar amps etc.

I'm not a fan of reverbs on vocals, I prefer delays.
 
i didn't read this entire thread so i could be treading over old territory buuuut:
in terms of effect-based reverb,
1. cheap reverbs are sometimes known to "suck" as well as "blow".
2. reverb is not meant for everything. a tiny tiny tasteful amount can sometimes take the "edge" off certain instrument tracks. my personal favorite use for it though is when it's used in massive quantities to create spacial depth, as in alot of psychedelic rock or "ambient" music. the music, for example, of folks like eno, david sylvian, certain things from the 80's on the 4AD label, the verve (and some other "shoegaze" bands), pre-dark side pink floyd, galaxie 500, bands from the "terrastock" scene, the german psychedelic music of the early-to-mid 70's etc etc all make good use of stacks and stacks of reverb. it depends on the style of music too. captain beefheart, pere ubu, and gang of four, for example sound much better dry and "in your face". (just dropped a buncha names i know but i was trying to make a point about sounds and hopefully twas nothing too esoteric)
 
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reverb is good in moderation unless your in the jesus and mary chain then reverb is good in excess. hey is better than distortion
 
I didn't read through all these pages, so I'm not sure if it was already said...

I probably use some reverb in every mix...BUT...I don't use it on every track, and I keep most of mine in the short range and mostly plate or small hall stuff.
What I will do for other tracks is either leave them 100% dry...and some I'll just use delays.

I find the mix of dry, delayed and reverb tracks helps creat a nice 3-D vibe that has depth, width and height....though of course, it's all song dependant.

If everything is dry...it tends to make the song sound too "flat"...two-dimensional...you just get left/right spread and little else.
I think that's how all those mono recordings manage to sound so deep...it's the variety of dry, delays and reverb...
...and having stereo just opens it up even more.
 
If you have a chance, get in a good room and you can have natural reverb.
 
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