How do deal with reverb when you don't want it?

So I never use reverb if I don't feel I need it. But people say that reverb should be on every track to make it sound more realistic in a stereo field. But I DON"T WANT IT. it sounds shitty with a reverb, and sounds not so shitty without reverb. but then it has no realism in a stereo field.

  On 5/5/2010 at 6:17 PM, Adam Beker said:

So I never use reverb if I don't feel I need it. But people say that reverb should be on every track to make it sound more realistic in a stereo field. But I DON"T WANT IT. it sounds shitty with a reverb, and sounds not so shitty without reverb. but then it has no realism in a stereo field.

do you like it without reverb? from what you write, it seems someone cares about stereo realism.

edit: whatever stereo realism amounts to.

Reverb puts depth in a mix. Lack of reverb can make your mix sound flat and amateur. It's likely that all your favorite music has reverb on most if not all tracks, even if it's subtle.

If you don't like reverb, use it sparingly. Use it as an aux send/return and apply it to each track that way. It will help glue your tracks together and make it sound cohesive. Also - EQ your reverb to get rid of the boomy, boxy and muddy frequencies.

Make sure you learn the parameters on your reverb too. A reverb tail should fade naturally in time with the tempo of your song. Compression on reverb can also be nice to bring out its tail.

Also, remember to use to use short reverbs when you want things to sound bigger, and long reverbs when you want elements to be further back in a mix.

my tracks are as real as it gets. stereo field wide as kevin smith's ass

is this a technical question or an emotional question?

either way just don't use it when you don't want to! who the hell cares about stereo field realism, it's all about your own style, and if you mix it well and it sounds good then it sounds good. don't believe the hype.

If you don't like reverb and it sounds good to you then that's all that really matters innit? I use it on a lot of things, had a time in my life when I loved to drench things in it. Now I'm more responsible

  On 5/5/2010 at 6:17 PM, Adam Beker said:

But people say that reverb should be on every track

What?

The matter is that I want the track not to sound like it's coming from ass. I want it to sound realistic in stereo field or in other terms, good. But when I do some fast electronic percussion and add reverb to it, it ruins everything. Thank you scones to die for, from what you said I guess I'll need to put some more work to it. Damn.

  On 5/5/2010 at 6:52 PM, scones to die for said:

Also, remember to use to use short reverbs when you want things to sound bigger, and long reverbs when you want elements to be further back in a mix.

Did't knew that. Great, I'm going to make everything big.

  On 5/5/2010 at 7:06 PM, Squee said:

  On 5/5/2010 at 6:17 PM, Adam Beker said:

But people say that reverb should be on every track

What?

People say that reverb should be on every track

do what works for you and your music

it is advisable though to have reverb on every track, if only mixed at very low levels or whatever just to increase the fullness of the sound i guess

Just do what sounds right.

mic up your synths and get a real reverb

  On 5/5/2010 at 9:08 PM, Mcdergbit said:

mic up your synths and get a real reverb

Yes.

Record your room with the stereo mix playing, then mix this natural reverb in to the final mix.

  On 5/5/2010 at 9:11 PM, acidphakist said:

  On 5/5/2010 at 9:08 PM, Mcdergbit said:

mic up your synths and get a real reverb

 

Yes.

 

Record your room with the stereo mix playing, then mix this natural reverb in to the final mix.

This, and if your dog click clacks on the floor while you are recording, leave it, as it adds character.

Hey mom, I made some acid.

i pump the room full of helium so the reverb speeds up, this lets me get tighter reverb on snare rushes.

  On 5/5/2010 at 10:00 PM, hahathhat said:

i pump the room full of helium so the reverb speeds up, this lets me get tighter reverb on snare rushes.

lol

Also - stereo reverb is good for close up sounds, mono reverb for things in the back ground.

This is how reverb works in real life. A sound will reverberate on each side of you when it's close up in a room, and be straight ahead when far away.

I make songs in a cave

with a bunch of synths

  On 5/5/2010 at 11:19 PM, Cryptowen said:

I make songs in a cave

with a bunch of synths

PRO

  On 5/5/2010 at 6:17 PM, Adam Beker said:

So I never use reverb if I don't feel I need it. But people say that reverb should be on every track to make it sound more realistic in a stereo field. But I DON"T WANT IT. it sounds shitty with a reverb, and sounds not so shitty without reverb. but then it has no realism in a stereo field.

Did Burial tell you this or something?

Seriously tho, you don't want to put reverb on everything. I usually just set up a reverb bus and run a few things into it. Convolution sounds so good.

But if you don't want to use reverb, then don't lol. Its your music.

you could try lengthening the release of your amp and/or filter envelopes to get a 2D sort of reverb.

if you decide you want reverb but can't find one you like, look into convolution reverbs and impulse responses

  On 5/6/2010 at 2:03 AM, acid1 said:

if you don't want to use reverb, then don't lol. Its your music.

wrong, music must follow scientific formula's, you cant be breaking ANY rules EVER

  On 5/6/2010 at 3:37 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

  On 5/6/2010 at 2:03 AM, acid1 said:

if you don't want to use reverb, then don't lol. Its your music.

 

wrong, music must follow scientific formula's, you cant be breaking ANY rules EVER

lol.. fuck i must have signed the wrong document somewhere!

Seriously I hear so many "rules" from people of what they should and should not do, its unfortunate. So many common criticisms like "the snare isn't loud enough" or "the hit hats move faster then the rest of the song" ... eventually you begin to appreciate everyone's individual contributions so much that it ultimately doesn't matter. ANYTHING new ftw

The way I've been doing it in order to add some subtle reverb to every track, but not have it muddy everything up is as so:

2 sends one with a long ambient tail, one with a short tail and a small room feel. I can fuck with the overall level of all reverb in the whole song pretty easily. This is a lot better than using tons of insert reverbs I think, which I used to do. I can have up in your face drums with like a medium bit of verb on the short end of the sends, a also a small amount of bleeding of the long tails(if I want some crazy snare reverb hit i just up the send amount on the big verb). Helps me place everything A lot better, better use of space I think, but it sounds better than inserts because with inserts(ESPECIALLY inserts on the master!) it becomes very easy to have muddiness and too much going on. This way I can have the immediate illusion of everything being clean and dry but still held together by some sense of space, just don't overuse the long tails on the send(unless this is ambient music), id say use more of the small room effect, its subtle but it helps the whole track feel together.

EDIT: mesh gear pretty much said the same exact thing. Fuck, I thought this thread was 1 page. didn't read the second, but people say some good stuff in it for sure.