Effects Processor Articles
Using Effects Processors - Reverb and Acoustics in the Studio |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Feb 26 2008 |
The studio environment is usually the ideal location to capture the most sonically faithful representation of an artist’s music. With so much control over variables such as microphone type and position, sound isolation, equipment choice and the ability to try as many takes as the performer is willing to give you, the studio offers a stable recording environment not often found in even the most professional of live venues.
The only issue with studio recording is the fact that some of the important contributions made by a concert hall or dark, dank pub to the actual sound of a band is completely absent. This contribution most often takes the form of the way that the shape, materials and positioning of a venue’s walls reflect sound. These reflections create a sensation of depth and space when heard by the human ear in a recording. Interestingly, the human mind uses these characteristics to assign a sense of vitality to music and speech. Sounds that are recorded in acoustically flat locations that don’t impart any specific characteristics are referred to as ‘dead’ recordings.
Herein lies the conundrum: how to maintain control over the sound in your studio without ending up with a flat recording? The solution is actually quite simple. While it is of course desirable to record a musician or vocalist in a room that is devoid of reflections or noise which would detract from the purity of the take, there is no need for the recording itself to not exist in it’s own carefully controlled sonic ‘space’. The way to engineer this environment for your track is with effects processing – specifically, by using reverb effects.
Digital reverb effects technology uses a series of complex equations to create a virtual sound space within which to place the performance you are recording. It allows the engineer to place their signal into any type of space they are looking for – concert hall, bathroom, tunnel, wide open field – in order to find the perfect sound. An effects processor calculates how far away the various walls of this virtual space are, how long it will take the sound to get to those walls, and then how long it will take for the sound to reflect back to the listener’s ear. It also controls the rate of signal decay – that is, the length of sustain a reverberating sound will have before it drops out of the mix. Almost all reverb effects units also have a feedback control which allows the engineer to overdrive the signal, and a wet/dry control which affects the balance between the unprocessed and processed signal.
Effects processors can also emulate the classic analog reverbs which are still popular, such as spring reverb or plate reverb, both of which involved sending the signal through specially arranged steel implements in order to achieve the desired effect. The advantage of a digital effects processor over these older forms of reverb is that you have much more control over each variable. It is also far simpler to apply reverb to a digital track after the fact, giving you the option to experiment with the level of ‘wetness’ that sounds best in your mix. Reverb is one of the most basic weapons in an engineer’s arsenal, and it can be applied to as many or as few instruments as you feel are necessary to achieve the sound you are looking for.
Last changed: Feb 26 2008 at 9:15 AM
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