Tips on making something sound really "wet"

[LeedyGuy]

I want to learn how to use reverb to make something sound nice and wet. I'm talking about Pet Sounds wet or Stax wet and even "From Me To You" type wet. Every attempt I make at it, things just sound way clogged in the midrange and shitty. I know that a lot of what was going on on the references I made is the room, the people in it, the mic bleed, and the reverb chambers they used to use, but I really want to learn how to wet something down in the digital domain. You can hear my attempt at it here on that tune called Ooh Na Na Na.

Things I tried:
1. High passing the reverb send. This worked sorta well and prevented too much low end build up i think, but it's still not enough.
2. Avoiding using close mics on drums. I only mixed an Oktavamod 219 and a Fathead in MS for that tune.

I'm using Sonar 5 and I have some Waves stuff.

-Ken

[RefD]

it was also common practice to lowpass (not just highpass) the signal feeding the chamber.

for example, i recall reading EMI cut the lows around 660Hz and the highs around 10KHz...pretty much a wide bandpass.

i know that's not the sound you were referring to, but i have a feeling the practice was similar elsewhere.

[djimbe]

Sometimes I do variants on this:

- take yer track and apply some sort of short delay to it. Do it such that you can mix wet and dry in any amount and have the mix show up as a single track.

- send that single track of wet (from your delay) and dry to your reverb.

- bring the reverb return back so that you can mix it together with just the original dry track.

Now you still have your dry track in the mix, and a sort of "doubly wet" reverb signal that can be adjusted for amount of delay and dry going in, and reverb coming out.

There's probably fancy "predelay" or "regeneration" or "spin" (the MCI version of regeneration) or something on your reverb plugs that'll get you there without the delay step. I'm more used to using old outboard units without such flexibility, so I chain things together like the above method.

[RodC]

If you have Sonar 5 (Producer edition) start using the Perfect space con. Reverb. It is awsome. The interweb is full of impulse responses you can download.

The samples that come with it are pretty awsome as well.

Make sure you learn how to use the delay that it provides. You can also put lowpass and High pass on your signal right in perfect space. Also learn how to change the offset. This adjusts what portion of the impulse starts affecting the signal. Between delay and this you will get there.

I normaly put it on a bus and route stuff to the bus, if you want something real wet, put it right on the track and give that a listen.

[I'm Painting Again]

or you can go the caveman way and chamber your track and re-record it back in, i. e., set up a speaker in a room that plays the track and a mic that records it back to your recorder..

[LeedyGuy]

Thanks for the tips so far. I've tried a lot of what people are saying here which means taht I'm on the right track I guess, but when I put any swimmy type reverb that I can actually hear on anything, it just sounds like shit. It doesn't sound like "wow...tons o verb" it just sounds like frequency collision buildup crap.

I'm going to try that convolution route...I haven't experimented with that yet.

[RodC]

I'm going to try that convolution route...I haven't experimented with that yet.

Damn, prob the best thing that came out with sonar 5!

Youll never want another verb!

[apropos of nothing]

I just unhooked one of the water lines that went to my washing machine and ran it to the board with a little gain.

[drumsound]

Pre-delay is the key to reveb a lot of the times.

Your song is really cool.

[Mark Legat]

Pre-delay is the key to reveb a lot of the times.

Your song is really cool.

What is pre-delay? (I know what delay is so I am not a complete retard)

[RefD]

Pre-delay is the key to reveb a lot of the times.

Your song is really cool.

What is pre-delay? (I know what delay is so I am not a complete retard)

the delay time before onset of reverb (be sure not to mix in any dry signal).

you can use tape or a DDL or whatever.

[drumsound]

Pre-delay is the key to reveb a lot of the times.

Your song is really cool.

What is pre-delay? (I know what delay is so I am not a complete retard)

the delay time before onset of reverb (be sure not to mix in any dry signal).

you can use tape or a DDL or whatever.

Most reverb's made after about '85 have predelay built into the programing. I'm personally not gonna waste the coolness of a PCM41 on a reverb send.

[LeedyGuy]

Ya know, I was just listening to some amazing pre-delay today, but suddenly for the life of me I cannot remember the song. It has the most obvious overuse of pre-delay that I have ever heard and it was on a tambourine or something backbeatish from one of those ridiculous 80s groups like Poison or something. It came on the radio and I just kinda left it on to listen to what they did with the verb. The pre-delay was EXTREME

[nipsy]

...I really want to learn how to wet something down in the digital domain...... [/url]

Fill up a tub with tepid water and drop your computer in it...now go get a cassette 4 track and a fostex spring reverb.....seriously.........

[LeedyGuy]

...I really want to learn how to wet something down in the digital domain...... [/url]

Fill up a tub with tepid water and drop your computer in it...now go get a cassette 4 track and a fostex spring reverb.....seriously.........

I was afraid of answers like this. I'm a huge fan of the Tape Op board "smart ass remark" and I've been known to give them from time to time. I just may take this one to heart if taking it to heart means that I can keep my computer and try to find an outboard reverb tank...

-Ken