I was so proud of my first guitar amp, a 25 watt Crate Mini-Stack, as I showed it off to my step dad. “And look it even has reverb!” to which he let out a dissaproving groan.
My next reverb fail was when I was interviewing for a sound engineer position at Bill Kurtis’ production studio. The interview went fantastic and I was certain I nailed it. Toward the end I was asked by one of the 3 people interviewing me if I ever heard of a 480L. (a fancy reverb unit that at the time was found in every major studio) of course I hadn’t and the interview concluded. I didn’t get the job.
So what’s the deal man? My step dad hated the reverb on my guitar, and I lost my chance at a job because I didn’t know reverb well enough!
What is reverb in the first place?
Simply, it’s sound bouncing off of surfaces and recombining at different times.
It is almost ALWAYS present in some form. Right now if you clap your hands (do it) you’ll hear an echo for just a brief bit no matter what room you are in. And that echo will sound different in just about every room/space you are in. Try it where you are, in your bathroom, in the garage, in a park, wherever. That reverb tells your ear where you are. Clap in your closet. It will be short and dark sounding, but it will still be there!
Why does this matter? Because you will be recording and experiencing or adding or God forbid trying to subtract reverb from everything you do in the studio.
Proper use of reverb sets the space of the sound. Listen to a classic recording in your headphones like Motown or the Beatles. The sound of the reverb gives you your position in space- you’ll notice that you probably never noticed it before. Listen to a few different recordings from a few different years with your eyes closed and imagine the shape and size of the rooms they were recorded in.
You’ll notice inthese classic recordings that there is a definite vantage point, spatially.
Listen to one of your recordings now if you haven’t already. What’s the vantage point there? Big room for the vocals, no room for the bass, medium room for the guitars and who knows for the drums?
Very often amateur mixes have psychotic use of reverb, it will have a bunch of different verbs, all tuned and timed differently. Reason being, like my guitar amp verb that my step dad scoffed at, most electronic instruments these days have some kind of reverb programmed into them. None of this is coordinated in your mix, and when you out it all together it sounds washed out, grainy and lacking definition.
So as you mix when you’re considering reverb, don’t worry so much about how much or how little on each instrument: listen to the mix overall and decide on what you want the vantage point to be. Adjust your reverb then and season to taste.
You’ll find the sweet spot!