Well, I’m done with the editing on my project, and now for the sweet sweet candy of applying effects. What I’d like to do is basically run all the tracks (spoken word poetry plus backing track) through the same reverb, adding just a touch of verb to the backing track and maybe a bit more (or maybe a lot) of the same verb to the vocal to put them in the same sonic room together. It seems doable in Audacity, but I think I’m reaching the limits of Audacity’s comfort zone here, since ideally I would just run the tracks while tweaking some knobs in real time until I’m happy. But that’s not how Audacity rolls.
Currently I have my dry vocal cloned to a duplicate so I can verb the dupe. The backing track is actually a finished piece of music mixed, made, and mastered by someone cooler than me, so I don’t want to step on that track’s toes too much. I’ve already spent a lot of time in the editing phase keeping the clip monster at bay, so I’d hate to go back to square one.
Looks like I’d have to clone the backing track and try to apply the same verb to the backingclone as to the vocal, then mix the two verb tracks as per usual. I guess I’ve got it figured out, but I’m hoping to learn how to be smooth about it.
Even though I’ve been spending time with the Wiki page on the Gverb, I’m still getting a lot more boingycloingy reverb than I want. What I want is hard to notice unless you take it away.
Would anyone care to at least enlighten me on what the Gverb settings do? What they’re for? The Wiki isn’t really helpful on that. For example, if I want to squash that cloing, which setting is responsible for it? tail? Room size? Usually I’d just fuck with the knobs until I figure out what’s what, but again, Audacity defeats that. No realtime.
Should I download Reaper or something? I friggen don’t like reaper.
I’m a little fuzzy here, but I think there are other echo/reverb tools we sometimes recommend. GVerb as one wag put it, is a good tool to make a reverb tool. Not a show.
The default reverb time for GVerb is huuuuge. Reduce that to between 1 and 2 seconds.
When you have your 2 “Dry” tracks (music and vocals) and your 2 duplicate “Wet” tracks (with reverb), go to “View > Mixer Board” and mix the 4 tracks together as you play the recording.
The most common mistake that people make with reverb is to use too much of it.
Indeed. I find myself wanting an effected sound for my project, but I actually don’t. I want the vocal (hell of a lot more like a podcast voiceover) to “pop” from the backing track and be very, well, legible, but that’s a word for written printed things. I’ve gotten a lot of help from the Wiki, and the best thing I’ve found with Gverb is to turn the level of the early reflections and tail level waaaaay down. That cuts out ninety percent of the yucky stuff.
What I’m left with are verb tracks that are nearly all verb, plus a bit of dry level. Again, following the suggestions in the Wiki.
When I started playing around with verbing the backing track I got stuff so ridiculous (clip city), that I actually liked it. Stick a pin in that idea for later. For anyone following the thread, right now I’ve got a clone of my vocal track, and I’ve split my stereo backer, so there’s left and right clones of that. I’ve found a reverb that goes nice with the vox, and applied all the same settings to all the clone tracks. If you look at my verb tracks, you’ll see very little waveform as there’s nearly no dry signal, just the reverberation. Important. If you just verb clones with high levels of dry signal you end up doubling your original levels and have to turn everything down. It all sits okay together, and sounds decent. But I want just a little more magic, so I think it’s time to go try some of these other verbs I keep hearing about.
I think the “magic” you’re missing is stereo : Gverb is a mono reverb : there is no crossover of the Left and Right channels which would occur in the real world.
Solution: use a stereo reverb effect, e.g. Anwida which adds crossover when applied to a stereo track, (whether you like it or not).
Messing with Anwida right now. The “magic” I’m looking for is one of those I’ll-know-it-when-I-hear-it things. It may not be in the reverb. Stereo helps, but what I’m hoping for may not be in the verb. The more I work, the more I realize that I want a subtle verb. I keep turning what I’ve got (Anwida) way down. I think my quest has gone beyond the technical now, and into that unknown land of musical endeavor where one’s reach exceeds the grasp. I want to make it even cooler somehow. Join the club, I’m sure.