Real Verb

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Contributor Since: Nov 11, 2007

I watched an online documentary describing how one of Neil Young's engineers records reverb. He sends an output of a track to a big bathroom and places a stage monitor in the corner of the room, then takes what looks like an SDC and points its butt toward the speaker, apparently capturing what comes off the wall from a distance of about 8 feet from the wall. Sounds good!

Have you guys tried this method before? I know that the room must be important...but the bathroom they used just looked like a standard retail facility bathroom, 3 stalls, some urinals, some sinks. Nothing acoustically engineered. I have an empty garage in my backyard that has pretty decent sounding natural verb...I think two 50' XLR's would do the trick...

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MASSIVE Mastering, LLC
Member
Since: Aug 05, 2008


Nov 04, 2009 01:43 pm

That used to BE reverb. They call it a "reverb chamber" for a reason.

Springs were used in amplfiers - They sounded sort of crappy, but the same sort of thing - A physical reverberation.

Sure, it's not a popular thing to do most of the time anymore, considering the technology available. But there are still some classic studios with world-famous reverb rooms.

Personally? Been there, done that using interesting halls & hallways. It's nifty, but most of the time as a novelty.

http://www.unitedmusicians.info
Contributor
Since: Nov 11, 2007


Nov 04, 2009 02:08 pm

Oh...that makes sense. Duh.

http://www.reverbnation.com/2ndg
Member
Since: Nov 27, 2007


Nov 05, 2009 03:17 am

sometimes i record in a room with bricktiles on the floor, it gives off great verby sound actually.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Nov 05, 2009 10:44 pm

Quincy, the bathroom thing or anything like it is still used by many. Myself included. While I have some of the coolest DSP reverbs you can own any of the vocalist's that have been here prefer the sound of one of three places here. The bathroom just outside the room here, the tile floored bathroom upstairs or the garage which is a no brianer for big reverb. Most prefer the bathroom down here. Damping is a simple matter of how many towels or blankets get hung around in certain area's. The best is when the vocalist sings with their back to the shower stall and we hang an LDC inside the shower stall just below the top with the door's closed. The ceiling is acoustic tile with a slightly reflective coating. But the room when left dry with no damping has a perfect chamber sound. Funny enough the upstairs sounds more like a wooden chapel. I can't figure that one out with the stone tiled floor. But some think its the cabinetry and the door that give it that woody tone.

I've used open oven's with a mic place in it and the amp facing into it for small tight reverbs. Dryer drums work well also. I can go on and on about were you can find different ambient sounds.

http://www.unitedmusicians.info
Contributor
Since: Nov 11, 2007


Nov 06, 2009 03:44 pm

Woah! Never would have thought about putting a mic in a dryer. Very outside the box.

The thing that I thought was so interesting about the tactic I saw in the documentary was that they used the bathroom like an aux insert so they could mix the verb to taste, separate from a vocal track without verb. I've been playing around with automating my VST based reverb aux insert and the vocal track that feeds it. I take the normal reverb levels on the reverb aux insert and boost them while cutting the vocal levels on the vocal track as kind of a finale that is supposed to leave the song sounding like you just entered a huge space. It's a cool sound that results, and I can definitely see how using my garage would be a great way to harness the same technique with perhaps even more interesting results.

My garage is by no means sound proof, and I just moved into a house by a park so if I were to bring the garage chamber aux insert up and bring the vocals down I'd get reverberation mixed with all those neat outdoor sounds.

Can't wait to try that in the spring when our bird house will presumably be occupied. I think it will almost feel like the listener is listening to the song and suddenly transported outside.

I should have assumed that "real chamber reverb" came before the chamber reverb plugins...but I guess the real revelation is how the application of using real space might help the track feel more organic.

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