PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production Really Dumbass Reverb Question - be gentle!

Yes, yes, yes, no, no etc.
Reverb is like salt it's sooooooo good that applying more seems n sounds good until it's too much.
I was a reverb junkie...I'm in recovery.

There're rules n rules n rules added to variations and exceptions as usual.
For me...

If using BIAB tracks in another DAW render them from BIAB without reverb...it's REALLY hard to match the BIAB reverb in a DAW and the most common issues I hear in BIAB user songs is, besides sibilant sounds, mismatched reverb - usually the band sounding like it's in a hall and the vocal sounding like it's in a bedroom. BIAb uses reverb quite a bit becasue it blenss things nicely and covers a lot of very, very minor issues.

I use a reverb only track...I select my reverb and place an instance of it on a single track... then I "send" other tracks to that - this means that everything with reverb will have the same type/instance and "be in the same room". The reverb sends it's signal to the stereo/master bus. The amount of "send" to the reverb determines how much reverb on a given instrument. I usually send a tiny bit of my guitar bus to the reverb, a little bit more of my vocal bus, some from the solo instrument and, occasionally, the snare drum, (though that might be the rare occasion of using a different reverb to achieve A sound that defines a style etc).

As well as sending the instrument to it's group bus of the stereo/master bus I send a little of it to the reverb track and pull down that "send" until I can JUST hear it then pull it back a tiny bit more.

Instrument with strong bottom ends shouldn't go to the reverb as this causes muddying and blurring....this can be addressed with EQ but is difficult and complicates everything else. Thus no bass guitar, bass synth, kick drum & Toms.

Reverb can move an instrument "back" as the more reverb the bigger the ROOM and the further into the room that instrument will seem BUT too much brings the instrument forward again. Reducing the level of the instrument in the track achieves a similar effect but not as lushly

Think of the reverb as being a band in a hall with the sound bouncing off the back wall and sides and the sources as being you right in front of the band with it playing too loud for you to hear anything else. If you move slowly back from the band you'll probably hear the entire band and some of the reverberations in a balance that sounds pleasant. Too far back and things blurr, too far forward and it's too in your face.

Mind you...my use of reverb is, generally, to capture a rock band sound. Clever and artistic use of reverb is wonderful - I can't do it.

Many singers love reverb in the same way many guitarist love distortion - both get a sense of safety by the impression, false, that it cover for inadequacies.

Using a send to reverb set up is something I was taught after years of placing reverbs on each track, another on the stereo bus and many of them different. Using the send had as great an impact on my mixes as getting semi decent monitors.

Delay gives the sense of a BIGGER space that has distinct "echoes" with the source in the middle. This sounds great on some instruments but the big issue is matching the delay to the tempo of the rhythm instruments. U2 used HEAPS of delay on guitar and that guitar sound established the tempo & rhythm for the songs.


Caveat...this is my view and the way I operate. It's completely WRONG for others but right for me at the moment.
Have a listen to the stuff of people giving opinions on any forum, hear what they do to get a better idea of what, how and whether, or not, it works.
My most recent track, in the User Showcase, has, for me, quite a bit of reverb as it suits the genre and my aim for the song. As I was using a stereo drum track from BIAB there's NO reverb on the kit, lots on the Mellotron & eBow, heaps on the lead guitar, a little on the vocal, (with delay here and there for exoticness), etc. ALL the reverbs sends are through a single instance of Ambience on it's default setting.
THIS ONE