Why is reverb such a big issue?

paulrmartin · Post by **paulrmartin** » Wed Sep 26, 2001 9:13 am

I'd like to read what philosophies you might have about reverb.
I see a lot of posts about this and that reverb being soooooo great and how some people use dozens of them at a time.
Call me curious

Cheers!
Paul

Peezahj · Post by **Peezahj** » Wed Sep 26, 2001 11:34 am

Anybody who uses dozens at a time is just muddying up their mixes, I've seen guys do great stuff with 4 & usually use about 1-3 myself. One of my pet peeves is inappropriate use of reverb, where it sounds like everything is in a completely different sonic space from one another; very unsettling to the ear.

Anyway, reverb helps create a sense of dimension in a mix, making different sounds seem more up-front or pushed back. One of the greatest mixes I ever heard was a friend who used zero reverb *except* on the main element, the whole song sounded sounded a bit too in-your-face but then blossomed out when that one element came in.

It's also used to create resonance, to make a vocalist or snare sound bigger than they really are (it's not a cheat, you do this on nearly all vocalists). Some people will use a dirty gated reverb on a snare drum to get more rattle.

Stubbe · Post by **Stubbe** » Wed Sep 26, 2001 11:45 am

I think the dozen-at-a-time reverb discussion is only valid if you are talking computer-performance, i.e. the PCI bus capacity etc.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Wed Sep 26, 2001 11:59 am

Since reverb is one of the most resource consuming effects, it's usually a good one to benchmark a system, so that may be the reason for the high numbers of reverbs reported.

It's also something that is used in almost every mix, so a high quality one is important.

masterVerb ups the ante for the free reverbs on the Pulsar platform!

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sun Sep 30, 2001 7:08 am

Reverb is the most important effect but you don't want to use to much of it. I don't need to use many reverbs either. I find if I mix with headphones on I always end up putting too much reverb. The only time I would use a heavy reverb would be as a temporary effect in a very sparse, minimalistic section of a piece.

claes · Post by **claes** » Sun Sep 30, 2001 7:58 am

braincell:

hehe, that's odd.. I always find myself mixing the reverb quieter when mixing with headphones (because i feel the reverb appear louder in the headphones)..

but that might be to my loudspeaker and headphones.. both are quite average..