How to acheive the "reverb is pasted on" effect?

[jnorman]

i am trying to get that long-sought-after "recorded in a crappy small room with reverb pasted on it" effect for my classical mixes.

i tried a bricasti unit, but it sounded fabulous. i tried recording in a small bedroom, and using altiverb, but it still sounded way too good, though the dry tracks were a pretty good starting point.

then i tried the free reverb plugins that come with reaper - much better, but still too real sounding.

how can i get that "small room with reverb added a a cheap after effect" kind of sound i hear on all the telarc and delos recordings?

[jimjazzdad]

I am afraid you will have to wait until Behringer releases the much anticipated Brick Astor plug-in!

[king2070lplaya]

You need a Sony c800 and Avalon 737

[Storyville]

Do you have a plugin that emulates comb filtering, or perhaps a hum remover? Or you can do it with an EQ.

Grab altiver, use a small room setting. Then blend in the comb filtering. No combfiltering, use a hum remover and set the frequency over 100hz. Don't have that. Grab and eq and notch out mathematically relevant frequencies across the band.

Add a little distortion. Just a touch. Lo-Fi in pro tools is a good choice.

[rumleymusic]

Did you try Audacity Reverb? I'm sure that can suck up a storm.

[Uncle Russ]

Jim, go stand in the corner.

[jnorman]

fine.

i thought it was funny when i wrote it...

[jude]

cubase vst's "reverb b" should do the trick

[mixedupsteve]

PSP Piano verb is free and you can play around with all the settings. Also try Voxengo classic verb.

You could also just try the old fashioned way and stick a speaker and a mic in a crappy sounding room.

Ozone has an interesting verb I've used for sound effects. If you open the reverb section and check the "solo reverb" it sounds like the band is playing next door.

[jnorman]

"stick a speaker and a mic in a crappy sounding room" - now, there is a good idea! an OTB solution - it makes me feel all analogue inside...
this way, i can not only get the pasted-on effect, the reverb itself can suck as much as you need. and gob knows there are plenty of suck rooms to choose from. telarc, here i come!

[Graal]

Make the reverb mono.

If that alone doesn't do the trick, filter it.
Filter it anyways, especially in the highs.

Cheers.

[jnorman]

thanks to all for the thoughtful responses. i have now done some extensive research in the remote archives, and have noted that several of you have, in past threads, identified some of the most critical keys to getting this wrong.

first, you need to start with a poor performance.
next, you must record in a bad acoustic space.
then, you make a technically poor recording.
finally, you obliterate the entire effort with awful post processing.

so, here is my best try so far - what do you think?

[didier.brest]

Waow ! Did you record this at the Concertgebouw ?

[jnorman]

nope - schellingwoude, and it is surely the weak link in the processing chain. nice guess, though.

[mixedupsteve]

I recorded this a few years ago for use in a play I did the sound design on. A Tuna Christmas. I called a friend who is in a marching band and we did it in a fire hall. It took two takes because the first one wasn't bad enough.


http://soundcloud.com/stevepayne/tun...gh-school-band

[jnorman]

okay - listening back to the recording i posted above, i am still pretty disappointed.

of the primary elements -

poor performance - check
bad acoustic space - while the recording space was unfortunately okay, i think i overcame most of it with the post processing, so -check
technically poor recording - my personal forte - check
awful post processing - here is where i am still failing and could use some more assistance.

i can tell i need more work on the metallic, ringy early slapback reflections. while i was careful in capturing a delicate imbalance between the slapback and the "thor's chorus cave" applied algorithm, it is just not working for me. maybe i should just go ahead and move the slider all the way to the "phase whack" setting.

lastly, the reverb tails are still far too smooth. i tried to address this via conversion of the original file to a 56kbs mp3 file and then back to 2-bit wav 4 or 5 times, but alas, still not grainy enough.

can one of you please recommend a poorly designed, yet ridiculously expensive plugin to increase the grain in the tails? "thin watery stool" or "projectile vomit" modes would be an added bonus. i prefer plugins that have clever names like "tailer trash" or similar.

[jnorman]

mixedupsteve - yep, that makes it pretty clear that i still have lots to learn...

thanks for rubbing it in.

[npulsipher]

Originally Posted by mixedupsteve

I recorded this a few years ago for use in a play I did the sound design on. A Tuna Christmas. I called a friend who is in a marching band and we did it in a fire hall. It took two takes because the first one wasn't bad enough.


Tuna Texas High school band by StevePayne on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

sniffle... I was choking back tears listening to that. So... beautiful! Absolutely disgusting.

Bravo!

[Douglas Whates]

Originally Posted by mixedupsteve

I recorded this a few years ago for use in a play I did the sound design on. A Tuna Christmas. I called a friend who is in a marching band and we did it in a fire hall. It took two takes because the first one wasn't bad enough.


Tuna Texas High school band by StevePayne on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

I think I heard a couple of wrong notes in there...?

[Sheikyearbouti]

Or perhaps you can hire these guys to perform for you...
FF to 0:50 and enjoy! Than upload to Youtube for subtle mastering
Funny Anthem Of Russia - YouTube

p.s. This is an old video and has nothing to do with the tragic events in Syria.

[Boschen]

Have you untreated your room?

[daez]

I'm confused is this a thread about how to make your recordings sound crappy...

[jnorman]

daez - not exactly. there are potentially so many ways to make your recordings sound crappy, that one individual thread could never cover them all adequately.

and while i admit that the thread did start out with a question on how to make an existing recording sound worse by adding bad, overdone, cheap reverb to it, as i noted in my comment about background research, i had to finally conclude that part of the process MUST include the step of making the original recording as bad as possible too.

you cannot omit any single stage in the recording process in your efforts to reproduce the telarc/delos sound signature - each step, from poor performace, to bad recording space, to poor techique and cheap gear, to gob-awful post processing, is critical to getting ultimately terrible results.

it has already taken me several years to get as bad as i am, but i am still learning thanks to the many tone-deaf, bitter, failed engineers here on GS that are willing to share their lack of knowledge and experience.

[jnorman]

attn: steve remote -
you are by default, and as erstwhile leader of this misbegotten forum, included in the cadre of insipid, tone-deaf, bitter, failed engineers here on GS that are willing to share their lack of knowledge and experience. this is based largely on the fact that, by continually underpricing your services, you have pretty well destroyed the entire market for the rest of us. thanks a lot...

[basmartin]

Record vocals in a small booth, wardrobe size. Gives it a claustrophobic feel to it, that is almost impossible to repair in mixing, without drowning it with reverb.

[jnorman]

bas - danke for das additional shortcut to failure. every little bit counts!

[boojum]

Originally Posted by jnorman

it has already taken me several years to get as bad as i am, but i am still learning thanks to the many tone-deaf, bitter, failed engineers here on GS that are willing to share their lack of knowledge and experience.

You, too, huh. LMAO!!

How about hiring these lads to help out???

[didier.brest]

Originally Posted by boojum

How about hiring these lads to help out???

So nice !

[locosoundman]

Which Telarc recordings are you specifically referring to?

Sounds more like you are after the Deutsche Grammophone Sound...

[jnorman]

"Sounds more like you are after the Deutsche Grammophone Sound..."

ouch!