Phantom Reverb: Taming Time-Based Audio Effects
Ok, I’ve got to be honest. Growing up in the 80’s, I love reverb. There, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’m going to address something in this issue that I refer to as Phantom Reverb.
Everything was huge the back in the 80’s: huge drums, huge guitar solos, huge hair, and so…huge reverb. I suppose the mix had to make room for the band’s big hair. But, alas, gone are the days of expansive, cavernous ‘verb in favor of a more natural room sound, focusing more on early reflections rather than long decay times. Today’s trend is to make the listener sense as though the band is right in his or her face. But some novice engineers, as well as some of us more experienced ones, can unknowingly fall into the trap of adding too much reverb, simply because they don’t hear it yet.
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