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Is reverb ever added at the mastering stage? If so, is it a common thing? If it is something that is done, is there any compelling reason to leave the mix dry until mastering?

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Big K Thu, 12/16/2010 - 02:06

It happens only very seldomly that reverb is being added at mastering. At least, I did that only 3 or 4 times when I restored old vinyls.
Just to add some more depth and a little stereo room to the mono sound.
I found it a better way to leave it to the last stage to decide what was best for keeping the most original, yet, most attractive sounding reproduction.
I have never done that for contemporary productions, though. But this is not a total NONO... whatever needs to be done will be done...

I can't think of any reason to wait for adding reverberation till the production lands on a mastering engineer's desk.
For amateur recordings, were the recording is already "the mix", I could imaging to add a little this and that...

Massive Mastering Fri, 12/17/2010 - 17:58

Can't imagine waiting -- I certainly wouldn't want someone putting reverb on top of a mix when I want a certain amount on the snare and a certain amount on the vocal and a certain amount on the toms and (etc., etc., etc.) and probably none on the kick and none on the bass and (etc., etc., etc.).

Those are mixing decisions.

I've used reverb plenty of times to mask something - Or 'repair' a bad fade or what not -- I've automated reverb sends to go over fades to add 'distance' to the reduction in volume - But I'd generally not want to put reverb on an entire mix unless there was a very specific reason to do so.