On 3/21/2019 5:45 AM, John Williamson wrote:
Many instrument players have their
own reverb built into the amp or their instrument, which they apply to
their playing as they see fit, so the rhythm and lead guitars may have
different settings, as will the bass and keyboard players.
This is getting around to my point. In this context, how is this
application of reverb different than applying a chorus effect, or
distortion, or a filter sweep? They all modify the sound for the
instrument. If the purpose of reverb - IN THIS CONTEXT - is to make the
guitar player sound like he's in a huge stone building, a sewer pipe, or
a bathroom, then we need to think about whether that makes sense
musically, regardless of reality. It's like playing a different guitar,
or replacing the guitar with a saxophone.
The vocalists
will also often ask the mixing engineer to add echo, chorus and other
effects to their feed.
That's not usually a musical or music production thing, it's to make the
singer feel more inspired and sing better. The producer or mix engineer
may add effects to the vocal when mixing, but that's also to change the
sound of the vocal because it focuses the listener's attention.
This doesn't just apply to recording.
From the audience's point of view, all these individual effects add to
the room sound, to give the sound of the live performance
No! No! No! No! The room gives the sound of the live performance,
because it IS a live performance. When watching a live show, we don't
want to think that the guitar player is in a cavern or the singer is in
the shower. We want them to choose the sounds that they want for their
instruments and not fool us into thinking that the bar they're playing
in is Carnegie Hall.
It has to sound good is the rule. Do whatever it takes to get a sound
that the producer, the engineer and the band are all happy with.
Yes! Yes! Yes! It's not about sounding like they're in a particular
space, its that it works musically. Using different amounts and
different characteristics of the generic reverberation effect on
different elements of the mix is just one technique to add some sauce to
the mix so the listener thinks it's something special. For some forms of
music, that's that the players sound like they're all in the same room.
For other forms of music, it's like each instrument has a unique
characteristic sound and bouncing around copies of the sound coming from
random or specific directions is a production decision.
Nick's projects mostly involve creating every instrument from component
parts. He can make whatever he wants. For my projects, the instruments
sound like they sound and there isn't much I can, or should do to change
them. And because all the musicians are playing in the same room,
obvious changes to that presentation would be distracting.
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