Abby Road Reverb Trick check this out

[KevWind]

Ok so I was watching "Pensados Place" and Dave mentioned this trick and who he had heard about it from.

And this make a ton of sense to me as far as the the notion of getting that "invisible reverb" type of clarity where you want to enhance the vocal or guitar sound but you do not want to hear the reverb as an effect per se.

Now of course there may be times when you specifically want to have a noticeable reverb effect. But for times when you don't, this goes a long way towards getting that.

Oh and it should be noted (for those that may not know ) that in this case the reverb is not on the audio track itself but is it's own separate Aux or Bus track and the vocal or guitar is sent to that track via a bus or send. This is vary important because this way you are only EQ'ing (in this case rolling off) the input to the reverb, you are not rolling off the original vocal or guitar sound


Bobby Owsinski

[runamuck]

Thanks for that, Kev.

Jim

[Bob Womack]

It's funny you should bring this up because it is a trick I use and I just used it on my last product. It helps get rid of the "swim" in the mix when all the instruments are going, but the reverb is still there when the band backs down. Be aware that many reverb plug-ins offer this facility right on-board. My favorite reverb offers EQ at both the front and back ends of the reverb.

Another good trick is to experiment with adding pre-delay to the reverb. Back before digital reverbs, we did this by placing a stereo tape deck in the chain before the reverb, recording and playing back. You'd have a choice of 7.5 ips, 15ips, and 30ips and the delays produced by the distance between the record head and the playback head. These days most reverb plug-ins have a pre-delay available. What you find is that a touch of pre-delay distances the reverb from the vocal or whatever is being processed, allowing more clarity in the vocal.

Bob

[sdelsolray]

When I add reverb to a stereo solo acoustic guitar recording I always use stereo AUX tracks for the reverb plugin. As mentioned, that way I can use the eq controls in my reverb plugin (Altiverb), or add another plugin to the AUX tracks (e.g., a hard limiter before the reverb plugin to limit reverb bloom), without affecting the dry sound from the original two tracks. It's also more flexible when it comes to panning, e.g., the stereo panning spread of the two original tracks can be different than the panning spread of the reverb. Delay compensation should be used when using AUX tracks so the original tracks and the AUX tracks are mixed on the final mix bus without any relative latency.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

It's funny you should bring this up because it is a trick I use and I just used it on my last product. It helps get rid of the "swim" in the mix when all the instruments are going, but the reverb is still there when the band backs down. Be aware that many reverb plug-ins offer this facility right on-board. My favorite reverb offers EQ at both the front and back ends of the reverb.

Another good trick is to experiment with adding pre-delay to the reverb. Back before digital reverbs, we did this by placing a stereo tape deck in the chain before the reverb, recording and playing back. You'd have a choice of 7.5 ips, 15ips, and 30ips and the delays produced by the distance between the record head and the playback head. These days most reverb plug-ins have a pre-delay available. What you find is that a touch of pre-delay distances the reverb from the vocal or whatever is being processed, allowing more clarity in the vocal.
Bob

Interesting about the using the tape decks. I have used the digital pre delay on the reverb itself awhile now, off hand somewhere between 30 ms and 60 ms., I believe.

[Trevor B.]

Not only is the Abbey Road Reverb Trick a terrific technique to know but the discovery that reverb can be shaped with other FX on an Aux channel is terrific. It seems to me there must be numerous possibilities with other time based FX as well.
Thanks!!!

[Bob Womack]

Yep, you'll find that EQ to band limit the feed to a delay allows the delay to sit back further in the mix, for instance.

Here's a really interesting trick I used on a particular song on a recent album: On the Doors' song, "Riders on the Storm," if you listen really closely you'll hear that the reverb isn't fed by the lead vocals! Instead, they had Jim Morrison whisper the vocals and fed the whispers to the reverb only. It makes for a very ghostly and cool effect.

Oh, and by the way, Abbey Road is claiming that they originated a lot of effects that I'm not sure they originated...

Bob

[louparte]

Thanks much for thos resource. I intend to go thrpugh all of them.

[jalbert]

For live application of a very similar effect, I've found the Keeley 30ms pedal indispensable:

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by jalbert

For live application of a very similar effect, I've found the Keeley 30ms pedal indispensable:

So I went to the Keeley web sight and looked up the info on the "30ms" but could not find any mention as to whether or not the reverb effect ( said to be based on emulating the chamber reverb at Abby Road) was also actually programed with it EQ'ed with the 600k hi pass and 10k low pass filter roll offs. Given that "Trick" discussed in the OP video link is not about emulating the Abby Road reverb chamber, but is about EQ'ing the High and low pass filter roll offs and the mid frequency dip . I suppose one could call Keeley and inquire about it.
Regardless of that it looks like a nifty effects pedal.

[JSantos]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Another good trick is to experiment with adding pre-delay to the reverb. Back before digital reverbs, we did this by placing a stereo tape deck in the chain before the reverb, recording and playing back. You'd have a choice of 7.5 ips, 15ips, and 30ips and the delays produced by the distance between the record head and the playback head. These days most reverb plug-ins have a pre-delay available. What you find is that a touch of pre-delay distances the reverb from the vocal or whatever is being processed, allowing more clarity in the vocal.

Bob

This indeed, is pretty amazing. The stereo tape deck idea is compelling. I'll give it a whirl later.

[billgennaro]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

.....Here's a really interesting trick I used on a particular song on a recent album: On the Doors' song, "Riders on the Storm," if you listen really closely you'll hear that the reverb isn't fed by the lead vocals! Instead, they had Jim Morrison whisper the vocals and fed the whispers to the reverb only. It makes for a very ghostly and cool effect......

Bob

Interesting trick, Bob. I always liked that effect on Jim's vocal but never realized how they got it. Thanks!

[pieterh]

What a great tip! I've actually been using the low- and hi-pass filter on reverb principle live for a while now but the suggestion to notch a little at around 2khz was a new one - but makes perfect sense! I'm going to try that as soon as I can, both on my own project recordings and on live shows.

[DupleMeter]

I don't think Abbey Road originated it, but they can take credit I remember an old Lexicon preset that did this (though different frequencies). I think it was one of the presets on the 480L, if I remember correctly.

What they don't tell you about abbey road (and other early studios) is that in the early days they actually fed the reverb from a different mic. They'd often setup a second mic on the source and feed that to the reverb. A different mic with a different sound signature at a different distance.

A little compression is fun to play with with reverb too - another old Lexicon preset had a side-chained compressor that a "ducked" the reverb under the lead vocal.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

I don't think Abbey Road originated it, but they can take credit I remember an old Lexicon preset that did this (though different frequencies). I think it was one of the presets on the 480L, if I remember correctly.

What they don't tell you about abbey road (and other early studios) is that in the early days they actually fed the reverb from a different mic. They'd often setup a second mic on the source and feed that to the reverb. A different mic with a different sound signature at a different distance.

A little compression is fun to play with with reverb too - another old Lexicon preset had a side-chained compressor that a "ducked" the reverb under the lead vocal.

To clarify The studio that became "Abby Road" started in 1931, EQ's were in use on recording consoles as early as the 50's, as were analog plates and chamber room reverbs . Given Lexicon didn't exist until 1971 and the 480L wasn't released until 1986. I suspect Lexicon may have simply emulated something apparently in practice for many years. Certainly Lexicons emulation by itself, lends no credence to the belief Abby Road didn't originate the specific technique being described in the Video

And while Abby Road may or may not have originated the practice of EQ'ing reverb, per se , seems to me the point of the name "Abby Road Reverb Trick" and the video are the specific types and specific frequencies being EQ'ed -- i.e. pass filtering @ 600 and 10k, and dipping at 2k. Not to mention the fact that in the video he states that it is called that because Abby Road uses it, not whether or not they "originated' it. Just to clarify.

And of course the reason "they" (whoever they are) "don't tell you" about possibly setting up a "different mic" and sending, or simply splitting the signal off the console and sending it to an analog plate or chamber with a speaker and return mic , would seem obvious, because it is totally irrelevant as to whether or not that signal is also EQ'ed. Just sayin'

I agree compression on reverb is fun to play with. But I am curious what would the purpose be of ducking the vocal reverb under the vocal, or are you referring to ducking other instrument or room verbs under the vocal ?