I can count the number of times on two fingers. once was a live show in a very very small club and they asked me to add some. the other was a guitar vocal thing where they asked me to add some.

Not something I would do unless specifically asked to do so.

Why not?
I'm assuming you don't want to verb the kick, bass, vocals any more than already done, etc. ?

Even more rare than using multi-band compression.

Not that I haven't cleaned up a few bad edits with it...

Thanks for the info. It really did sound better when I used it on another band's project (very very small amount, like wet signal at 18 and dry signal at 100). I A/B'd it and thought the reverb version sounded slightly fuller than the non-reverbed version. Thanks all.

Justin

I generally get the 'verb I want in the mix and don't add any more in mastering.

Once...
I was mastering a dance track (club style). The artificial cymbals were very dry - I put a short, subtle decay on only the HF stuff to open up the fake cymbals and other extreme hf stuff. The HPF was set up past around 7K.

I think putting just a little bit of reverb always works to make a the seperate instruments more consistent and sit together, so I always do it, even if it's just a little bit.

Always?

You said that, my first thought...

"I've been here, before, a few times, and I'm quite, aware, we're dying, and your hands, they shake, the goodbyes, and I'll take you back if you'll have me...so here I am, I'm trying, so here I am, are you ready? Come on let me hold you, touch you, feel you, always..."
(Always - Blink 182)

That would be negatory...you would never see a mastering engineer adding destructive effects to a mixdown. Unless say an artist wants that particular part of the song to go into a flange (there's a creed song that did that and was annoying), but you would most likely add that to your automation in the master channel strip

so no, don't add verb, i don't know where this idea came from, but its a bad one

Dude. You'd be surprised the ideas out there on the interweb. This is the only forum I feel comfortable searching for advice on. A lot of sites propagating misinfo out there....and I'm still pretty dull. as in not sharp, at times. Gullible maybe or just inexperienced. Yeah that's kinda me.

Space wrote: Always?

Well 9 out of 10 times then, even if it's just 3 or 4% wet.

Sorry, I am not a mastering engineer, so I probably shouldn't chime in, BUT.....

10-15 years ago it was somewhat common to add a Little bit of reverb at the mastering stage to "glue" a mix together.
This was in the days before everyone was a mastering engineer and there was a million opinions on the internet on how to do it. Please don't ask me for names or examples 'cause I don't wan't to have to go through years of Mix and EQ magazines to find them, but I do remember reading it.

I think this falls under a taste issue and not correct or incorrect procedure.

MarkG

Well, I decided to do a little research, and found that reverb is used very little by mastering houses currently.

When it was used, it was mostly for fixing something, not for every job.
I think most of the people here have mixes that need "fixing", so a little reverb at mastering might not be a bad idea.

MarkG

Please! Stop! At least three qualified engineers and at least one honest to goodness mastering engineer have already chimed in. Look up. These aren't your average home studio hacks like myself. These people actually do this for a living(and do better than most of us at our day jobs). Now if we can't trust the voice of experience, we're just deluding ourselves aren't we? Reverb is best left for the mixing stage.

Always! ;)

I have to disagree...

Surprise!

I recorded a band back in '95 in a local studio - I've continued to record this band in a few different incarnations since - and on this (the second recording I ever did with them, and the only one we ever spent a significant amount of money on)... The lead dude now owns my old studio... Where was I?

Oh, I recorded this band in '95 in a local studio.
The recording is as flat and dead as you could ever imagine.

I added verb to the songs.
I added an assload of EQ to each channel...
Each and every one of the songs....

In my opinion (and the remaining band members'...) the newer masters (which themselves are about 8 years old) with verb on the mixes sounds a thousand times better than the original DAT could ever hope to.

That's crazy Ben, but hey you know in the end it all just depends onthe project. Each one is different and it's up to us or an ME to decide what works and what doesn't. Be creative, because if you do the same thing on each project it'll get stale, and not fun

Crazy?

My soul is in that album.

My feelings and my emotions were recorded to tape along with those of the band members.

But yes, you said it and I'll paraphrase:

Have fun with it. When you take the fun out of it you suck...

Yeah, I wouldn't assume this would be something that I would do all the time (should I ever really do a lot of mastering, right now it's just a hobby). In this particular instance it was better sounding than the dry version, to my ears anyway.

Justin