Hey guys, Eric Tarr here for theproaudiofiles.com.
In this video I'll be demonstrating how to use reverb very subtly at the mastering stage
to blend together your final mix.
So far I've used the iZotope Ozone 5 plugin to do some simple spectral processing to remove
unnecessary low frequencies and high frequencies.
In this video I'm gonna move on to the reverb module.
But here's what i've got so far.
[music being mastered]
If you're working in a home recording studio, especially if you're working primarily in
the box, it's likely that most of the signals you recorded are very dry and lack the ambiences
normally captured in a large studio.
The good thing is some great software reverbs including the one in Ozone 5 that make it
possible for all these signals you record to sound like they were performed in an acoustic
space.
One issue that comes though when you're working primarily in the box is a lot of the sample
libraries and cabinet impulses that you're working with were all recorded in different
spaces.
Therefor it can sound like all these instruments and singers weren't in the same room when
they actually recorded.
And this can make their performance sound unnatural.
So what you can do is add in some very subtle reverb at the mastering stage that's gonna
bring the whole mix together.
So let's get to the reverb module.
I'll turn it on here.
First thing I want to point out and the warning that I have for you is it's very easy to overdo
reverb when it's across the full mix.
Now if you're trying to add in as a perceivable effect you should focus on doing that in the
mixing stage not in the mastering stage.
So if you find yourself wanting to overdo it, go back and do it in the mixing stage
and then come to the mastering stage and focus on how you can do it very subtly to blend
everything together.
So first control I'll show you is the wet mix and dry mix control.
I'm gonna start out the wet mix here, this is just the level of the reverb, and this
is the dry mix, just the level of the unprocessed signal.
I'll blend it in all the way up to 100 — you can hear what's happening it immediately washes
out the whole mix and that's not what you want to end up doing but it's obvious to hear
so I'll do it to show you.
[music with reverb]
So eventually, it's my conventional way of using it that I only bring about 20 to 30%
here and I'll come back to this later on after I figure out how I want my reverb to sound.
The good thing is, with Ozone 5, you have all kinds of different controls and reverb
types that you can really dial in a reverb that fits well with your song.
While I'm doing that I'm gonna switch on the solo wet button which just allows me to only
listen to the wet only without hearing any of the dry.
So here's what it sounds like only reverb.
[wet reverb solo]
Next it's just a matter of using the controls to find a reverb that you think will fit well
with your song.
There's different modes over here, anything from a room — has a very short decay time,
more of an intimate sound — which is probably gonna fit well with my pop/rock song.
All the way up to an arena, which has a much longer reverb time, which probably won't fit
with my song.
Maybe you would want to use it for more of a huge rock kind of sound where you're going
for that larger than life sort of feel.
But here I'm gonna focus on the ones that have the shorter reverb times: the room, the
theatre, and the plate.
So I'll switch on these, listen to them.
What I'm primarily listening for when I'm switching between them is which reverb fits
well with my song, which instruments are more accentuated when I go from one to the other,
which frequency ranges are being more accentuated from one type to the other, and then it's
just a matter of using these other controls: decay time, to figure out what's gonna match
my song particularly well.
[different reverb types]
So right off the bat I noticed the room has some nice things going on in the upper-mids.
The theatre is very wide and also has some low-mids that are louder than the other parts.
And the plate is very very bright.
A lot of high frequencies.
So, I think the one that I like the best is the room.
I'll focus on this and it's just a matter of dialing in the decay time.
Again, I don't really want it to be very long because it's more of an intimate pop/acoustic
song.
So, and then I'll also play around with the low frequency decay and high frequency decay.
[music]
Next up is a width control.
This is if it's the stereo image of the reverb.
It's gonna be all the way to the left and the right.
Or if you want it to be very much in the center.
Now, I'm gonna try out a couple different things for this song and see what works.
My initial intuition is that I want it to be very close and very narrow because it's
more of an intimate song.
But I'll try out both a narrow and a wide one.
[song]
For now I'll start out with it being more on the narrow side of things.
I'll come back to this when I bring in the rest of the unprocessed signal and see how
it's fitting altogether.
Last thing I'll show you before I get to that then is the EQ processing that can take place
up here.
I normally try to do this because I find with the reverb things like reverb on the kick
drum can sound too boomy, and reverb on the cymbals — especially at the final mixing
stage here, in mastering — these can be a little bit too bright and harsh.
[music]
So next I'll turn off solo wet so I can bring in the unprocessed signal mixed with the wet
signal.
From what I'm hearing, I think that 20% on the wet mix control is plenty.
So what I'll do now is turn it on and off and you can hear very very subtly how it's
bringing everything together, but it's not doing anything to wash out my mix or be too
much of a prominent perceivable effect.
[wet/dry adjustment]
Again, this idea of adding reverb at the mastering stage it a great technique to use especially
if you're working a lot in the box, where you have these different signals with different
reverbs that can all sound different.
It's a good idea to bring it all together and use a single one across the full mix.
Again, don't overdo it.
Bring it in subtly, just as everything you would do at the mastering stage.
SO stay tuned for the next video where I'm gonna move on to the harmonic exciter module
and show you how you can use it to bring some life to your tracks.