Reverb question

[b1j]

Is it better to track raw or have a plug-in like reverb engaged while tracking?

I think I know the answer. I did the great majority of tracking several parts, but had to do some minor punch-ins. While waiting to regain possession of our backyard studio to finish the tracking, I couldn't resist doing the balancing and editing.

Then I did my mix. The thought was the little 2-bar inserts here and there weren't going to throw things off, and I figured the new eight bars at the end could just use the same mix as the majority of the tracks have on them. For the most part, that was true. But for one of the parts, I forgot to disable the reverb send. Does this mean that I printed the reverb onto the track? Once I noticed it, I disabled the reverb sends while tracking all the new parts.

I can't tell if the few punched-in notes that got by me have some kind of native reverb in them or not, because if I unmute the reverb bus I hear the reverb of the entire song, all five instruments. I don't think I could hear it if the new notes did have their own reverb, by the time the entire mix goes through a single reverb send bus.

Just a stray thought. I've never tracked with any plug-ins engaged. I wait until (just about!) everything's tracked, and only then balance and mix with plug-ins. I expect I'll keep doing it this way, at least for acoustic guitar. Maybe if I track an electric with an amp emulation, I'll put that on it live so I can hear what it's going to turn out to be.

[KevWind]

Is it better to track raw or have a plug-in like reverb engaged while tracking?

First In the big picture "better" is probably the wrong question .

There are reasonable arguments to made both ways, so it's more a (what's your "preference" ?) question
And when it is used, it is much more common to track with a reverb on vocals than instruments

Second in most modern DAWs unless you choose the specific option to actually print/commit/freeze the track, by default the reverb will be instantiated as a "real time" plugin, and will not be irreversible or baked into the audio file

For me personally I tracked for so many years raw that it's a non issue, I can take it or leave it ...

[runamuck]

I track without recording any effects. I don't know quite how I want a track to sound until it's mixed with other tracks.

[Eastbound]

I record acoustic with no effects. Sometimes add reverb after. The advantage here being that you can make adjustments on the added reverb. If it is recorded with reverb, you cant change it.

If I have two guitar tracks, I may want more or less reverb on one of the guitars
again, I have the choice with added reverb

I also add an EQ after the reverb (on the reverb receive track)and usually roll off a good bit of the bass or make some cuts where needed.

Another disadvantage of recording with effects is that it will slow down the processing speed on your PC and may cause glitches and latency issues

If you recorded something with a reverb send to a different track (reverb receive) The original track should still be dry with no effect.

[Chipotle]

Tracks are typically recorded dry. Some engineers, at times, prefer to do some (typically light) compression and/or EQ on some sources like vocals on the way in. But any effects are typically added in post.

It can be somewhat common to have reverb/fx sent in the monitoring headphones, but that's just for the comfort of the player(s). A singer might prefer to have a bit of reverb for performing, but it's not printed to the track.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

It can be somewhat common to have reverb/fx sent in the monitoring headphones, but that's just for the comfort of the player(s). A singer might prefer to have a bit of reverb for performing, but it's not printed to the track.

That's typically what I do. The track gets recorded dry but the vocalist is hearing reverb in the cans. I've found a little bit of reverb giving that larger than life vibe can inspire some singers to better takes than simply dry. Not everyone will want that but for some it really works well.

[Joseph Hanna]

For me, small sessions, maybe four tracks or so, recording with or without FX’s, in this case reverb, is ok. I never do it personally but I don’t think it’s a terrible practice. However, this is not a just me thing, if the session starts to get above four or five tracks it’s a terrible practice to get into. As has been discussed heavily here and in other similar forums, get your raw audio recorded, period. Once one is fairly confident that the recording process is finished put on your “mixer” hat and set levels. Once you get past an initial audio pass roughly setting levels, then begin the addition of any plug-ins you choose to use. This would include front-end FX’s (compression and eq) then reverbs, chorus, etc.

In the end, the tonality and sonic character of all plug-ins change dramatically once general levels are set. What may have been a good reverb sound, tested before the recording process is closed might well be wholly inappropriate for the final mix.

For me, and it’s only me, the whole process is: Record raw. Finish all recording and close that door. Do a pass or two getting a reasonable level on all tracks. Add any plug-ins of your choice. Begin final mix.

As an addendum, I always prefer to do my first pass level settings with the same input levels across the board, preset. I do this personally with the Sonimus A-Channel plug-in. It’s a silly powerful plug-in that not only allows for simple input level settings but also can add a subtle punch to the track. It’s beyond its abilities reasonably priced and draws almost nothing from the CPU consumption. Just my two cents but it’s an easy and safe recommendation for purchase.

[Glennwillow]

I always record everything dry and then add various effects after the fact using various plug-ins.

I even record my electric guitar signals dry, just the raw guitar output going onto the track and then the amplifier is added using a plug-in such as Guitar Rig.

- Glenn

[b1j]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

I always record everything dry and then add various effects after the fact using various plug-ins.

I even record my electric guitar signals dry, just the raw guitar output going onto the track and then the amplifier is added using a plug-in such as Guitar Rig.

- Glenn

Glenn, so far I haven't had much luck with the one amp emulator I've used: Ampire, native in Studio One. I suspect this is a learning curve all to itself.

[DupleMeter]

I do like a little reverb in my headphone mix, but I don't print it. The one exception would be if I were using it as a special effect that I had carefully dialed in & wanted to preserve as part of the performance. But that's not typical.

[b1j]

I’ve close-listened for signs that I double-reverbed any part of that section before I noticed I’d forgotten to disable it on the track. There’s no evidence that it happened. I suppose it’s because the reverb wasn’t on the track itself, but in a send to the shared reverb bus. When I remembered about it, I just disabled the send and finished the tracking.

So now that I know that sends have no risk of printing on the track, I guess, in the future, I could hear reverb (or compression or EQ) while tracking if I wanted to. But I really prefer to hear the unaltered sound anyway. It’s cleaner and more precise. I don’t want to obscure the sound and risk playing sloppily in hopes that the plug-ins will smear it out. For background vocals, though, who knows?

This has been a nice little learning tidbit.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by b1j

I’ve close-listened for signs that I double-reverbed any part of that section before I noticed I’d forgotten to disable it on the track. There’s no evidence that it happened. I suppose it’s because the reverb wasn’t on the track itself, but in a send to the shared reverb bus. When I remembered about it, I just disabled the send and finished the tracking.

So now that I know that sends have no risk of printing on the track, I guess, in the future, I could hear reverb (or compression or EQ) while tracking if I wanted to. But I really prefer to hear the unaltered sound anyway. It’s cleaner and more precise. I don’t want to obscure the sound and risk playing sloppily in hopes that the plug-ins will smear it out. For background vocals, though, who knows?

This has been a nice little learning tidbit.

OK but to clarify a bit further (The bad news is different DAWs have used different nomenclature for the some of the automatic features and this lack of standardized naming has contributed to confusion rather than helping eliminate it ) OK rant over

So it sound like you are describing what is called a "parallel" effects track-- in this case a parallel reverb effect track

And yes the reverb is not on the source audio track , the reverb sits on what is actually an AUX track and you "SEND" audio signals from the source audio track/s to the AUX track via a Send and a Bus


But that is not the reason it is not being "printed" , it would not matter if the reverb is on the source audio track itself OR on a parallel AUX effect track. Because the effect of the reverb is in real time "Nondestructive" mode until you either export or bounce the mix -- OR you Render/Commit/Freeze that Aux tracks output... Or you record that AUX reverb tracks output to an additional audio track (in which cases it will be printed into the audio file __Make sense ?



OK moving on

So from a universal signal flow visualization perspective I find it helpful to think in terms of visualizing plumbing

So think of copper plumbing in a house
#1 a send is like Tee and shutoff valve in a vertical copper pipe with the signal flow coming in the top and continuing out the bottom and then the tee and valve going horizontal out the side So the Send is the Tee and Send level is the shutoff valve and the horizontal pipe coming out the side of the tee and going someplace else is the BUS

[Riakstonic]

I don’t know what I’m saying so …
I record with verb but I mostly just do solo acoustic at times I multi track if things get to muddled I can always change the reverb settings or turn it off .

I never got the hang of sends yet so again I digress . lol [emoji23]