Reverb Question

[Sweaty Ear]

Hi All.

This might be a redundant question but does anyone know how to get rid of the 'bathroom sound' when applying reverb? Using stock plugins and trying to get a natural air sound but can't seem to find what to do. Any help is appreciated.

[Etienne1973]

What stock reverb plugins do you use? Do you mean these plugins sound metallic and/or boxy at smaller room size values? Applying reverb to what sort of signal(s)?

[eltrone_pl]

For room type reverb I use short delay lines with 6 (usually) taps, and no feedback.
This gives less of a "bathroom sound" than standard reverb.

[crimsonwarlock]

The bathroom sound is often the result of simply using too much reverb. Try to dial it back to the point that you don't seem to hear it, but can hear it disappear when switching off the reverb.

[Sweaty Ear]

thanks for your responses. now i'm using stineberg stuff but this problem happens in any daw i use. my skills aren't much past volume balancing and i tried to put reverb on a percussion track because it was dry and dead. the best way to describe the result was as if you're recording in a bathroom. maybe that's metallic and boxy. idk. tried turning the reverb down as crimson suggested and that helped a lot but would like to know if there's a standard eq or other trick that would get rid of the problem all together. i've seen articles and such on using delay instead of reverb in certain instances but does that work for you all the time? cuz i thought that was only used for denser mixes.

[Soundsphat]

I was wondering how intricate you guys are with your reverb tails and if you are inclined to set your reverb decays according to the bpm of your song or do you just do it by ear and if it works, it works?

[Etienne1973]

I was wondering how intricate you guys are with your reverb tails and if you are inclined to set your reverb decays according to the bpm of your song or do you just do it by ear and if it works, it works?

According to BPM if reverb time parameter is an RT60 one. If that's not the case by ear.

Info RT60: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverbera ... ation_time

[paulbennett66]

Put a filter on it if you can.

[andivax]

Answer is simple: Proper reverb plugin/algo (it should not be THE BEST but perfectly fit the sound!) + filter the highs + diffuse on maximum.

Here are my favourites of reverbs:
All Relab products because it actually emulate the best hardware machines.
Eventide SP2016 for that 80's vibe.
Liquidsonics stuff for cinematic/trailer music.
FabFilter Pro-R2 as very versatile and easy to use beast, presets are here: www.andivax.com
Superplate as the best versatile plate + Liquidsonics Lustrous.
UAD EMT 250/140 - great work horses, especially 250 on vocals for that "ambience" effect.
Valhalla Vintage Verb - the most versatile, easy on CPU and cheap, presets are here: www.andivax.com
Altiverb - very expensive but it has the best
IK Multimedia Sunset (versatile) and Farm Stone (drums) - unique!
Tens or Primavera - the most versatile and best sounding springs.

Rays of love from Ukraine

[cryophonik]

What is the source material? The only time I typically have this problem is when the source material itself was recorded poorly in a room with bad acoustics. For example, a vocal part recorded in a small-ish room with a singer too far off the mic, low signal:noise ratio, room reflections spilling into the mic, bad resonances, etc. If that’s the case, then your best bet is to treat the source material first with EQ, maybe a mic simulator with a proximity effect booster, or whatever it takes to remove the sound of the room, then send the signal (post-fader) to a reverb bus (or at least put the reverb at the end of the plugin chain).

[jamcat]

Use a “Lexicon style” modulated or random reverb.

[legendCNCD]

EQ the signal before hitting reverb or/and after reverb if needed.

[osiris]

I never put a reverb at 100% wet on a drum bus. Maybe 20% max. Also look for something called diffusion on the reverb and dial that back. I

[mjolnir]

Natural outdoor air doesn't have reverb (unless you're in a canyon or a mountain valley or in the city near buildings or near stone mesas or something). A lot of people get fooled by the stereotypes and peer pressure. If you want a reverb sound, it's getting more and more like recording in a literal cave, which is very similar to recording in an underground pipe or bathroom stall or whatnot. All that stuff about reflections comes from ACTUAL REFLECTIONS. But open air, is just that, air in the great wide open without barriers. I know there will be a set of backlashes against my comments, because there always are, but sooner or later people realise that reverb is overrated.

If you listen to American pop vocals of ballads from the 1950s the bathroom hall sound is very pronounced. Even worse, it was in mono.

But again, there will be naysayers who swear that you have to have reverb on, especially on vocals. But I'm just not one of those people.

But I agree with LegendCNCD to EQ and/or highpass/lowpass/bandpass the reverb to help neutralize the reverb if you must have it there.

[swilow11]

A lot of algorthmic reverbs sound metallic or tinny when using room algorithms or short decay/small size. You can either just opt for a nice impulse for use with a convolution reverb or feed the algorthmic reverb into the convolution which can smooth things out a bit.