What is the best Reverb for Vocals

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trife22k

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What is the best reverb to use on vocals.. Me Personally I use the Asr X Option 4,,, Small Studio... Is this a good one not to wet not to dry...
 
I dont know what that reverb is, but I'd say its better to use NO reverb at all if its a crappy reverb and very conservatively if its decent.
To be, or not to be. THAT is the question.
 
Too wet or too dry is completely up to how much signal you send to it and how much effect you return. It has nothing to do with the type of reverb or name brand of the gear.

Cheap reverb will sound, well... cheap... no matter how much or how little you use.

Bruce
 
Nowadays, I notice that mixes are having less reverb than say ten years ago. People are preffering to have the music plaing in thier own room instead of a big wide hall somewhere.

So small rooms and ambience are all one really needs nowadays.

A good reverb that compares favorably to the expensive units is the Roland Srv-330 with 3d. I know mixing engineers who swear by it. And nobody has ever produced a reverb this side if $1000 that will beat it. not even those guys who also have a lexicon mpx-1

Its only about $300 max off ebay. Its described as a rich, thick sound.
 
I agree, CJ

The more I record, the less reverb I use on my vocals. It's just no substitute for learning vocal mic technique, etc etc etc...
 
I'll give you a little bit of a different view.

In a "normal" mix I can often have up to 20 reverbs going, all different settings, makes, hard as well as software.

There are certain ones that stand out, everything else has to measure up against them.

The best one available, unquestionably IMHO, at the moment is the Sony DRE S777 Sampling Digital Reverb. This is a unit which accurately represents the ambiance in some of the world's best sounding acoustic environments.

Next, the Eventide Orville. Much more than a reverb machine, but wonderful reverbs, and lots of them.

Next, TC System 6000, with vs2 software. Simply one of the most awsome and versitile verbs ever.

There is a huge gap between these units and everything else.
 
Sjoko, to what extent is the use of these quality 'verb units hampered where the recording is made under less than optimal conditions, like in someone's living room without much acoustical treatment?
 
My rule of thumb with reverb and effects in general is: less is best

A touch here and there will almost always be more dramatic and add to the feel of a track rather than dominate it

just my 2 cents:)
 
sjoko2 said:

The best one available, unquestionably IMHO, at the moment is the Sony DRE S777 Sampling Digital Reverb. This is a unit which accurately represents the ambiance in some of the world's best sounding acoustic environments.
Click to expand...

I know this is going to sound stupid, but the best acoustic environment i have ever found is the bathroom. Whether it be in the tub or shower. Does Sony or anybody for that matter have a reverb with a bathroom setting? hehe. Seriously, it would make singing a breeze.

t
 
The bathroom :) Might sound nice when you're in it, but try recording vocals.... standing waves surpreme
I have done quite a few guitar tracks with a little bathroom included though
 
langleyt said:


I know this is going to sound stupid, but the best acoustic environment i have ever found is the bathroom. Whether it be in the tub or shower. Does Sony or anybody for that matter have a reverb with a bathroom setting? hehe. Seriously, it would make singing a breeze.

t
Click to expand...

Not stupid at all - singing in the bathroom is one of the reasons that so many "singer-wannabees" think they sound so good, when in fact, their singing abilities are somewhat less than adequate. Before the days of digital sampling and all the other eclectronic (sic) stuff, it was not unknown for a engineer to put a speaker at one end of the bathroom, and a mic at the other, and voila! fabulous reverb chamber! (Check out how it was done at Abbey Road in the early days - they might even still use the same room nowadays!)

As for reverb - it's very easy to overdo it. Take a listen to Diana Krall - on "Love Scenes" she does a super version of "How Deep Is The Ocean" where her voice is very closely mic-ed so that you can hear every nuance, and every movement of her lips, and it sounds like she's standing (or laying) right next to you, but on listening to it closely (esp. on head-phones), the reverb becomes really noticeable to the point of being annoying - it sounds as if her voice is simply huge! Drier would have sounded much better (IMNSHO), but just listen to the fantastic bass-lines of Christian McBride on that number! whoooeeee! Anyway, reverb can be great, but it can also be such a cliche... remember, less is more!

- Wil
 
sjoko2 said:
In a "normal" mix I can often have up to 20 reverbs going, all different settings, makes, hard as well as software.
Click to expand...

Cool, I discovered a similar technique on my own. But, as are many others on this bbs, I'm working on a shoestring budget. So, I use multiple cheep (free) plugins on a single track to help improve the sound quality of the reverb.

I'm using Freeverb and rcgAudio. On their own they are 'passable'. But I can improve the sound a lot by running 4 in parallel - 2 Freeverb and 2 rcgAudio each with slightly different settings. Since the wet signals are incoherent, I set each of the 4 reverb levels 6dB below what I would for a single reverb. This gives about the same overall level.

It certainly doesn't compare to the sound of a hi end reverb, but for $0.00 it's not too shabby.

barefoot
 
Don't tell barefoot --- the estate bathroom verb was designed around a really expensive bathroom, part of an estate.:p
 
Lexicon pcm 70 version 2.0
dont thing about it .......just buy it(ebay)
 
Sikkis said:
Lexicon pcm 70 version 2.0
dont thing about it .......just buy it(ebay)
Click to expand...

8 years and 7 days later. :D

Is that a record?

(just giving you a hard time--but the last post is a bit old...)
 
WhiteStrat said:
8 years and 7 days later. :D

Is that a record?

(just giving you a hard time--but the last post is a bit old...)
Click to expand...

I never noticed that when looking at this thread earlier, and now I have tea all
over my keyboard because I laughed into it... hard :D

Way to bump a thread ;)

The OP hasn't logged in since august 2001. Wonder how he got on with those
vocals :D

Besides, we all know that the best reverb for anything is Digidesign D-Verb :rolleyes:
 
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