Originally Posted By: ulrichburke
First guy says 'Reverb pushes stuff back in a mix'. So I try using reverb to do that and it works a treat.

If by "pushing stuff back" you mean making the particular part of the performance sound further away, then there's another factor to consider.

Low frequency sounds disperse close to omnidirectionally, so reduce in intensity as approximately the cube root of the distance.

High frequency sounds radiate closer to conical, so tend to reduce at approximately the square root of the distance.

We can hear this clearly in many duets between a popular-music singer and an operatic singer. Very often the former sounds close and the latter sounds distant, because, of necessity, they were recorded at different distances from the microphone. In the mix, the relative volumes of the singers was adjusted, but no so much the spectrum.

Try using some cut in the lower frequencies as part of the "pushing to the back". That should help to get the audible perspective better and allow you to then use reverb to make the performances sound in the same room.

None of these things are perfect.


Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
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