Adding reverb to hi-fi
William Sommerwerck wrote:
My feelings on all acounts. So the more important question
is how to get the reverb OUT of all these recordings, rather
than add more.
Not necessarily. Believe it or not, synthesizing (or extracting) ambience
actually makes the recordings sound _less_ reverberant.
(I duck, because missiles will soon be flying. But it's true.)
No missiles from me. I agree. I once compared a basic stereo
recording of an acoustic jazz ensemble to the same piece run
through the ambiance synthesizing circuitry of one of my
Yamaha surround amps. (This experience involved reviewing
recordings for my first record-review book, High Definition
Compact Disc Recordings, and the comparison was as easy as
pressing a button.) While there was no change in overall
ambiance, there was a change in where the ambiance appeared
to be coming from. It was moved from just up front to all
around me. In addition, the sound from up front actually
GAINED in clarity. I even had my wife give the two versions
a listen and she (who normally considers audio
experimentation as foolishness) agreed with me.
Howard Ferstler
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