I'm currently recording a friend of mine who is making a demo.

I am using an alesis midiverb 4.
personally, I don't like too much on a recording, and just added a bit of natural reverb, post mix.

The artist however, wants some delay and really heavy hall type reverb, which I don't really like.

Any preferences or opinions please?
Material ranges from ballad to full on rock vocals.
Female BTW.

Reverb is a dish best served sparingly. Often the biggest difference between amateur and professional recordings is that the final mix by a pro is much drier than the amateur who feels he has to "do something" to make it sound good.

That said, every track and every voice is different. Wistful ballads can take more 'verb than heavy rock--the best tool for deciding is your own ears.

As an aside, I was just listening to a track I recorded about 8 years ago and it sounded dreadful to me--far too much reverb. However, the recording was for use with a video project I worked on and the singer was filmed in a huge hall. As soon as I dug out the video version it all sounded right. Psycho-acoustics are an interesting study....

Bob

You should probably think about going to bed instead John.

Reverb type, it's ferocity, and the rest of the parameters that nobody ever alters is just as subjective as "what sounds good". It's down to the people with the $$£$$ to decide what's best. The benefit of doing it post recording is the ability to play it back and try different things. Post MIX however can make things fairly tricky. It's all considerably easier with software based solutions.

Yup to what Rob says...

When recording I always lay down tracks "dry" and add reverb as part of the mix process. I much prefer software solutions for this because they are much more controllable. In any decent piece of software you can easily make very precise changes as part of the mix. You don't mention if you have this option available to you but, if you do, I'd go this route. Personally, I use Adobe Audition and find they have some very good built in reverbs but, if I want something else, I find some freeware called Glaceverb has some very nice sounds.

It occurs that yet another variable you have is the different algorithms used by different effects units. Although the names are similar, what sounds right on an SPX2000 doesn't necessarily work on a Lexicon even if they're both called "large hall" or something similar. That makes it even more difficult to suggest anything useful...

...but...

I used to have an Alesis Midiverb (not the version 4 but hopefully my experience is still valid) and didn't like many of the presets for vocal use. However, the one I kept coming back to was their version of the Plate reverb. However, I'd usually play with the Decay to make it fairly quick and also keep the Pre-Delay quite short. By carefully balancing the wet/dry mix it was fairly useful. However, as already noted, the musical content and what you want make all the difference.

Bob

Aye, you have corrected me again Sir!

That's what I meant, I had too many sherberts last night



It's starting to sound pretty good, well I'm not recording a band, but there is me on the guitar on there!
Once it's done I will post a link.

To add.
I didn't list all of the parameters, but just said "natural reverb" to give you the Idea.

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

Thanks Bob, I too like the plate, and will have another play.

Hi,

What Software are you using ?, could direct you to some particular presets or settings to try .. as the plug ins that come with Ptools, Logic, and Cubase Studio4. All have a good sounding reverb.

If it was me mixing and mastering, I would use more of a dry mix on the rock vocals, and a more wet mix on the Ballard type songs.

Alex.

"Use sparingly" is a common wisdom. I guess these folks have not heard some of our better sounding records (DSotM, Led Zeppelin 1, Black Sabbath 1, Frampton Live, several Def Leppard albums, Yes 90125, .....).

I was never able to get anything I liked out of a MV4, but that was some years back - I might have better luck today. Of those I have played with, the Lexicon PCM90 and Kurzweil Rumour (and KSP8) sounded the best.

Heard DSotM? I grew up with it--and am happy to say I've even seen it performed live a couple of times!

However, the advice to use reverb sparingly still holds. Plonking a thick, heavy "hall" reverb on every track you mix just because "ballads sound good with reverb" gets tiring very quickly. Reverb isn't a magic bullet that makes every ballad as great as "Breathe".

Yes, most tracks and voices benefit from a bit of presence, be it natural from a nice sounding studio or added electronically in the mix. But I stand by what I said in my first post: most beginners use too much reverb in an effort to "do something to make it sound good". Yes, there are exceptions but MOST pro mixes tend to be drier than MOST amateur mixes. The pros spend more time with things like EQ and multiband compression to make the vocal sit perfectly in the mix--and use just a bit of carefully considered presence/reverb. Actually, I've jumped ahead of myself there. Most pros spend even MORE time getting the initial recording as perfect as possible, considering things like mic choice and placement as well as the basic position in the room. The better the track, the less processing you need!

My 2 cents worth anyway.