Dry vs Wet production?
- LupineSound
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Dry vs Wet production?
I've been reading that Rick Rubin book and he's unapologetically in favor of dry mixes. So went back and listened through most of his discography trying to ascertain what a 'dry' mix is. I think I mostly get it now--no room sound/ambience. It certainly gives the in-your-face kind of feeling, but to me, all the instruments sound like disembodied sounds floating in space. I suppose on the other end of the spectrum would be something like a Police record where you can almost close your eyes and see the band playing in their stage arrangement.
So... what do you like better and why? Does it depend on the genre?
I imagine Jazz with no ambiance might sound hella weird. Whereas too much room in a metal recording can sorta soften it's edges (in a bad way). I feel like drier is the more modern sound...
So... what do you like better and why? Does it depend on the genre?
I imagine Jazz with no ambiance might sound hella weird. Whereas too much room in a metal recording can sorta soften it's edges (in a bad way). I feel like drier is the more modern sound...
- Gregg Juke
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I voted "wet" because there is no nuanced, middle-ground answer available, which would of course be more like real world mixing for most of us-- "It depends."
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- A.David.MacKinnon
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To my knowledge, a lot of Rick's records end up being mastered pretty hot also, which does make them sound bigger or more in your face or whatever, but robs the dynamics.
And, yes, Rick usually isn't physically present for a large portion of his productions and things.
And, yes, Rick usually isn't physically present for a large portion of his productions and things.
Thank you.
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- Snarl 12/8
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I'm always impressed by things that have obvious amounts of verb, but stay in your face. I think this is accomplished with "pre-delay," but I'm not sure. My mixes are usually bone dry, but I think that's more a function of always having shitty monitoring and not knowing wtf I'm doing with reverb in general.
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when you watch an old western and they're having the showdown at the bottom of the river canyon with bullets whizzing and zinging and horses rampantly rapid-ing and wagons full of tnt erupting geysers and the hero and bad dude giving chase out of there into the mojave to duke it out over a bootful of river muck because their canteens took bullets to save their lives with murderous intent and tumbleweed chaff caught in their stubble explodes from their jaws with every haymaker.
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I do record a lot of things with room mics, and don't use much artificial reverb. I'm not against it, and definitely find it useful at times. I find a dry mix has quit an intimate feel.
Predelay is the freaking key!!!!Snarl 12/8 wrote:I'm always impressed by things that have obvious amounts of verb, but stay in your face. I think this is accomplished with "pre-delay," but I'm not sure. My mixes are usually bone dry, but I think that's more a function of always having shitty monitoring and not knowing wtf I'm doing with reverb in general.
Perfect!A.David.MacKinnon wrote:Set the reverb so you can just barely hear it, then turn it down a little more. Wait a day, listen again and be shocked at how wet it sounds. Turn it down againLupineSound wrote:Alternate thread title: Tastefully using reverb confounds me.
- LupineSound
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This is a great idea. I will try this next mix.A.David.MacKinnon wrote:Set the reverb so you can just barely hear it, then turn it down a little more. Wait a day, listen again and be shocked at how wet it sounds. Turn it down againLupineSound wrote:Alternate thread title: Tastefully using reverb confounds me.
Yeah, Rick Rubin is more of a pre-production get the right songs and get 'em right before you get into the studio.
He's not a tech guy but he has consistently used some really good engineers starting with Jim Rondinelli and Brendan O'brien.
The little ambience that you hear on those records is more from compression bringing up the tails of sounds.
I can relate to his no reverb vibe coming from the 80's when there was so much reverb on everything. So many of those records sound so dated. Recording was dominated by engineers who seemed to be continually messing with their new toys like the digital Lexicon and AMS reverbs.
I have to admit that I really like the EMT 250 digital reverb. I jumped for joy when that thing came available on the UA platform.
He's not a tech guy but he has consistently used some really good engineers starting with Jim Rondinelli and Brendan O'brien.
The little ambience that you hear on those records is more from compression bringing up the tails of sounds.
I can relate to his no reverb vibe coming from the 80's when there was so much reverb on everything. So many of those records sound so dated. Recording was dominated by engineers who seemed to be continually messing with their new toys like the digital Lexicon and AMS reverbs.
I have to admit that I really like the EMT 250 digital reverb. I jumped for joy when that thing came available on the UA platform.
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