Why did everybody use so much reverb in the 80s?

[T-rex]

On the positive side I have to thank them for sitting there and messing with the LARC and AMS boxes 'cause if they hadn't fucked up so much music for me I never
would have though about having my own moneypit/studio that was dedicated to nothing but at least trying to get it right.

This has to be my new quote.

[vvv]

... the LARC and AMS boxes ....

I believe I understood your post, butt what are these?

Edit: I found a google reference to a Lexicon LARC, like a control interface for Lexicon reverbs, mebbe?

[RefD]

... the LARC and AMS boxes ....

I believe I understood your post, butt what are these?

Edit: I found a google reference to a Lexicon LARC, like a control interface for Lexicon reverbs, mebbe?

yes, 300, 480L and so on.

AMS was another company much like Lexicon and Eventide Clockworks, making digital delays and reverbs and similar devices.

[roscoenyc]

Yeah,
this thing. You'd leave the control room and go watch tv for an hour, an episode of Magnum or so, and you'd come back and two guys would still be hunched over that thing messing with some parameters bla bla bla.
argh!

[vvv]

[cgarges]

Anyone ever seen those older, dark grey LARCs? Man, those things look cool.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[JGriffin]

We just had the cream colored ones where I worked.

[cgarges]

I've only ever seen one or two in person. They look totally badass.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Brett Siler]

At least the two artists you mention (Owl City & Imogen Heap) are using it in an interesting way.

Take that back.

yeah no way I'm taking that back. Especially in regards to Imogen Heap. That chick is a genius. If all you know of these two artists is the one track you've heard on the radio, you're missing out. They are doing interesting things.

Im talking about Owl City. I'm not familiar with the other artist. I have heard his album all the way through and done sound for his band and still :ar15:

[roscoenyc]

in the self agrandizing column here's a bit from a Mix Magazine interview with Rick Clark in '99 where I went off a bit on digital reverb.

...............
Our whole tenure as a band was in the '80s, when people were infatuated with the advent of digital reverb and MIDI. We would go to studios where guys hadn't put a mic on an amplifier for a while. All they were doing was MIDI and transferring stuff from synthesizers onto 2-inch tape. The only thing harder than recording an electric guitar at that time was recording a clean electric guitar.

So are those Del Lords records listenable for you now?

It is kind of hard for me. Over and over, people have come up to me and said how great digital is and "digital will do everything." Well if it can go into my '80s records and extract the horrible digital reverb that was put all over them, then I'm ready to sign up. [Laughs.]

It gets to be one of those things, like when you were in high school and some guy from an insurance company comes in and says things like, "Statistically, in your lifetime, you will have spent 23 months sitting on a toilet." Well how much of my life has been wasted by some guy twiddling with some digital reverb? Too much. I pretty much regard reverb as a coward's tool.

Why is that?

It's like, if you tell a really good joke and follow it up by saying, "I was just kidding." It sort of pulls your punches. There is a place for reverb, like on a Celine Dion vocal, so you can soften the horrible blow that your system has to endure. Of course, a little spring reverb out of a Fender amp is always acceptable. [Laughs.]

[RefD]

... the LARC and AMS boxes ....

I believe I understood your post, butt what are these?

Edit: I found a google reference to a Lexicon LARC, like a control interface for Lexicon reverbs, mebbe?

yes, 300, 480L and so on.

AMS was another company much like Lexicon and Eventide Clockworks, making digital delays and reverbs and similar devices.

here's a shot of (top to bottom) Eventide H3500, AMS RMX16 digital reverb, Lexicon PCM70 and Lexicon 480L.

[fedexnman]

ain't nothing like mike tyson in " the hangover " movie .. singing phil collins, and doin the airdrums.. yeah 80s reverb was overdone, 90s grunge singing like your constepated eddie veder. creed, 1st stp album, 2000 s autotune (t-pain) and singing like you lost your family jewels, ex .( owl city )- fireflies great songwriting, horrible singin . what next ??

[chris harris]

Im talking about Owl City. I'm not familiar with the other artist. I have heard his album all the way through and done sound for his band and still :ar15:

Yep. It sounds like they raided the recycle bin after a Postal Service session and then he sang it through autotune. Nothing original or even remotely interesting about that crap.

[plurgid]

Im talking about Owl City. I'm not familiar with the other artist. I have heard his album all the way through and done sound for his band and still :ar15:

Yep. It sounds like they raided the recycle bin after a Postal Service session and then he sang it through autotune. Nothing original or even remotely interesting about that crap.

Damn. You guys are completely right about Owl City. I hereby retract my defense of their auto-tuning tomfoolery. I still stand by Imogen Heap though.

[Snarl 12/8]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, I haven't reread the entire thread to check.

But it occurred to me, just now while I was making breakfast and "I'll Wait" by Van Halen came on the shuffled iPod, that the reason I personally overused digital reverb in the 80's was because I had just gotten mine. Can't that basically be said for the entire music industry? I mean prior to digital reverb you either had to have a huge room (capitol records) or a huge plate or a huge spring, but in 1985 almost anyone could spring a grand and have something really fun to overuse in their rack. I'm guessing even the big studios went from having about 4-8 reverb choices to basically unlimited with one trip to the music store.

It took me years to figure out how to overuse the dbx 166 that I also got at the time, but reverb was pretty easy to figure out right away.