Reverb in reverse

D

darrvid

New member
“Stadium Arcadium” On the solo, we flipped the tape over and ran the sound through a vintage EMT 250 digital reverb, recording the reverb onto a separate track, so that when the tape was flipped back over the reverb would be reversed and begin just ahead of the guitar. Then, we ran the reverb sound through a low-pass filter—which lets you nail any sound down to the tiniest little sliver of a frequency—so that you not only hear the notes coming up ahead of the unprocessed guitar, they are swirling around, and the sound seemingly comes out of nothingness. Also, on the second verse, we slowed down the tape and I picked some triads really fast, then we ran that sound through the EMT 250, which made them sound like futuristic mandolins from outer space.
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This quote is from Frusciante describing the recording of Stadium Arcadium.

I think I mostly understand the process, but I have a question on the bolded part. Here's how I figure the basic signal chain goes:

Guitar ------>tape running forward
|
|
--->reverb--->tape running backward

Then, the backward tape is flipped; effect being you now have reverb which plays backwards.

Then combine the tapes, so you have your guitar signal running straight, along with reversed reverb.

This is where I get confused. Assume you've recorded a 10 note guitar riff with this method. Won't the reverb of note 10 be playing when the guitar is playing note 1? (as it's been reversed?)

Hope that makes sense; anyone able to help clear that up?
 
This is easy enough to do with your DAW. record a guitar track, then reverse it. while it's reversed apply a nice long reverb to it. after applying the reverb, reverse it again.

basically the reverb will still stick to each note played, but since you've reversed it, it'll be before each note instead of behind it. it gives it a really cool effect where the reverb swells into each note.

ever seen the movie poltergeist? whenever that little girl is speaking through the TV? that's the effect this produces.
 
The tracks are not combined. The reversed tape is verbed and then recorded to a new tape or track, and that new recording is (re-)reversd. Think of the path like this:

Guitar ----> tape1/track1
then
flip tape1/reverse track1
then
tape1/track1 reversed ----> reverb ----> tape2/track2
then
flip tape2/reverse track2
Viola! You have the original guitar playing normal with the "preverb" coming first.

G.
 
I've always wanted to figure out how to do that on one of my recordings! I've heard it on vocals and snare drum alot.

That wouldn't work in my Cubase software, though. Cause the effects don't change the audio. he audio is played through the effects, so it wouldn't attach to the notes. I wish I could do that, though.
 
Newbie dude said:
That wouldn't work in my Cubase software, though. Cause the effects don't change the audio. he audio is played through the effects, so it wouldn't attach to the notes. I wish I could do that, though.
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What you gotta do is save/print/export (whatever Cubase calls it) the reversed/reverbed track as a new WAV file. Then import that new file into the project and reverse it.

G.
 
Which cubase do you use? In SX3 you don't have to export anything. You can process the file in place.

Select the wav file you want to change, then click 'audio' up at the top. select 'process', then 'reverse'. then select audio again, then 'plug ins'. select your reverb, dial in the sound you want using the 'preview' button, then select 'process' when you're ready.
 
I got LE. In LE, reverb isn't listed as one of the audio processess. I think now how to do it, though. I'll just reverse the audio track and turn on reverb, then record that track then same way I convert MIDI files to audio, and then reverse it back. Should work.
 
Newbie dude said:
I got LE. In LE, reverb isn't listed as one of the audio processess. I think now how to do it, though. I'll just reverse the audio track and turn on reverb, then record that track then same way I convert MIDI files to audio, and then reverse it back. Should work.
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Reverb will be a plug, not a process. I was messing around with this today...I found it only takes a hint of verb. But I was doing it on vox.
 
Could someone break the process down for me as you would do it with a track and reverb plugin in a DAW?

Because I'm an idiot. :confused:

Is it like this?

o Record guitar track
o Reverse guitar track
o Apply reverb
o Reverse guitar track again

?

I tried that and it sounds pretty cool, but not sure if that's the right way to do it...
 
danny.guitar said:
Could someone break the process down for me as you would do it with a track and reverb plugin in a DAW?

Because I'm an idiot. :confused:

Is it like this?

o Record guitar track
o Reverse guitar track
o Apply reverb
o Reverse guitar track again

?

I tried that and it sounds pretty cool, but not sure if that's the right way to do it...
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That's pretty much it as long as you either appy the reverb directly to the guitar track. If you record the reverb to its own own track, you will have to revers the reverb track as well.
 
danny.guitar said:
Is it like this?

o Record guitar track
o Reverse guitar track
o Apply reverb
o Reverse guitar track again
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Yep, that's it exactly.

Another neat variation that can work nice if you're playing guitar notes that are fairly widely spaced is to try a bit of a decayed echo/delay instead of a verb. Good for a very spacey effect. The key is to time the echo to the tempo and have it decay fast enough so that the echo doesn't step on the next note (or previous note, depending upon how you look at it :)).

G.
 
OR...
1) record guitar track
2) duplicate the guitar track on to new track
3) process duplicated track with plug-in reverb, 100% wet, short-ish decay
4) take the resulting all-reverb track and reverse it
5) now you'll have both sounds on separate tracks so you can mix the original guitar-track with the backwards 'verb track, and slip the backwards track around (if necessary) to line it up perfectly, AND you can pan them apart a little, which is fun.

Back in my analog hey-day (1980's 1990's) we used to do backwards reverb all the time. Of course flipping 2" 24-track tape around was a pain in the ass, because if the track we wanted the process was on, say, track 20, when you turn the tape upside down it's now on track 5, right? And of course you still you needed an open track to record the reverb on to, which, if it was 23 is now...um 2.

So we sometimes did it another way. We'd keep the 24 track tape going forward, and use a 2-track tape machine to do the effect, and flip IT over. Yould send the guitar-track or whatever it was through a reverb, and record the now-reverbed guitar on to a stereo 2-track. We'd flip that 1/4" tape over and then "FLY IN" the backwards 'verb-guitar on to a free track of the 24-track. That in itself was a challenge, and ususally took a couple tries, but we were pretty good at it.

If you don't know what FLY-IN means, that's another story for another time, and besides, kiddies, you DAW users will never have to do it anyway. That was our analog way of "importing a file". I guess you could call it old-school drag-and-drop. :)
 
Drewcifer666 said:
OR...
1) record guitar track
2) duplicate the guitar track on to new track

2 1/2) reverse the duplicated guitar track

3) process duplicated track with plug-in reverb, 100% wet, short-ish decay
4) take the resulting all-reverb track and reverse it
5) now you'll have both sounds on separate tracks so you can mix the original guitar-track with the backwards 'verb track, and slip the backwards track around (if necessary to line it up perfectly, AND you can pan them apart a little, which is fun.
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step 2 1/2) reverse the duplicated guitar track

Drewcifer666 said:
I guess you could call it old-school drag-and-drop
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the only difference was if you dropped a 2 inch real on your foot, it hurt. Wav files are much more manageable.
 
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