I’m a composer, so I just use Audacity for some basic editing of my pieces for a more polished presentation of the audio. At the moment, I’m writing a piece for a local film, and I’m looking to use a certain type of reverb that I’m not sure how to create in Audacity. The reverb I’m looking to create is a very vast ‘outdoor’ sound. The type of reverb you’d imagine if a person was standing on a cliff of the Grand Canyon and yelling. For a better reference, I’ve included a link to one of my favorite songs, which happens to use something similar to what I’m explaining. The song is called “Durban Skies” by Bastille, simply click the YouTube link!There are certain parts that don’t use what I’m looking for, but It’s very prominent in the verses and the chorus
I know I’m spoiled rotten, but the “Canyon Echo” effect sounds like somebody trying to do a canyon echo effect from a voice in a small room.
Anyway, You can get some of that by splitting the stereo voice into two (separate L and R) with the drop-down menu on the left of the track. Then offset one side versus the other with the Time Shift Tool, (two sideways black arrows). Experiment. It will sound seriously weird if you go too far. Try to go later rather than earlier. Audacity doesn’t always like it if you push a sound track earlier than 0 time. If you think about that for a minute, pushing a normal track to the left means you sung a note before you sung it. Twilight Zone Moment.
Then apply Effect > GVerb lightly to each track, maybe using slightly different settings.
Then, when it sounds more or less like you want, you can File > Export the work and Audacity will smash it all into one stereo track, or you can use the left-hand drop-down again and Make Stereo Track.
DO NOT do production in MP3 or other compressed format. Stick to WAV or Audacity Projects until the final posting on the internet or your Personal Listening Device.
I’ve extracted some portion of the song, the lead voice is now on the left side and reverb and all doubled voices are on the right side.
The overdubbed track is perhaps about 6 dB lower, quite unusual.
Do you have the newest version of Audacity? The new reverb effect is superior to the old one.
Make a separate track with the reverb alone, thus you’re able to control it better, e.g. by the gain slider or per envelope tool to make it more prominent at the end of phrases. The echo effect is surely also a good idea for an environment such as the Grand Canyon.
Or the movie version of the Grand Canyon. The real thing is on average ten miles wide. “HELLO!” and come back in 20 minutes. You have time to get coffee.