Recording an amp with reverb setting

[wildschwein]

Yeah I would just record it. More options with bone dry tracks you can process in any number of ways can be a blessing or a curse but it usually equals more indecision later on. You can also add a bit more sublte room reverb or delay later if needed. It's usually not a big deal.

 

[studio]

Thinking about electric blues guitar playing through an amp with reverb turned on. I suppose good recording practice is to keep the amp bone-dry and add reverb after the recording, Is this universally a good practice? Are there notable recordings that used reverb off the amp?

Two questions that haven't been answered IMO.

Larry: Is this a good practice? Universally, a good practice?
(recording dry)

Universally a good practice...no.
A modern recording approach? Yes!

Capitol Records didn't have a reverb room
until after the arrival of Frank Sinatra at
the Hollywood building. Even then, it was an afterthought.
So, IMO the room and equipment dictated the sound
of recordings firstly, historically, and accidentally.
Accidentally, like when John Lennon got feedback
from his guitar by bumping into his amp in the beginning
of I Feel Fine.

Larry: Are there notable recordings of amp reverb?

Sure. The Allman Brothers Live at Fillmore East.
Pick any song off that album!

Studio albums? I'm sure of it, but I'd have to
dig through my old REP magazines to be positive.
The old commissioned blues recordings had the
musicians in makeshift rooms or booths with
one mic, one take, before I was born.

When did reverb become a staple on amps?
Chess Records was full of guitar players.
I bet Chuck Berry used his amp reverb
and so did The Rolling Stones. John Lee Hooker too?

 

[24 track]

I know Chet atkins used to record dry but would monitor with reverb
the whole principal being that you can add reverb after the fact , but you cant take it out if its too much during the recording

guitar players have a different scope with reverb than engineers do , a guitar player uses reverb to smooth out the playing , an engineer uses reverb to simulate a given space or distance and dimention

Just listen to Roxy music Avalon with head phones on and you will hear an almost 3 dimentional use of the lexicon 244 reverb ( quite spectacular really)

 

[suthol]

Arm two tracks and record one wet and the other dry using a splitter and DI on one

 

[Boreas]

An artist works with his brush, paint, and canvas. Guitar is your brush. Amp is your paint. Canvas is your mind. Record a couple samples of your amp/mic setup (mixing paint), decide what works best for the song, then record it once (if possible). First take is often the best. If you hate the result after sleeping on it a while, re-record it, don't try to fix it in post. Perhaps a new brush or different paint will make a suitable result. I usually mic the amp AND the room. However, I record my bass clean, directly to the DAW because I don't own a good bass amp - or a good bass for that matter. I need more brushes and paint!

 

[Ben Harmless]

I'm gonna put this here, and then keep talking:


My feeling is that making recordings that evoke a bluesman wearing a fedora in a smoky bar in 1985 is valid - and probably best served by committing to amp reverb. Making a recording that sounds like John Lee Hooker in a wooden shack valid, and you should probably leave out the reverb entirely. Making a recording that sounds like you playing the blues in the Grand Canyon is valid, and would probably benefit from some epic reverb plugin. Making a recording that sounds like John Lee Hooker wearing a hat in a smoky wooden shack in the Grand Canyon being played through the jukebox in a bar in 1985 is valid, and maybe consider recording two amps - one wet and one dry.

If you wanna get really cool, find an amp that you can set to full-wet reverb. I think the Fender Excelsior that worked that way. A friend of mine has a solid state Silvertone that could do it. Record that with a clean amp and mix to taste. Also, reamping is valid so that you can choose how much reverb you want later, and then commit that to (virtual) tape.

 

[24 track]

Larry
one thing you may try ( I've had great results ) is to record the guitar parts on to 2 separate tracks 1) dry 2) effected to taste , then on play back blend the 2 tracks off center to each other ( 1 right 1left) then take the dry track and add about 10 ms of delay or a very slight delay , this will open up a 3 dimentional spacial thing ( sounds great for choruses to push a track just a bit)

 

[swervinbob]

I record everything without reverb, delay, etc..

 

[nedorama]

If it sounds good to you, it is good. I like the spring reverb on my Princeton Reverb and Dr. Z MAZ 18, but also like the dry sound of my Tremolux. Whatever you like is the right choice.

 

[loudboy]

Larry: Are there notable recordings of amp reverb?

Sure. The Allman Brothers Live at Fillmore East.
Pick any song off that album!

Were they using a standalone Fender Reverbs before the Marshalls? JMPs don't have reverb.

 

[studio]

Were they using a standalone Fender Reverbs before the Marshalls? JMPs don't have reverb.

You are so right!
I often thought Duane Allman played Fenders
because of the Fender amps he used mostly
in his studio gigs and with Eric.

Now, I'm gonna have to pick another album
that depicts amp reverb. Although, you can tell through
that live recording it sound pretty verbish.
Probably the venue coloration.

 

[T Prior]

As a few have stated above, TRACK what you hear , including reverb. Thats old school anyway. While I do use DAW Reverbs and delays, as I don't use an amp, I track direct thru preamps, I set my tones as I want them, thats what I print . The amount of time tweaking on the "backside" to seek the "Golden Tone" is now zero !

Here's a thought... Do we think Eric Johnson is using the studio DAW to create his Tones, Reverbs and Delays ? Or is he using his ICONIC multi amp setup and beyond crazy pedal board ?

 

[Cosmic Cowboy]

Fender amp spring reverbs are beautiful. If you are aiming for a different sort of reverb, a hall, or room reverb, those can be added in different ways.

The are some pedals that make a convincing spring reverb. The Toponga pedal is convincing, but they are few and far between.

The Helix suite added the Hot Springs reverb a while back. That is a nice verb. The Universal audio stuff has some nice verbs that are added 'post'.

 

[codamedia]

In my home studio I print my guitar tone... but there is always room to add more delay and/or reverb from the DAW. I don't use a lot of delay or reverb live, and in the studio is no different.

When I head into a session it's the call of the engineer/producer. Most want delay & reverb off but will print all other effects. At the same time, they always ask if I want a little delay or reverb in my mix to make me comfortable.

 

[kiwi blue]

Spring reverb is a very different sound to say a plate reverb or room reverb. It wouldn't be my first choice for giving a sense of room space to a track. It's more of an effect. So if you want that particular effect (eg, a surf sound), use the amp reverb. For everything else I would record dry, and feed a little reverb from a plugin into the monitor mix, then take care of the reverb in the mixing stage. That isn't "fixing" it in the mix, it's just mixing. It's part of making the whole band sound more natural, like it's in the same room together, and the reverb on a guitar isn't in isolation, it affects that whole sound and it affects how the guitar sits in the soundstage (eg, up front and punchy, or distant).

There is also the EQ aspect. Spring reverb reflections are usually too bright for my taste. A good reverb plug allows EQing of the reflections, usually to take out some highs and lows. That can be very quite useful in getting a track to sound right in a mix. Features like dwell time and pre-delay can also be useful. An amp's spring reverb is much more basic. You can make the reverb louder or quieter in relation to the dry signal, but that's all.

A lot of players (especially we non-pros) also use way too reverb much out of unthinking habit. I see this a lot in youtube demo recordings. And like just about everyone else, when I first started home recording I'd drench everything in reverb when mixing. It took a while to learn to dial it back and use it subtly.

So if a person is a beginner at recording and mixing, or doesn't have much recording experience as a player, I'd say record it dry and work on it in the mix. Some-one with plenty of recording experience can probably record amp reverb and print that with a fair idea of how it will sit in the mix. Even then I'd be inclined to be very sparing with it. You can add more reverb later, but you can't unrecord it.

 

[studio]

Spring reverb is a very different sound to say a plate reverb or room reverb. It wouldn't be my first choice for giving a sense of room space to a track. It's more of an effect. So if you want that particular effect (eg, a surf sound), use the amp reverb. For everything else I would record dry, and feed a little reverb from a plugin into the monitor mix, then take care of the reverb in the mixing stage. That isn't "fixing" it in the mix, it's just mixing. It's part of making the whole band sound more natural, like it's in the same room together, and the reverb on a guitar isn't in isolation, it affects that whole sound and it affects how the guitar sits in the soundstage (eg, up front and punchy, or distant).

There is also the EQ aspect. Spring reverb reflections are usually too bright for my taste. A good reverb plug allows EQing of the reflections, usually to take out some highs and lows. That can be very quite useful in getting a track to sound right in a mix. Features like dwell time and pre-delay can also be useful. An amp's spring reverb is much more basic. You can make the reverb louder or quieter in relation to the dry signal, but that's all.

A lot of players (especially we non-pros) also use way too reverb much out of unthinking habit. I see this a lot in youtube demo recordings. And like just about everyone else, when I first started home recording I'd drench everything in reverb when mixing. It took a while to learn to dial it back and use it subtly.

So if a person is a beginner at recording and mixing, or doesn't have much recording experience as a player, I'd say record it dry and work on it in the mix. Some-one with plenty of recording experience can probably record amp reverb and print that with a fair idea of how it will sit in the mix. Even then I'd be inclined to be very sparing with it. You can add more reverb later, but you can't unrecord it.

Can you show us one or two YouTube examples
of those demo recordings that use too much reverb?
Thanks.

Also, why are you watching such videos anyway?

Some people might like to sound spacey. It might
be part of their musical persona. Actually, some folks
might have a different spatial perception than the rest of us.

 

[studio]

So if a person is a beginner at recording and mixing, or doesn't have much recording experience as a player, I'd say record it dry and work on it in the mix. Some-one with plenty of recording experience can probably record amp reverb and print that with a fair idea of how it will sit in the mix. Even then I'd be inclined to be very sparing with it. You can add more reverb later, but you can't unrecord it.

I agree. The more one can hear themselves outside of
themselves the quicker it translates into what sounds
passable for everyone else's taste.

 

[Masmus]

Generally speaking you don’t record with reverb. It may sound great by itself but muddy in the mix. Normally you add reverb later and eq the bottom end to cut the mud. I once had a client send me a track he wanted added to a song that was already recorded and sent it to me with reverb on it already. I expressed my dissatisfaction but he said it sounded great. A month later he asked me to get the muddy sound out of that track. If you want the spring sound use a plugin so you can still eq it later.

 

[Ben Harmless]

I know that I responded above already, but I just kind of want to reinforce the point that as long as there have been amps with reverb, people have been tracking amps with reverb. People should art however they want to art, but having options doesn't make another one less valid. I promise that a lot of amps get tracked with reverb in 2022. A lot don't.

 

[klasaine]

I will agree with the poster that mentioned that a lot folks go WAY overboard when printing, and frankly just playing with reverb/effects - any and all effects. Be judicious. Electric guitar is one of the very few instruments where actually 'printing' fx is de riguer.