Reverb

[Jerry W]

How about some of the whys and wherefores of reverb rather than another "best pre-amp" discussion or "compressor settings" discussion.

 

[Track Rat]

Reverb. It's sort of like salt. A little can go a long way. To much can ruin a dish.

 

[stonepiano]

you need to use reverb because everyone else uses it.


The audience expects to hear it. If you don't use it, then you don't have the "pro" sound.

 

[crazydoc]

I use reverb to polish my turds. If it ain't a turd, it don't need much 'verb.

 

[Garry Sharp]

Makes the singer feel good. Give her twice as much on the monitor as FOH gets.

 

[mallcore pop]

". . . and as they traveled westward, the settlers used reverb to preserve their meats, mostly pork and fish, in addition to their supply of bread, beans, and a few vegetables. . ."

Moshe has a great reverb article on the studiocovers archive site.

Everyone raid that archive asap!!!

 

[maestro_dmc]

The audience expects to hear it.

True, but they don't know that. If you use so much that people start to notice the reverb, you are using too much.

If you don't use it, then you don't have the "pro" sound.

That's a very broad statement that I cannot agree with. In the right context, yes it gives a more professional sound. In the right context, really dry vocals sound really pro!

 

[ozraves]

". . . and as they traveled westward, the settlers used reverb to preserve their meats, mostly pork and fish, in addition to their supply of bread, beans, and a few vegetables. . ."

Moshe has a great reverb article on the studiocovers archive site.

Everyone raid that archive asap!!!

studio covers is no more but my bud dan richards beat me to putting up the links as well as adding some good ones: http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

 

[Richard Monroe]

Reverb (or delay, for that matter) is like makeup. There's "the natural look" and then there's Alice Cooper. The worst of it is female Irish singers, who are usually dripping wet.-Richie

 

[rvdsm]

you need to use reverb because everyone else uses it.


The audience expects to hear it. If you don't use it, then you don't have the "pro" sound.

I think that's true in certain applications. The more songs I hear of today's current pop roster, the more I realize that verb is out and that stupid-ass "phoning it in" thing is in. I really appreciate the sound of up-front, clean vocals more than I do vocals that are saturated with effects.

We have an "all-hits" station where I live that goes from playing Avril Lavigne to REO Speedwagon. Listening to the contrast between those two styles of production is interesting. I don't even think I would recognize REO Speedwagon if they recorded WITHOUT verb, but so were the times.

 

[stonepiano]

I hope my first post doesn't mislead people to believe I have use verb on everything. Quite the contrary. It was more of a gripe. I usually like really dry vocals.....

 

[Track Rat]

I hear you. I'm not a snob about effects, I believe that in certain songs, reverb (even generous amounts) can be indespensible to setting the mood of the tune. On the other hand, nothing can make some recordings sound amatuerish faster than too much effects of any kind.

 

[Fab4ever]

One thing I've noticed in some recent radio pop songs is the trend to using more verb when the whole band is playing, then back waay off when it's just the vocalist and an acoustic guitar.... makes the acoustic part really sound in your face.

Fab