voice reverb?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sonarstar
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sonarstar

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i am pretty new to recording and when i add reverb or chorus to any of my vocals i get way to much reverb and it justs sounds way cheesy! are there any presets that actually sound good or do you have to make one yourself to make it sound good? thanks a lot!
 
Presets are a good starting point sometimes, especially if you don't have a lot of experience (BTW, I count myself in this group), but they generally need some tweaking to really sound just how you want.

Matty
 
It depends on what you're recording on and what reverb you have. Can you give a little more information on what you're presently using?

I record my vocals dry into Cakewalk 9, and then I use the DirectX reverb plugin that came with Cool Edit 2000, and I get decent results from that. Fairly lo-tek, and probably not quality with a capital QUA or anything, but it doesn't sound cheesy either.

Generally, less verb is better. And like the guy above said, presets are a fair starting point but you usually need to go further. My favorite reverb from CE2000 is a preset called "Natural Reverb", and then I take the wet mix from 15% to 25%. That generally sounds pretty decent.

Also, is reverb the only effect you're looking for? I've found that a touch of chorus helps to make my voice less strident.

---
David Vesel -- electro recording artist
The current single is "Numb" from the album Calliope
On Ampcast / Situation Records
http://www.ampcast.com/davidvesel
davidvesel@pobox.com
 
I often EQ my reverb return... cutting back some of the highs let's you thicken the midrange more without it sounding like a cave. You can also try matching the reverb decay time to the tempo of the song. Count the number of beats in 15sec and multiply by 4. That gives you beats per min.
60/BPM X 1000= 1/4 delay time in milliseconds

Setting the Reverb to the tempo helps clear up muddiness.
 
I tend to use smaller 'room' reverbs and shorten decay times quite a bit.
 
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, and he was telling me about this vox he did that was pretty interesting. He put a delay on the vox, then put a little reverb on the return of the delay. I don't know how your bussing is set up or if this is possible for you, but it's worth a shot.
I also like small rooms and plates. A mixture of the two.
 
There are an infinite number of ways to apply reverb to a vocal track. Knowing this, the chances that one of the dozen presets on your reverb unit is going to be perfect are slim to none!

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slackmaster speaks truth.

I have ONE usable preset out of 100 that requires no adjustment to use if that is the sound I'm after. The rest all require adjustment.

Most presets sound like it was recorded at either Carnegie Hall or in a shoebox.
 
sonarstar: what sort of reverb?? what efx unit(s)? if you use software for your effects, they're all set to wet signal once you turn them on...you have to turn them way down...are you doing that??
 
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