when dealing with reverbs

  • Thread starter Thread starter djclueveli
  • Start date Start date
D

djclueveli

New member
when dealing with reverbs, do you guys normally set the pre-delay to the tempo of the track? is that the best way to do it? i was reading another thread about this. I usually set my pre-delay to just 0. does anyone one else just set it to 0?
 
use your ears to set your reverb.......if it sounds good.....it must be good!
 
Yes, it could be set to a tempo feel, or even do a 'slap echo effect with shorter patches. But in many cases verbs can have shapes built into them that play into the timing in addition to what the predelay says. So what it 'says' may not relate.

In a more typical application though I'd be thinking in terms of smear or clarity, or sound stage depth. Have a listen to hear whether it's sounding too attached (do you want it to smear?) or not attached enough, or try to picture the back-wall it's making (if that applies for an example). Then adjust that from what the predelay says. Also remember that attached early reflections tend to pull things back, and separation allows things to have verb but remain forward.
Wayne
 
how come most hip hop vocals sound dry like no reverb was used on them what so ever and they still sound real good but when i try to use real tiny reverb, it doesnt sound right?
 
djclueveli said:
how come most hip hop vocals sound dry like no reverb was used on them what so ever and they still sound real good but when i try to use real tiny reverb, it doesnt sound right?
Click to expand...
It's because you have been conditioned to expect all 'hop mixes to sound the same because everybody copies each other's methods. These "standards" include throwing the vocals in the listener's face via a combo of compression, multitracked and stacked vocals (especially on the object noun of the lyric line), all dry with no ambience.

It's up to you how avant garde you want to get in your production and how many "standards" you want to follow and how many you want to shatter.

G.
 
do you know of any stereo plugin that can make my vocals sound like it's in you're face and wide without having to stack my vocals? some of the hip hop songs i listen to, they only recorded 1 take and the vocals still sound wide and like it's in you're face. how do they do that with only the vocalist doing 1 take? i know they did one take cause i actually saw the studio session lol. thanks
 
Pre Delay is the amount of time it takes for the reverb to start reverberating.
it's not the same as Delay or Echo.

So setting it to the tempo of the song wouldn't sound so great.

The idea of a pre-delay is to give the effect of a larger room. Gives the sound of the verb "building up" as if you were in a large room (like a gym). It takes a small amount of time for the reverberations to build up since they have to first hit the surfaces (walls ceiling) and bounce back to your ears. That amount of time is usually quite small (few ms) compared to the amount of time that would be along with the tempo of the song. Unless you set it to a 64th or 128th beat.

The other thing that works in conjunction with the pre-delay is the early-reflection setting. The early reflection would be the reverberations from the floor and from objects close by. They are usually not very diffused and are somewhat focused to the original sound.
 
djclueveli said:
do you know of any stereo plugin that can make my vocals sound like it's in you're face and wide without having to stack my vocals? some of the hip hop songs i listen to, they only recorded 1 take and the vocals still sound wide and like it's in you're face. how do they do that with only the vocalist doing 1 take? i know they did one take cause i actually saw the studio session lol. thanks
Click to expand...
Check out this thread, and my post there:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=194164&
 
thanks tarnation. have you used the Hyperprism Quasi-stereo. can you give me a link to it?
 
djclueveli said:
thanks tarnation. have you used the Hyperprism Quasi-stereo. can you give me a link to it?
Click to expand...
I have used it, but I don't have a download link (if that's what you were asking).
AFIk it's about $300, but comes with a suite of other great plugins.

Or with a little effort you can emulate the same effect as quasi-stereo.
See this link to see how it works:
http://www.sfu.ca/sca/Manuals/Hyperprism2.5/hppc_proc_stereo.html
So all you's need is: EQ, comb filter, and channel delay.
 
If your vocals don't sound good when you record them, no plug in in the world will help you...Stop looking for shortcuts and learn the craft you're trying so hard to avoid working at.
As a side note...Even though some vocal tracks sound totally dry, I bet there's almost always at least a little reverb, even if it's very short. Or at least some kind of delay or doubling. I don't have any proof of this, and I'm talking out of my ass, but I get the impression that there's usually a little more going on with a vocal track than the first impression would have you believe.
 
i don't have any booth or anything to record in and i have a 100$ mixer. I don't think the mixer is too good. it's a yamaha mg10/2 and i have a shure ksm27 mic. i set up 3 matresses in my closet and put the mic in there to record. well i guess that's my booth but not a very good one.
 
Last edited:
djclueveli said:
do you know of any stereo plugin that can make my vocals sound like it's in you're face and wide without having to stack my vocals? some of the hip hop songs i listen to, they only recorded 1 take and the vocals still sound wide and like it's in you're face. how do they do that with only the vocalist doing 1 take? i know they did one take cause i actually saw the studio session lol. thanks
Click to expand...


When you looked at the session, how were they doing it?
 
djclueveli said:
thanks tarnation. have you used the Hyperprism Quasi-stereo. can you give me a link to it?
Click to expand...
More importantly, does it come with a "Mixdown" button? :p :D
 
i didnt actually see all the equip they were using lol. i just saw the rapper in the booth recording his vocals and he only did one take and that was it for the song no overdubs or nothing. it was a kind of a different type of song so he didn't want to do any overdubs or double it. the final mixdown sounded real nice and the vocals sounded really wide like it was hard panned left and right but it wasnt.
 
i'd say flanger.

I saw an AOL session with tommy lee, and as it was 'live' there was no doubling going on too, but it sounded very stereo. I tried to achieve this too. not because I wanted that sound but because I was just curious. I wasn't able to get this sound.

then a friend of mine covered one of my songs and coincidentally achieved that sound on the vocals. he used waves metaflanger.

check out "nothing changes" here http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=170103 if you want to.
 
yea i checked you're songs. they sounds good. i always ask people how to achieve that "wide" vocal effect and they always answer "the artist probably doubled it" lol i'm like no i saw with my own eyes that it was just one take without it being doubled. do you know any other plugs that can give you that "wide" sound without it sounding like "flanger" or having to double? thanks
 
djclueveli said:
yea i checked you're songs. they sounds good. i always ask people how to achieve that "wide" vocal effect and they always answer "the artist probably doubled it" lol i'm like no i saw with my own eyes that it was just one take without it being doubled. do you know any other plugs that can give you that "wide" sound without it sounding like "flanger" or having to double? thanks
Click to expand...

did you actually try and of tarnation's suggestions in the thread he linked you to?
 
djclueveli said:
do you know any other plugs that can give you that "wide" sound without it sounding like "flanger" or having to double? thanks
Click to expand...
Chorus will do it. So will delay. So will routing the vocal to two tracks and giving them some "tongue and groove" EQing. So will a combination. So will all the methods mentioned here previously. There are a dozen ways to make something sound "wide", no two of which sound the same.

G.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top