How Soon Do You Touch The Verb In The Mix?

[kRza.]

right out of the gate?
Wait til everything is balanced roughly then add space.
add as going?

[cenafria]

If reverb is going to be added to a track I like to hear it as soon as possible while mixing, as reverb affects the instrument's perceived level in the mix. Same goes for room mics or delays.

[jgimbel]

I'll use reverb for three or so different purposes. One is as an effect - like having it way up on amp, sometimes use a room or hall reverb as an effect for a solo or something like that, something that's really meant to be heard. If I'm doing that, I'll do it as soon as possible, like usually even in playback during tracking, get as close as I can to the final sound I want with that, then it'll influence how I'm recording the rest of the parts.

Another use of the reverb is to help a track that's too dry to sit in with other tracks better. With this I'll generally put it on after getting a not entirely rough mix done, which is the point I'd generally determine whether or not something is poking out too much not just volume-wise and it needs it. This is reverb that I don't generally want to be obvious, often a send that I'll use with a few tracks, and do the whole "set it til you can hear it a little bit, then back it off" thing. So you can hear the difference when you turn it off, but you don't hear the track and say "hey there's reverb on ________".

Another way I've had to use reverb sometimes is to either smooth out/enhance or just generally replace room mics in a not-so-nice sounding room. I'm finally mixing and mastering an album that we tracked here over a year ago, and I had some pretty horrible mics at the time and a significantly smaller/not well treated room. There's a song we tracked that is guitar tapping ala Khaki King with soft vocals, with the guitar really featured. I used a number of room mics, trying to get as many options for late as I could, but upon going through and re-mixing them recently I found the room mics to sound really thin and dead. The mics I was using were terrible. In the end I ended up making a "room" by taking the main track, duplicating it and panning the copies, and having one room reverb on the one side, and a slightly different one on the other. It really made it sound like a room because you can almost hear certain frequencies "hitting one side wall" differently than the other side. In that case, I used reverb as a tool to fix the tracks, which I did as soon as I realized there was an issue with them in mixing.

[Jitters]

...In the end I ended up making a "room" by taking the main track, duplicating it and panning the copies, and having one room reverb on the one side, and a slightly different one on the other. It really made it sound like a room because you can almost hear certain frequencies "hitting one side wall" differently than the other side...

*Steals that one*

[kslight]

I almost never use reverb, usually use echo and room mics to create space.

[vvv]

If it's not integral to the individual instrument or submix sound, last.

[CurtZHP]

Once I've got the drums sounding the way I want, I'll put a little reverb on, patched as an aux. That way, I can add the same verb to any other track I want without adding any more plug-ins.

I usually like to use the same reverb/echo patch on everything (to varying degrees) so it puts everything in the same "space."

[losthighway]

If people want a very stylized sounding instrument (like in parallel slammed with the Limiter on my Symetrix, slightly over-driving my spring) I'll usually do it sooner.

I find with vocals it really effects the psychology. If someone feels comfortable doing many takes to try and get pitch right I'll keep the reverb off during playback because it seems to soften the focus and let things slide through. On the opposite side, if I'm recording some punk rock singer who has obviously done some great takes that are clearly at the best of their ability, but are having confidence issues and chasing their tail, I'll start to slide some plate sound, or a little slap echo in. This usually makes them feel better and start to sing even better because they're relaxing.

For drums I usually wait until the very end. I see if my room mics are providing enough motion and space, if not I usually add a pinch to a room mic, maybe a little to the snare. Or I add a little to everything and then reamp it to the room, record that. Then take the digital stuff off and use the room recording for a wet/ dry mix.

On the EP I'm working on now, the visionary of the group wanted to try and use only natural reverb on the lead vocals. I used a regular up front vocal mic and then put a room mic 20' away, cardioid facing the wall not the singer, severely limited and through my Germ pre with the feedback turned way up. Those two sounds blended (room mic a lot lower) sounded really cool during playback, but I wonder if I'll start to get annoyed with it when I hear it again at the mix session.

[drumsound]

For me it is either very late in the mix process or very early.

[TapeOpLarry]

I bring it in right away these days and turn it up too loud so that the clients can ask for less and then I get the level I wanted in the first place.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

*steals that one*

[cjogo]

Usually one of the last steps --- unless it is printed for the tracks sound

[cgarges]

For me it is either very late in the mix process or very early.

Yeah, me too! These days, I almost never track while listening to reverb unless there's a specific request for it (and there rarely is).

I bring it in right away these days and turn it up too loud so that the clients can ask for less and then I get the level I wanted in the first place.

LOVE IT!

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Nick Sevilla]

I bring it in right away these days and turn it up too loud so that the clients can ask for less and then I get the level I wanted in the first place.

+1

[TapeOpLarry]

I'm not joking about this. And I don't think I even realized I was doing that at first.