Creating and applying REAL room reverb

general questions, comments and ideas about recording, audio, music, etc.
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Dyno
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Creating and applying REAL room reverb

Post by Dyno » Tue May 20, 2003 5:42 pm

I haven't been happy with any of the room reverbs on my Mackie D8B, so I've been experimenting with the old trick of micing a monitor in my live room at a distance of 12'. I took an aux send of the desired tracks and run them out to another small mixer in my live room. I was shocked to hear how real it sounded when compared to the digital room verbs. I live in a 4,500 sf. log home with a huge, all wood great room that has a 20' cathedral ceiling. This room is about a 150' run from my studio, but I'm going to try using it as a "room" reverb chamber next.

I'd like to get some feedback about this from some of you guys with experience in this area and the way you run it thru your board at mixdown. I was going to try it with a jecklin disc for a stereo set up.

Dyno

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Re: Creating and applying REAL room reverb

Post by @?,*???&? » Tue May 20, 2003 7:07 pm

Big houses are great for that! I re-amp drums in my kitchen. Use as many mics as you can and blend them. Different distances, different surfaces. The only unpleasantness usually comes in the parallel wall scenarios that create that ugly ringing tone. Try using a mic such as a Neumann KM84 or Oktava MK012C just an inch or so from a side wall pointed directly at it. If you're going through a mixer, experiment and run a little of your reverb back out through the speaker with an aux send for some regeneration. Even use a delay on the return of one of the mics and see what that yields. There are no rules. You've got a very organic chamber happening. How do the closets sound? If you have a spare toilet (no kidding) stick that in the room and put a mic in the bowl. Porcelain has a great sound! Don't stop with your drums either, use it for everything...

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psychicoctopus
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Re: Creating and applying REAL room reverb

Post by psychicoctopus » Wed May 21, 2003 12:20 am

I help engineer a live music show on a radio station. We've tried using a nearby stairwell as a reverb chamber with various results. Stairwells seem to have an unusually long reverberation for their size. This one is 5 stories tall...

The long decay has a lot of character and works on vocals when the artist is into it. (They'd rather use it if we call it the 'ECHO CHAMBER' instead of reverb... go figure 8))

We stick a PA speaker in the bottom of the stairwell and set up a condenser or PZM mic one floor up. The speaker placement vs. mic placement seems to make some difference, just avoid a direct path between the speaker and mic.

Drawbacks: when random folks sneak into the stairwell to use the cellphone during a recording!

brian beattie
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Re: Creating and applying REAL room reverb

Post by brian beattie » Wed May 21, 2003 7:46 am

I recently was doing a live to 2 track recording in an old church, and I stuck a speaker in the back bathroom, sent the lead vocals there through an old ampex powered speaker and mic'ed it up with a ribbon mic.. It sounded great. You are at a HUGE advantage, having those wood walls, big rooms and high cielings. It would be a shame not to use them. I would start with one or 2 mics for the reverb, before you get too elaborate. I think the jenklin disc would sound elegant.
a little bit of sonic tailoring on the returns can help, too. probably a little top and or bottom rolled off, see if that helps. It's also a blast to take a natural reverb return and delay it slightly, with tape or digital delay, or whatever. It's "SUURRRR-RREAL!!!"
good luck! as everyone else is dialing up generic phony reverbs, you'll have a one of a kind beauty!
brian

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Re: Creating and applying REAL room reverb

Post by Professor » Wed May 21, 2003 7:09 pm

Yep, that's why the big old studios used to have 'chambers' for reverb before the digital machines came along. Springs and Plates work alright, tape delay has it's place, but chambers are great and you can modify them with mic choice and placement. Honestly the first thing I did when I saw your post was to look at the distance from Pullman/Moscow down to Middleton - kind of a drive. Too bad, cause I have an MBHO Jecklin disc and a host of mics up here. Of course, I also have lots of rooms around the school building that have potential and of course, I could off load tracks to my DA-78 and setup a remote reverb in a nice hall around town - but that would get kind of tedious I might have to save that to do as an experiment with some students.
The newest top of the line reverb units are based on samples turned into algorhythms of real spaces. The TC System 6000 has all kinds of great presets on it for music and film including famous rooms at Skywalker ranch, a few catherdrals and things like a BMW limousine (more for film). The Sony 777 has all kinds of samples as well and both are upgradable with new reverbs as they make them. I tell you, if my concert hall didn't have so damn much ventilation noise it would be really great. Thanks for the bit of inspiration though. And definitely stretch the wires out and try the great room - especially with exposed logs inside, you should get a tremendous sounding reverb nd probably very warm sounding. If you could setup a fast internet connection so people could send full 24bit files to play in your great room and get back the recorded reverb, it could be a pretty good business - at least it would be fun to try.

-Jeremy

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Dyno
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Re: Creating and applying REAL room reverb

Post by Dyno » Wed May 21, 2003 9:01 pm

Yep, Moscow is a clip from Middleton for sure, but compared to others I talk with on the forums, your practically in my backyard!
Hey, can one of you guys lead me by the hand and tell me how to post a picture here of my great room? I took a digital pic of it last night and can't figure out how to post it.

Dyno

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