54 replies to this topic

[barrettisgold]

Hello fellow music makers!

I just wanted to let people know who didn't already, forgot or just need some inspiration when making music. The reverse reverb! It's all over Stadium Arcadium and used in abundance on the Empyrean. I planned to test it out for ages but only got round to it today. I had a spare hour and did a little improv to test it. I've attached an example. The track is just a acoustic guitar and electric with reversed reverb. It isn't mastered and is an mp3 but you should get the idea.

Here's how to do it:

1. Record your track dry (guitar, drums, vocal, etc)
2. Reverse it
3. Route it to a bus with a reverb on (100% wet)
4. Route that to another audio track, record enabled.
5. Hit record, and the reverb track will be written to disk.
6. Reverse both dry and reverb track.
7. Disarm record and decide if you want you dry track still routed to the reverb, depending how you like it!
8. Try filtering the reverse reverb with a low-pass filter for extra Frusciante stylee!

Oh yeah, almost forgot. You'll probably have to shift the reversed reverb to line up a bit better with the dry track otherwise there can be quite a gap between them. I added autopan to my reverse reverb for a bit of movement.

Attached Files

•  reverse_verb.mp3   1.71MB   232 downloads

[bonusnoise]

I use reverse reverb all the time. Even before i heard john use it.

I currently do all my reverse reverb on logic 8's plug in space designer.

As John stated on the japanese interview he used an EMT 250 and AMS RMX16 for all reverbs.

For cheaper modules, i'm going to get a Yamaha SPX90 as used by My Bloody Valentine for their reverse reverb shoegazing

[bonusnoise]

Nice track BTW.

[sawtdk]

barrettisgold, on Feb 6 2009, 08:20 PM, said:

Hello fellow music makers!

I just wanted to let people know who didn't already, forgot or just need some inspiration when making music. The reverse reverb! It's all over Stadium Arcadium and used in abundance on the Empyrean. I planned to test it out for ages but only got round to it today. I had a spare hour and did a little improv to test it. I've attached an example. The track is just a acoustic guitar and electric with reversed reverb. It isn't mastered and is an mp3 but you should get the idea.

Here's how to do it:

1. Record your track dry (guitar, drums, vocal, etc)
2. Reverse it
3. Route it to a bus with a reverb on (100% wet)
4. Route that to another audio track, record enabled.
5. Hit record, and the reverb track will be written to disk.
6. Reverse both dry and reverb track.
7. Disarm record and decide if you want you dry track still routed to the reverb, depending how you like it!
8. Try filtering the reverse reverb with a low-pass filter for extra Frusciante stylee!

Oh yeah, almost forgot. You'll probably have to shift the reversed reverb to line up a bit better with the dry track otherwise there can be quite a gap between them. I added autopan to my reverse reverb for a bit of movement.

Cool, hadn't figured that out. Can't wait to try it...

[out_circuit]

Very cool, thanks! It's weird because I never thought of doing reverse reverb on guitar before Frusciante did it. I've only heard on metal albums on their vocals (sepultura, territory). Nice song, very beautiful.

[Ouranon]

Another way to do it would be just recording the reverb of the normal forward track on an audio track (same way as barrettisgold described it, with a bus as input and 100% wet) and then reverse this reverb track (and shift it to the left till it sounds good).
I was just wondering if it makes any difference to record the reverb from the forward or the backward instrument. But I don´t think so...

btw: nice track, barrettisgold!

[Licou]

Ouranon, on Feb 6 2009, 09:48 PM, said:

Another way to do it would be just recording the reverb of the normal forward track on an audio track (same way as barrettisgold described it, with a bus as input and 100% wet) and then reverse this reverb track (and shift it to the left till it sounds good).
I was just wondering if it makes any difference to record the reverb from the forward or the backward instrument. But I don´t think so...

btw: nice track, barrettisgold!

It could sound pretty similar with guitar when doing it both ways but then im not sure. If its done with vocals you get what the vocalist is about to say in reverse echo before he says it. If you just recorded the echo from the foward track and reversed it you'd get reversed words in the echo. But doing it the other way you get the words the right way round.

Those units that john uses look massive... http://www.dancetech.com/aa_dt_new/hardwar...0_plate_top.jpg and http://www.shorefire...ges/amsrmx1.jpg. I was thinking of getting a cheapy effects unit for reverbs and stuff but it seems most of the cheap stuff isnt really that good and using a pc would probably get you better results anyway.

[CAP0 CRIMINI]

Thats cool, I never knew the existene of reverse reverb but its sounds amazing, can hear where the Fru man uses it now!

[ezionretaw]

yehan.jehan, on Feb 6 2009, 11:40 AM, said:

For cheaper modules, i'm going to get a Yamaha SPX90 as used by My Bloody Valentine for their reverse reverb shoegazing

thats a great unit.
production friend of mine has it in his studio and its an indispensable tool to achieve that mbv sound.

[barrettisgold]

I'm glad people liked the example and found the idea helpful. It's great to see people are already using this technique but in a different way. Something I love about recording music is there are so many paths to reach the same goal, each can yield a slightly difffering result. I mean how many distortion, wah, delay, etc. effects out there that do the same thing but have a different sound? The same goes for approaches to recording and routing the signal.

I would love a decent outboard delay. I've been close to owning an EMT (Digital and Plate) several times, too tight fisted to secure a unit though! The Alesis Quadraverb has always caught my eye as a cheap unit. If I had the cash I'd like a lexicon. I have 2 spring reverbs that are great at their thing. Of course there is the holy grail with its terrible ADC and DAC converters. Come to think of it, I'd get an EMT plate if I had the cash AND the space! I'm happy with convolution for what I do at the moment though. It's more than enough.

[mercimer]

Hi, could somebody please explain bussing? I'm not overly talented when it comes to computers and end up having to do it in a lot more steps, and a lot more painfully! Help would be nice, cause I'm sick of computers by now after all the turns ive had with mine!

[Laura]

barrettisgold, on Feb 6 2009, 04:20 PM, said:

Hello fellow music makers!

I just wanted to let people know who didn't already, forgot or just need some inspiration when making music. The reverse reverb! It's all over Stadium Arcadium and used in abundance on the Empyrean. I planned to test it out for ages but only got round to it today. I had a spare hour and did a little improv to test it. I've attached an example. The track is just a acoustic guitar and electric with reversed reverb. It isn't mastered and is an mp3 but you should get the idea.

Here's how to do it:

1. Record your track dry (guitar, drums, vocal, etc)
2. Reverse it
3. Route it to a bus with a reverb on (100% wet)
4. Route that to another audio track, record enabled.
5. Hit record, and the reverb track will be written to disk.
6. Reverse both dry and reverb track.
7. Disarm record and decide if you want you dry track still routed to the reverb, depending how you like it!
8. Try filtering the reverse reverb with a low-pass filter for extra Frusciante stylee!

Oh yeah, almost forgot. You'll probably have to shift the reversed reverb to line up a bit better with the dry track otherwise there can be quite a gap between them. I added autopan to my reverse reverb for a bit of movement.

Wowzers...that's a lot of stuff to do to get that effect! I'm simply too lazy to go through all that so I'll just enjoy the music of those (like you) who work hard to make cool sounding stuff. I just wanted to say that I realy like the mp3 you posted...great playing! Post more stuff!!

[sawtdk]

mercimer, on Feb 7 2009, 03:04 AM, said:

Hi, could somebody please explain bussing? I'm not overly talented when it comes to computers and end up having to do it in a lot more steps, and a lot more painfully! Help would be nice, cause I'm sick of computers by now after all the turns ive had with mine!

Basicly it's just when you route/send a tracks signal (or some of it) to another 'track' to put it through more processing.

However you can still have the unprocessed track go to the output at the same time...

[barrettisgold]

You can send multiple tracks to a bus. For example, when you have many tracks they are sent to the output bus and can all be controlled with your master fader. An aux bus is great for effects because you can put a reverb on it and then choose how much signal of your audio tracks you want to be effected by the reverb. So rather than using a separate reverb plug-in for each audio track save your CPU processing power and use a bus.

I mixed the example in MOTU's Digital Performer. It is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Audacity is a different beast, it's a wave editor and recorder. You can achieve the same result, although it is less flexible to tweaking the sound later on. I just worked out a workaround for one approach to doing it in audacity. I don't have access to a reverb in audacity so used a short delay, which sounded great too! Delay time around 80ms, feedback around 80%, slight modulation. Whatever you like basically

1. Import/record dry track.
2. Duplicate or import the same audio file again onto a separate track.
3. Reverse the duplicate audio.
4. Add reverb (100% wet).
5. Reverse it again.

Voila!

[RokasLTU]

Nice track!

[Ares]

can anyone help me with reverse reverb in reaper? somehow i can't get it to work...

[RHCPkingFrusciante]

barrettisgold, on Feb 7 2009, 11:19 AM, said:

You can send multiple tracks to a bus. For example, when you have many tracks they are sent to the output bus and can all be controlled with your master fader. An aux bus is great for effects because you can put a reverb on it and then choose how much signal of your audio tracks you want to be effected by the reverb. So rather than using a separate reverb plug-in for each audio track save your CPU processing power and use a bus.

I mixed the example in MOTU's Digital Performer. It is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Audacity is a different beast, it's a wave editor and recorder. You can achieve the same result, although it is less flexible to tweaking the sound later on. I just worked out a workaround for one approach to doing it in audacity. I don't have access to a reverb in audacity so used a short delay, which sounded great too! Delay time around 80ms, feedback around 80%, slight modulation. Whatever you like basically

1. Import/record dry track.
2. Duplicate or import the same audio file again onto a separate track.
3. Reverse the duplicate audio.
4. Add reverb (100% wet).
5. Reverse it again.

Voila!

how would i do the delay bit because it doesnt come up the same as you have explained it on audacity. Is it audacity 1.3.7 beta you've got?

[barrettisgold]

RHCPkingFrusciante, on Feb 8 2009, 09:25 PM, said:

barrettisgold, on Feb 7 2009, 11:19 AM, said:

You can send multiple tracks to a bus. For example, when you have many tracks they are sent to the output bus and can all be controlled with your master fader. An aux bus is great for effects because you can put a reverb on it and then choose how much signal of your audio tracks you want to be effected by the reverb. So rather than using a separate reverb plug-in for each audio track save your CPU processing power and use a bus.

I mixed the example in MOTU's Digital Performer. It is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Audacity is a different beast, it's a wave editor and recorder. You can achieve the same result, although it is less flexible to tweaking the sound later on. I just worked out a workaround for one approach to doing it in audacity. I don't have access to a reverb in audacity so used a short delay, which sounded great too! Delay time around 80ms, feedback around 80%, slight modulation. Whatever you like basically

1. Import/record dry track.
2. Duplicate or import the same audio file again onto a separate track.
3. Reverse the duplicate audio.
4. Add reverb (100% wet).
5. Reverse it again.

Voila!

how would i do the delay bit because it doesnt come up the same as you have explained it on audacity. Is it audacity 1.3.7 beta you've got?

Did it work with the reverb? I'm using Audacity 1.3.6. The delay I used was a soundhack free plug-in, part of the delay trio. I think just the +delay one. I hope this helps.

[yuge89]

hoooooly moly after much tinkering in audacity i got it to work and it is an awesome tool to have in your arsenal. To RHCP king if you go to the audacity website you can download ladspa plugins which is what i did and install them into your plugins folder. These plugins include something called plate reverb, set the wetness all the way up and then just follow barretisgold's instructions. Thanks alot for this tip barrett I'm definitely gonna be using this one.