The Secret to a Great Recording...
Years ago, when I was in my early twenties, scraping a living together in Nashville, one of many odd jobs I worked was as a recording engineer at a small studio that catered to mostly amateur talent. If you had cash in hand, you could cut a track. Needless to say I met a host of interesting characters at that job. Some were truly talented, but most were truly not. Though it wasn't one of my favorite gigs, I know I've done worse things for money. And I did manage to amass quite a collection of recordings of some of the world's worst singers - so there's that.
One day I was working with an Elvis Impersonator / Christian Evangelist - yeah, you read that right. At one point he said to me (in his best Elvis voice):
"Now-uh, Brother Paul-uh. I'm uh-gonna let-uh you in on uh-something...
The secret-uh... to a great recording-uh... is a whole lotta reverb-uh."
I'll admit, it was kind of hard to take advice from a middle-aged, pot-bellied man purporting to be the King of Rock'n'Roll in the year 2002. Nonetheless, I smiled and cranked up the reverb return on the next take. The customer is always right, right?! Especially when he's dressed like the King!
The fact of the matter is, reverb CAN make or break a recording. While I would argue that there are other key factors at hand - for the sake of this article, let's stick with reverb.
Reverb or "verb" (short for reverberation) in its purest form is the sonic reaction created when a sound occurs in a closed or semi-closed environment. It is this continuous summing of reflective audio waves with primary audio waves that, when perceived by our ears, subconsciously informs our brains of the size, shape, and possibly even the composition of the particular space in which the sound is occurring. In a musical context, reverb also acts as a sort of sonic cushion or cloud that softens up the original source. Ideally, reverb will enhance the primary source, but that is not always the case. The wrong amount or kind of reverb, or its use in the wrong context can make the effect destructive to the perception of the source and possibly the overall mix.
Reverb can occur naturally or be created with analog or digital effects processors. And, much to my Elvis-wanna-be friend's credit, it IS the go-to effect for sweetening up voice and instrument recordings and performances. In audio production, reverb can be manipulated to control the size, shape, and "color" or sonic timbre of the space. When using reverb as an effect, we are really creating the sound of the "room" or space in which we want to hear the recorded sound source. When we describe the sonic characteristics of reverb, we are also describing the physical attributes of the room (real or digital) in which the sound is being played (or played back) as well as the location of the source in relationship to those physical attributes.
Fast Reflection = Close Source
Slow Reflection = Distant Source
Long Verb = Big Room
Short Verb = Small Room
Bright Verb = High Density Construction
Dark Verb = Low Density or Hollow Construction
Using a single uniform reverb effect on all sources (such as you would in a classical or traditional jazz setting) adds a sense of cohesion or glue to the recording. In other words, it can help it to sound like all the instruments were recorded in the same space at the same time - even if they weren't.
Using multiple reverb effects at once can enhance the sound of a recording and give each instrument its own unique character. But if you are not careful, it can also make for a cluttered or muddy mess. You might choose to use different verbs for kick/toms, snare/cymbals, acoustic instruments, lead vocal, and BGV's. You could layer them by feeding multiple reverbs from the same source or sequence them by feeding reverb returns into other reverb and effects sends. I personally like to feed my vocal delay returns into my reverb sends, but you could also experiment with the opposite or another variation. Whatever you do, DO NOT feed an FX return back into its own send, lest ye die of feedback poisoning!
Panning is another way to use reverb creatively. You could have a mono sound source panned to center with a stereo reverb panned hard left and right. Or you could pan the mono sound source to one side and send a mono reverb return to the opposite side. You could hard pan a stereo source and send the mono reverb return up the center. There are lots of possibilities.
Another important technique to better help your reverb fit into the mix is EQ. I've seen engineers who mix their reverb returns with no EQ at all, but I personally always EQ my FX returns. Why? If you solo up your FX returns you will hear tons of sonic info that may be redundant or destructive to your overall mix. Use the EQ to remove this info and only feature the parts of the verb you want to hear. This is a great way to add the illusion of space to a sound source while reducing muddiness (rolling off the low end), adding air (increasing the highs), or adding presence (cutting the highs and lows and letting the mids speak).
Mess around with these elements and see what happens to your recordings!
Remember:
- Too little verb and your recording will sound dry and one-dimensional.
- Too much verb and you will wash out the details and make your listeners sea sick.
- A single verb will make for a cohesive sound.
- Multiple verbs can be cool, but may clutter your sonic space.
- If the mix sounds dense or cluttered, employ some panning or EQ to your verb returns to regain clarity in your mix.
- DO NOT feed an FX return back into its own send, lest ye create a feedback loop that could open a black hole and swallow the entire sonic universe!
Until Next Time... Happy Recording & Mixing, My Friends!
