Room Reverb

[sbenak1@mac.com]

Once upon a time, I lived and recorded in an attic apartment with low angled ceiling, wall to wall carpeting, and a very unboxy shape in general. My recording came out very dry, and I added reverb to taste afterward. Then I moved. Not knowing much about room acoustics at the time, I was shocked at how much more of the room I could hear when I recorded in a boxing, not carpeted room. Not knowing any better when I got my LDC mic, I ended up with a cheap samson omni. In the dead room, it worked fine. In my little box, it limits my options.

I recently recorded a very sparse demo for a male singer/songwriter - vox,guitar, harmonica. For a few of the tracks, I used only the omni and simply recorded his live performance. Mic, to pre, to compressor, to disk. The only reverb I used was the room's natural reverb.

In this case, the result was very good. The artist wanted simple and warm, maybe even a little dirty, and that's what he got. I've gone back a listened a few times since and I really like sound of the natural small room reverb.
I'm wondering how many people in home studios use natural reverb for guitar and vox. Does anyone have good ideas/techniques to get different reverbs naturally in home studio environment?

I also like to be able to get good dry signal when I want it, and I suspect that's not possible without a different mic or lots of room treatment. What mics are good for getting a very isolated signal? I know I'll need to close mic, but I'm guessing some mics are better than others at NOT picking up the room. Thanks for any help.

 

[FALKEN]

yeah I do this all the time. that omni condenser is a good choice for capturing room sound, as a far mic, to compliment a close mic. any dynamic cardoid mic will diminish room sound compared to a condenser. I believe the 421 has a narrower pattern than the 57, and if you can get a hyper-cardoid mic like the beyer m201, you're solid.

 

[chessrock]

Does anyone have good ideas/techniques to get different reverbs naturally in home studio environment?

Yea. Compress the room mic heavily. Try recording next to a stair case (if you have one), and stick the room mic at the foot or the top of the stairs.

Here's a little secret I'll share with you; try panning the room mic all the way left or right, and give it a very quick, slap-back delay (about 20 ms or so) panned all the way to the opposite side (or just copy the room track, pan it to either side, and delay the second track). Gives it really wide/spaceous and dimensional aspect to it.

 

[tourettes5139]

Here's a little secret I'll share with you; try panning the room mic all the way left or right, and give it a very quick, slap-back delay (about 20 ms or so) panned all the way to the opposite side (or just copy the room track, pan it to either side, and delay the second track). Gives it really wide/spaceous and dimensional aspect to it.

That really is a cool trick. You can hear it especially on the Scorpions' Rock You Like a Hurricane, (at least thats where I first noticed it) especially when its just the guitar playing at the very beginning.

 

[Alexbt]

The lobby for one of the auditoriums at my college has an amazing sound to it. It's unreal. We rehearse choral stuff in there sometimes because it sounds like a big cathedral.

One of these days I'd love to either record something in there or "reamp" the room, so to speak. (Get a speaker playing in there and mic the room).

Problem is that it's a public area, I can't really move my whole setup there, and people come through a lot. Yet, it is open all the time and there are weekends. I need a laptop and portable preamp.

 

[chessrock]

That really is a cool trick. You can hear it especially on the Scorpions' Rock You Like a Hurricane, (at least thats where I first noticed it) especially when its just the guitar playing at the very beginning.

Uh ... yea, sure. It's, um, a lot like that.

 

[LemonTree]

I have a nice reverb in my garage I sometimes pipe tracks out to a speaker in there and mic it up. I'e done the same thing with the toilet for vocal tracks. Experiment.

 

[NashBackslash]

Hi, sorry to hijack this thread. I've been meaning to ask this question in this forum for a VERY VERY long time now, though never did because I was afraid that people will eat me for asking this. Unfortunately, all the people that I've asked in real-life either don't know the answer or just can't explain why. Anyway, I couldn't hold back any longer so I'll just HAVE to ask this.

*Breathes in*

... what are the advantages of recording a natural reverb than adding the reverb later during the mixing stage (using expensive reverb units or good reverb plugins)?

I'm sorry if the question annoys you, but I really don't see the advantages of recording a natural reverb. There would be no way to remove the reverb from the recorded sound during mixing. With plugins, you can at least dial in just the right amount, and with more advanced plugins, it may even sound better than real reverb.

So, why do some people still prefer building live tracking rooms just to get that natural reverb? I've always thought that a dead tracking room is always better, and reverb can be added later anyway.

Enlighten me. Cheers!

- Nash