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When you are mixing your tracks and adding reverb, do you use the same type reverb for all the instruments and voice ?
Or can you use like plate reverb for say one instrument and spring for say vocals.
I'm not really going for any type of effect on my blues recordings, just want them to sound like a typical blues studio recording, meaning no fancy echos on vocal or stuff like that, if you get my drift.
Actually any advice about using reverb in the mixing process would be greatly appreciated, or point me to a previous thread or online document.
Thanks, I'm new to this, so excuse me if this is a pretty stupid question.

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RemyRAD Sun, 10/29/2006 - 17:14

Well let's face it, Digital reverb processors are big toys for big kids! The good ones let you create any kind of acoustic space and psychedelic brain scramble as you would like.

For blues?? I don't know many blues records that use much reverb? If you want the feeling of a room space that is not a cathedral or a " EMT plate", you would still select one of those reverb presets but take the "decay time" way down and increase some of the "early reflections" while reducing the delay time down to 20 ms. These are typical adjustments you will find on most digital reverberator's. So you can create a smaller room space by using a cathedral preset that has been downsized electronically to a smaller room wooden room that is 30 x 40' sounding. A good place for blues to be performed. Make sure you include nearly 100% of the dry signal while slowly increasing the wet signal to taste. When you think it sounds just right? Back it off a little bit and that will be the right spot.

I'm seeing little spots???.......
Ms. Remy Ann David

anonymous Mon, 10/30/2006 - 16:18

thanks

Thanks Remy,
so would I put the reverb on each track separately sesoned to taste and use the same type of reverb. Or do I just apply it to all tracks in the same amounts ?
Yea I'm not really wanting to do anything special. As I imagine one doesn't just want to use the dry tracks. I record at home so there is no room ambiance to speak of. And sadly have to use a non-human drummer, so I'll have to reverb that to.

RemyRAD Mon, 10/30/2006 - 17:26

When it comes to adding reverb and other time delay DSP to recordings that are produced live, there are any number of schools of thought that go into producing artificial room ambience. One is to use "effects sends" or "auxiliary sends", from your analog or digital software console, from each recorded track, whether with a console or in software, that you want to create a space for in a room. Some people believe you should use the same room preset for each instrument so as to create the feeling that they are in the same space together.

The other school of thought is to use separate sounding reverb room algorithms, adjusted differently for each individual track that you want to place within the acoustic space. There is no right or wrong thing to do when you are creating a space from otherwise dry tracks. You determine where in the stereo sound field to place the fundamental track and then add your room sound in stereo. We control the vertical. We control the horizontal. We can adjust from a soft focus to absolute crystal clarity. You are about to enter the awe and mystery of THE OUTER LIMITS. This will allow you to place that particular track to the left or to the right, dead center on, behind the guy in the front, off to the rear and the side etc..

Always remember, less is more otherwise it will get too hokey sounding, for traditional Mississippi blues and too psychedelic for good old Chicago blues. Sometimes, you can create a completely dry stereo mix and then just add reverb/room algorithm sound to the entire stereo mix. Remember you are building an ice cream sundae and you can only put on so much sauce and nuts.

So you have a huge amount of choices to make. With software, your effects are nearly unlimited. With hardware, you may only have a single reverb processor. With both, you can go crazy.

Still crazy after all of these years
Ms. Remy Ann David
Ms. Remy Ann David
Ms. Remy Ann David
Ms. Remy Ann David
Ms. Remy Ann David
I'm sorry did you say something?
Look! A banana!

Scoobie Mon, 10/30/2006 - 18:58

I agree with RemyRad........Alot of Blues don't use much reverb.

Sometimes I just put the Sonitus FX Reverb on the master bus and create the space I need. You have to listen to what your doing and don't over do it!

I don't always use reverb to set something in the stereo feild. I use a delay to make a short verb , an also a Chorus can be used for a short verb. I try to create a short and a long verb . To place everthing in the mix. Panning can go along ways also.

Peace................Scoobie

anonymous Tue, 10/31/2006 - 07:53

thanks

Remy,
I was experimenting last nite, with the reverb settings you suggested, and the mix is definetly sounding better. And I'm thinking with more experimenting I can get it better. I'll experiment with some of things scoopie suggested too later today.
It's all new to me, so I have no reference on how a dry mix sounds or what a good mix is suppose to sound like before it's mastered. But it seems my tracks just sound to foward in the mix. anyway it's fun learning and thanks for the advice.

RemyRAD Wed, 11/01/2006 - 13:31

You are totally welcome. I'm here to help you make the same mistakes I once made by getting into the audio business. If I help to guide you correctly, I should be able to avoid you taking my next job? It's a secret amongst audio engineers to never give up,......your reverb settings. If you tell somebody how you've made that snare drum go "fizzzzip", then everybody will want their snare drums to go "fizzzzip" and we couldn't have that now could we??

"fizzzzip"
Ms. Remy Ann David

anonymous Wed, 11/01/2006 - 15:36

ahh

Remy, inside secrets aye, well I'll remember not to give mine away if I ever do get any.
And not to worry, I've no intentions of taking anyone's job or getting into the business. What little music business of gigging I do these days I'm happy to do less, I satisfy my music addiction these days staying home and making home recordings, it seems to get me off better than lugging all the sh*tin gear around in the middle of the night.