Hey
While this probably doesn't sound the most "natural," can anyone tell me of certain applications when using digital reverbs that you would want very little (if any at all) early reflections going on (i.e. turning them off on the RVerb unit, like Earle had me do with the verb settings for vocals...)
I have some tracks where I have a ton going on sonically/instrumentally and it seems that any amount of early reflections bouncing around makes the mixes sound slightly more crowed. I'm not sure the best way to approach this balance issue.
Am I just on crack? lol
thanks
early reflections
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adamlloyd83
- Posts: 29
- Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:36 am
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
To answer your question you need to ask yourself what an early reflection represents.
The way I'd describe it is a reflection that arrives at you in clear air, so to speak. By that I mean that if you were to look at the impulse response of the reverberation characteristic it would be represented by a peak, or number of peaks standing on their own. What that means is that these reflections can generally be located in space by your hearing with good accuracy, so if you want a reverberation characteristic where you can clearly locate a boundary and hear discrete echoes then use early reflections, but if you want it to sound like a complex reverberation more akin to a cave then use little or no early reflections.
On a personal note, if I were doing recordings and wanted sythetic ambience I'd be in the habit of using no early reflections. My reasoning is that using an impulse response with a even and extended reverberant tail (like a room with perfect diffusion) would add a sense of space without distracting from the positioning of the instruments through panning. A further reason is that most listening environments (which are generally untreated) have early reflections of their own, that in turn, can set up imaging ambiguities with the recorded ambience. I'm guessing that reverb with no early reflections will perform better in such environments than those with early reflections.
Cheers,
Paavo.
The way I'd describe it is a reflection that arrives at you in clear air, so to speak. By that I mean that if you were to look at the impulse response of the reverberation characteristic it would be represented by a peak, or number of peaks standing on their own. What that means is that these reflections can generally be located in space by your hearing with good accuracy, so if you want a reverberation characteristic where you can clearly locate a boundary and hear discrete echoes then use early reflections, but if you want it to sound like a complex reverberation more akin to a cave then use little or no early reflections.
On a personal note, if I were doing recordings and wanted sythetic ambience I'd be in the habit of using no early reflections. My reasoning is that using an impulse response with a even and extended reverberant tail (like a room with perfect diffusion) would add a sense of space without distracting from the positioning of the instruments through panning. A further reason is that most listening environments (which are generally untreated) have early reflections of their own, that in turn, can set up imaging ambiguities with the recorded ambience. I'm guessing that reverb with no early reflections will perform better in such environments than those with early reflections.
Cheers,
Paavo.
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adamlloyd83
- Posts: 29
- Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:36 am
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
Thanks Paavo. I see what you mean. I actually ended up remixing some stuff without early reflections and it seems to sound slightly more "current," ironically enough. As unnatural as it may be, it seems to allow for a big sound without a distracting presence of the "room" or "chamber," like how most pop/top 40 stuff is mixed these days.
I think it's funny how in modern mix techniques, some "standard" aspects of production aim to be/sound very "natural," and others the exact opposite!!!!
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I think it's funny how in modern mix techniques, some "standard" aspects of production aim to be/sound very "natural," and others the exact opposite!!!!
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Good point Adam, and I agree with you. My current thinking about all this is that the processing people do in recording essentially revolves around making it sound as pleasing as possible but pleasing does not necessarily equate with natural. In fact, I'd describe most popular music that I consider to be good recordings, sound larger than life and not natural at all. It seems only certain classical music labels aim for what could be considered natural sound and even then, natural means as if you were listening to the orchestra in the best concert hall, as opposed to in you living room or your car.adamlloyd83 wrote:I think it's funny how in modern mix techniques, some "standard" aspects of production aim to be/sound very "natural," and others the exact opposite!!!!
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Paavo.