It turns out there are thousands of meaningfully different reverb algorithms, parameters to those algorithms, and hardware curation of access to those parameters via their chosen knobs.
And most of those combinations will yield a result that are objectively reverberation, but subjectively “meh”. You just have to keep exploring till you find a type or variation you like.
Once you have that down, you may find when coming back to some old, meh reverbs you now know how to tweak them to get them into the zone of “that kind of reverb I like”. But it’s real hard to get there from scratch, in my experience.
So if you don’t like the reverb on a thing you have, I wouldn’t be afraid to something wiht a different take, try it out, and if you don’t like it, sell it. Buy another one. Try it out. Reapeat. There’s a reason Reverb is called Reverb
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a 100% dawless person at all. I edit and process stuff using Reaper all the time.
And Reaper comes with about 1,000,000 free or practically free reverb plugins, many of which sound great.
But that’s kind of its own problem. The choice paralysis of them all, and the settings of course being completely different from one project to another.
Plus every time I open Reaper I have to deal with the mental strain of the 5 other unfinished projects left over from the last time I shut it down, and all their misplaced source files.
So much easier, psychologically, to just have a box that sits on my desk that I can plug into, along with a notepad with my favorite settings.
I agree with a lot of that though. There also aren’t enough good deep dive, advanced reverb shaping tutorials that I’ve seen which are not geared towards specific plug ins or software.
this is the headache right here. mentally drifting towards feeling like you were making more progress on something in another window yields terrible results in the present window.
I would pick up a used TC Electronic Hall of Fame V1. They go for pretty cheap nowadays, sound great and have plenty of algorithms. That will definitely give you more options than the 404. Option paralysis in DAW land is real.
Eh, sorry about that. I have one open project that is getting to be almost a year since I last touched it and I feel worse about ghosting it than I do about ghosting some real-life friends.
It’s 10 different takes of the same song. There are at least 3 fairly decent takes and probably 4 absolute shite takes and no matter how many times I’ve sat down to go through them I can’t seem to just pick one. They all have little nuances in their favor, even the shite.
So I’ve decided to ignore that project. Now it stares at me in agony, wondering when it’ll be completed.
Meanwhile, my wife just told me to stop wasting disk space.
Don’t have time to read thread, but from OP —if you need something for live or hardware inspiration, the Source Audio Ventris is amazing… can’t recommend it highly enough.
If it’s just studio / recording, better to invest in something from Liquidsonics — Seventh Heaven and Cinematic Rooms are both incredible. Or on a serious budget, NI Raum is good.
I can relate and I wasn’t trying to cut you down with my comment, it was not intended to be a jab. I just say what comes into my head because I’m less concerned about decorum than I am about expression you could say. but at the same time negativity breeds more negativity, that’s where things like CBT can help break the cycle of defeatism. Not saying you need to do anything like that but for your health and your productivity sometimes you have to shift the way you see it. The track is something you like and want to finish, it’s difficult because you care about it. It’s not difficult because you are deficient or you are ignoring it, you are treating it with respect by waiting to do your best on it.
Anyways, this thread is about reverb not mindset so take it with a grain of however the saying goes.
Oh, I didn’t take it as a jab; just didn’t want anyone to think I’m in a bad mental place, which you could easily read into that metaphor.
But you’re right. I think in both cases (getting a really good sound from the 404’s reverb and finishing my cover of Bowie’s “I’m Deranged”), the solution is the same: Put in the work and stop waiting around for an outside thing to fix it.
In other words, time for me to stop typing and start listening. Thanks again, everyone!
I don’t think you have to look at it like that. do it when you’re ready, just don’t beat yourself up about not being ready, or when you are ready don’t beat yourself up about not being ready before due to feelings about reverb or the like. no worries either way
I think there are some projects that I keep putting off finishing, not because they’re problematic or difficult, but because I enjoy working on them too much.
I know that if I really do pick a final take and mix it and everything, that will get me one step closer to the project being done, which means I won’t have a reason to play that song anymore.
I never had this problem with visual art because there’s a point when you’re making a woodcut that you start running out of wood to cut, or on a drawing when the paper just won’t hold any ink anymore. My visual art has always “told me” when it’s complete. But with music, I can just keep working forever.
I wonder if a lot of people do this without realizing it. Auden said that a poem is never really finished, only abandoned. Which is also a dark way to think about it.
But at some point you have just be happy with what you’ve made and move on.
it’s ok to be a narcissist every once in a while, there’s nothing that says you can’t continue to enjoy a song when it’s done. there’s nothing that says you can’t go back and change a song which you called done. nothing wrong with enjoying the sound of your own work. what did austin powers guy say? everyone likes their own brand, don’t they.
Yeah, that’s one of the things that kind of bugged me about using the 404’s reverb.
I hate when I hear an atmospheric effect in a recording that I can easily recognize, at least when it’s supposed to sound “natural” or mimicking the real world. It’s like the audio equivalent of bad greenscreening.
So I’m worried that the 404’s reverb sounds really specific and recognizable, since the effect I’m going for is a transparent one.
Specifically on the 404 side of things, I have to say despite being a die-hard Roland fan/apologist, I’ve never liked their reverbs. To be fair, I think that’s because I’m almost always pushing for an ambient/atmospheric kind of bloom and in Roland’s mind, this it the domain of chorus and delay, not reverb.
I guess this makes sense. They’ve traditionally used reverb as a “naturalistic enhancer” to make raw PCMs or dub tape loops “feel more real” or “sit in a space”. And actually, this — to at least some extent — could be what you’re after! So definitely play around with it.
But also, if you don’t get to something you like, don‘t assume it’s because you’re doing it wrong. It could just be it’s the wrong kind of reverb (or, you know, Roland sucking at reverbs generally )
This is indeed what I’m after, but, to @Dr.K’s point, unfortunately I think making a baritone voice “sit in a space” is a much taller order than a PCM or a scratchy bit of tape.
Still going to try to experiment. So far the results have been so-so, which is actually kind of a good sign given only a few hours of tweaking.
If there’s an answer, I think it lies in using all 4 busses (though maybe not all in-line), to stack layers of very gentle EQs and quiet reverbs that each have different bandwidths.
