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

[giuseppe_fl]

And even up into the early, 90s, classic and forgotten records alike are doused in this shiny, fake-sounding reverb halo.

What were folks thinking? From the Replacements (Don't Tell a Soul) to Appetite for Destruction to Nothing's Shocking to Louder Than Love... and it's never that cool, spooky ambient reverb and it's never natural sounding.

Seems like it was an '87-'91 phenomenon.

I have wondered about this for some time.

[Artifex]

It was new.

[JohnDavisNYC]

love it.

[sears]

It sounded good at the time. Someday they'll ask why records of the 00s used so much compression.

[Artifex]

Heck, some us ask that NOW. I'm waiting for the remasters 20 years from now where they take off all the heavy limiting.

[giuseppe_fl]

It sounded good at the time.

Well.....

I'm waiting for the remasters 20 years from now where they take off all the heavy limiting.

Someday they'll ask why records of the 00s used so much compression.

No argument there.

[desdinova]

Why is everyone from country to hiphop to Khmer pop (don't ask) using that horrific hard auto-tuning effect? Artifex is right, it sounds "fresh" so people will wring out that rag until it's dry.
It's no different than "E. Piano 1"/"Fulltines", then "LA Piano" for pop/ballads. Most of the time I don't notice the trends but I was getting sick of SID arps being used in hiphop/R&B, I think it's over at this point though. Still can't wait for T-Pain's children to go back to singing.

[suppositron]

Why is everyone from country to hiphop to Khmer pop (don't ask) using that horrific hard auto-tuning effect? Artifex is right, it sounds "fresh" so people will wring out that rag until it's dry.
It's no different than "E. Piano 1"/"Fulltines", then "LA Piano" for pop/ballads. Most of the time I don't notice the trends but I was getting sick of SID arps being used in hiphop/R&B, I think it's over at this point though. Still can't wait for T-Pain's children to go back to singing.

No shit. I'd rather hear lots 'o reverb rather than autotune. That bugs the hell outta me. There are bands I wanted to check out and get into but couldn't just because of that ie: Owl City and Imogen Heap.

[cgarges]

Heck, some us ask that NOW. I'm waiting for the remasters 20 years from now where they take off all the heavy limiting.

I was certainly gonna say it.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[chris harris]

love it.

+1

[giuseppe_fl]

Why is everyone from country to hiphop to Khmer pop (don't ask) using that horrific hard auto-tuning effect? Artifex is right, it sounds "fresh" so people will wring out that rag until it's dry.
It's no different than "E. Piano 1"/"Fulltines", then "LA Piano" for pop/ballads. Most of the time I don't notice the trends but I was getting sick of SID arps being used in hiphop/R&B, I think it's over at this point though. Still can't wait for T-Pain's children to go back to singing.

Classic book called Rock and the Pop Narcotic. It's basic hypothesis: Performers are a pain in the ass to the producer-driven commercial music industry, so the industry likes anything that minimizes the necessity of performers and -- even worse -- tight-knit performer ensembles (AKA: "bands"). So bands are marginalized and drum machine music comes to dominate. A producer is not a band but a producer can run a drum machine and a synth just fine. Say what you will about that theory, but the ubiquity of auto-tune over the last 10 years seems to fit in there pretty nicely.

But a drum machine won't ruin my experience listening to a song. And neither will bad-sounding reverb. But auto-tune, the minute I hear it, I think "SNL skit". It takes me right out of the listening experience. It's totally comic, an instant punchline.

[mr.adambeck]

The rise and fall of autotune has been quite interesting, and I think at this point we're going to really see a drastic decline and use of it only in a comical or commercial jingle sense. Maybe full on vocoder's are next with vocals "playing" chords and harmonies to themselves, who knows. However I think this topic deserves a different thread.

What I find interesting is that 80's reverbed out production (which I admit, I like, especially gated reverb!) seems to be making a come back.

[roygbiv]

One factor: the quality/strength of Ganja improved dramatically in the 80's. This was a problem, because we all smoked huge doobies like it was still 70's era cheap Mexican weed.

That, coupled with all the new effects/toys that suddenly became available resulted in (sometimes) too much drippy reverb (and echo too).

[Cellotron]

It was a reaction to the sound of the mid to late 70's. Everyone had built really dead tracking rooms and was close mic'ing. Worked for some things and was lifeless for others. The first digital reverbs were released and all of a sudden there was a tool to allow things tracked in these dead rooms to sound "big" - well, bigger in artificial ambience at least. Hugh Padghdam and a few others figured out some reverb gating tricks for some tracks which became big hits and this got copied ad infinitum.

Every era of pop audio production goes through similar issues. Today we have to deal with tracks that are overly peak limited, overly beat detected, overly plugin processed, and overly auto-tuned instead. Which is the greater evil is a matter of subjective taste. If the choice is between the Cocteau Twins and Kesha I'll take the Cocteau Twins!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nns0dwzsBig

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[plurgid]

I'd rather hear lots 'o reverb rather than autotune. That bugs the hell outta me. There are bands I wanted to check out and get into but couldn't just because of that ie: Owl City and Imogen Heap.

Here's the thing about auto-tune. It's been more than 10 years since Cher made the "electro-yodel" a big thing, and I've got a feeling it's here to stay. At least in the genre of dance / electronica / club music ... I just can't imagine it will ever go away.

At least the two artists you mention (Owl City & Imogen Heap) are using it in an interesting way, as opposed to T-pain, Ne-yo, Hannah Montanna and their ilk, who are just using it because "well if you can't sing, you can at least yodel like a motherfucker with auto-tune".