Reverb then and now.

[Loren Littlejohn]

I go back to 80's stuff and either I am hearing a gigantic room OR tons of reverb on the drum buss.

But I go listen to modern stuff and it's not dry but the verb seems to be cleaner that decay isn't as present as it was in the 80s but it's still there.


What is the difference (I know this is kind of n00bich)? Is it different types? I am in general having a bitch of a time setting reverbs right.

Do you apply reverb uniformly on everything you want it on? Or do you do it in groups (drum verb, vox verb, guitar verb etc...)? If you do it in groups do you use the same verb or do you grab another plug?

I know alot of questions, but this effect unlike compression and EQ isn't as subjective IMO.

PS. I am aware of how reverb works, what the difference between spring, plate, digital etc.. is all the different parameters and what they do but what I am finding hard is how to make verb not sound like it's "mushing" the mix" in any way.

 

[Keiffer]

When mixing, I'll usually set up about four Reverb busses, Small Rm, Large Rm, Hall and Plate. But, when I'm just messing with tracking heavy gtr, I put the reverb on the gtr track and seldom buss it. I find Reverb one of the more significant challenges.

Maybe one thing about the eighties was the introduction of digital units and that reverb got over done. Check Post #9 here where I asked Michael Wagener about his use of Reverb on the Dokken records:

Dokken Reverb

 

[colonel kurtz]

to answer your 1st question, most of those massive and artificial sounding 80's drum sounds had gated reverbs. they would stick a massive reverb on there, then stick a noise gate behind that, so that you would get the huge sound on the hit, but without the tail. reverse reverbs also got used a lot back then on drums....you know when you hear some shitty old poison song or something, there's that sort of "pssshhhht" noise right before a snare hit or whatever.

2nd, the difference in reverb types comes from how the reverb is actually created. plate reverbs literally sent the signal down, across, and bouncing off of a big metal plate. spring 'verbs use a spring of course, and are usually employed in guitar amps because they're a hell of a lot smaller than other analog reverbs, and digital reverbs are algorithms that are written to have certain reverb properties, and sometimes mimic either real spaces or analog reverb units.

and no, i really never uniformly apply reverb...nearly everything in the mix will get its own reverb, as that's what really gives a mix its "space" and definition.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Yeah, I agree. I actually don't even put the same amount of reverb on all the toms. The difference is very slight, but usually my rule of thumb is to match the amount of reverb to the size of the tom. ie- small tom = less verb, big tom = more verb. Generally, I also know how big I want the drums to sound before mixing/editing. So, I put the verb on early and EQ and balance things with it already on there. Occasionally, this does lead to me backing off on some of the wetter verbs later in the mix, though. As for as the snare, I usually like a light, small-room on that.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

2nd, the difference in reverb types comes from how the reverb is actually created. plate reverbs literally sent the signal down, across, and bouncing off of a big metal plate. spring 'verbs use a spring of course, and are usually employed in guitar amps because they're a hell of a lot smaller than other analog reverbs, and digital reverbs are algorithms that are written to have certain reverb properties, and sometimes mimic either real spaces or analog reverb units..

Yeah I said I did understand this.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

How much do you guys (subjectively) blend reverb with the original dry signal? For me it seems like anything over 40% sounds to wet, but I am curious how you guys weigh in on this.

 

[JonWormwood]

How much do you guys (subjectively) blend reverb with the original dry signal? For me it seems like anything over 40% sounds to wet, but I am curious how you guys weigh in on this.

Depends on the mix.

 

[JBroll]

If I can come back to something and hear 'reverb' and not 'thickness', I turn it down. I want to hear a mix, not a mix bouncing on a trampoline.

Jeff

 

[Tommy Gun]

Yeah, TBH, I don't think I've ever had the mix up over 20% on anything.

 

[deathtotaliban]

I'm sure many if not most of the 80s music you're referring to used plate and spring reverbs, but actually in the late 70s to 80s many recording studios did being using a much larger space to record drums in so most likely you are hearing a lot of the rooms reverb as well.

 

[greyskull]

i generally set up three verb busses
medium plate in dverb for drums
medium room in dverb for drums
Medium plate in tlspace for vox
maybe il use a bit of dr evils hall in tlspace for ambient texturey things

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Dr Evil's Hall? sounds good, post that for us will ya!?

For the light rock stuff I'm doing now (my best mixes ever so far)
I generally use the TL Space EMT Plate, medium length (mono to stereo on a bus) for vocal parts.
on a stereo bus I have TL Space Digital>American for my drums.
I usually turn the highs down for both of those.
PSP Springverb for clean/overdriven electric guitars (mono to stereo, on a bus).

I never use Dverb!

 

[greyskull]

I never use Dverb!

you sir are missing out

 

[AudioGeekZine]

next time I'm looking for a lo-fi reverb I'll give it a shot.


dverb is great when its the only thing you've got.