Good Gverb settings for song vocals?

[cosmiclight22]

First of all I wanted to thank you all, and especially :
Bill, for your important advise about Anvida, Steve for the effort to select a good settings with the Gverb and posting it, Trebor, for the additional useful input, all things that have highly helped me further to understand these techniques
WOW, i think i am finally getting somewhere now, you guys are great!!

Steve I have applied your settings to Gverb and I love them, I really like them, I also love the Anvida (yes, very elementary, for people like me) preset settings, i think the Fat Dark Room is the one that most fits my needs

When I apply the Gverb or the Anvida setting, the track graphic waveform of my voice, shrinks, rather than enlarging, (like when I amplify it) Is that normal?

If that is normal, how come that even if the sound is decreased (shrunk) it sounds like it has been slightly amplified, and becomes more dominant ---(especially over the music, when mixed with it) ?---- Is it my impression? Or it really sounds stronger and a tiny more dominant, even though, before applying the re-verb, the voice was a tiny louder?

Also is this the proper order to apply all these after recording the file:?
1) Amplify---2) Noise Removal---3) Soft Clipping---4) Equalization or Boosting---5) Gverb or Anvida?

Thanks a lot
Anna

[steve]

With the GVerb settings that I posted, the peak level should remain about the same, but may be a little higher or lower than the original. It's normal that it's not exactly the same. If the peak output level is much too low you can always use the Amplify effect again.

how come that even if the sound is decreased (shrunk) it sounds like it has been slightly amplified, and becomes more dominant

"Loudness" and "Peak Level" are not the same thing. Try generating a square wave (Generate menu) with an amplitude of 0.4 and a frequency of 1000 Hz and hear how loud it sounds, even though the peak level is very modest.

Also is this the proper order to apply all these after recording the file:?
1) Amplify---2) Noise Removal---3) Soft Clipping---4) Equalization or Boosting---5) Gverb or Anvida?

That should be fine. The most important step in there is that you apply Noise Removal earlier in the chain than Reverb. Generally Noise Removal should be done early as you are doing.

[cosmiclight22]

Thanks Steve
I hope you did not misunderstand me: I love the result of the effect, it makes my voice sounds louder anyway,

I just did not understand how could that be, as the waveform looked thinner, so thank for explaining and further suggesting to Generate a Square wave

When i click on the GENERATE menu,there a list of options: "CHIRP, DMTF TONES, NOISE, SILENCE, TONE, CLICK TRACK, PLUCK, RISSET DRUM"

Which of these options includes the the Square Wave feature, ? I tried the TONE option, put your values, but it turned my voice into a continuous ring sound, surely I did something wrong, or probably have misunderstood the purpose of it???

Thanks a lot
Anna

[steve]

surely I did something wrong, or probably have misunderstood the purpose of it???

The latter
It was just intended as an "experiment" or "demonstration" of the fact that the "peak amplitude" (maximum vertical height) of a waveform is not the only factor in determining how loud something sounds.

Perhaps I can describe a similar experiment, but in more detail, to illustrate this phenomenon (it does not relate directly to your recording project, it's just a demonstration to show that some sounds are louder than others, even if their vertical height suggests the opposite).

1) Open Audacity
2) Generate menu > Tone...
Settings:
Waveform = Sine
Frequency = 200
Amplitude = 0.6
Duration = 10 seconds
then click "OK"

This will generate a waveform into a new track. If you play it, you should hear a low "hum" type of tone.

3) Click on the [X] in the top left corner of the track to delete that audio track.
4) Generate menu > Tone...
Settings:
Waveform = Square
Frequency = 1000
Amplitude = 0.4
Duration = 10 seconds
then click "OK"

This will generate a new tone into a new track.
Notice that this tone is smaller vertically than the first tone, but if you play it you should notice that it sounds considerably louder as a penetrating "peeeeep" type of sound.

There's several factors that cause the second tone to sound louder, but two significant factors are (a) human hearing is more sensitive to frequencies in the range of the second tone than the (lower) frequency of the first, and (b) the second tone has more "energy", even though it has smaller vertical height than the first.

[cosmiclight22]

WOW, thanks Steve

I have to read your post over again few times, so my mind can grasp it effectively, but you made it easy for me, I read it briefly and I think i know what you mean, thank you for the effort to explain,

So you are saying that, even though the Gverb makes the waveform thinner, (and less loud) our ears can hear it more clearly and better, than before being enhanced with Gverb? Right? So that is good?

Do you want me to do the Generate Square form in a new track, before i record my voice, like to save the format? (like when I chose the font format in Windows before I create the document), or after recorded and--before applying the Gverb??
Or--none of the above, it was just for enrich my knowledge so i know the reason why it sounds more clearly after the Gverb? Don t laugh, i am trying

Thank you sooo...much
Anna

[steve]

it was just for enrich my knowledge so i know the reason why it sounds more clearly after the Gverb?

That's it

[Trebor]

When I apply the ... Anvida setting, the track graphic waveform of my voice, shrinks

Can reduce shrinkage by applying boost via the slider on the right of the Anwida controls ...

The slider on the right (I've coloured yellow) can give 3dB boost.png (47.31 KiB) Viewed 3838 times

[cosmiclight22]

WOW
I tried that,yeas, is amazing, it really does increase the boost a little bit, awesome, thats great
Thanks so much Trebor
Anna

[Trebor]

it really does increase the boost a little bit

You may still have to use "Amplify" after applying the reverb if it isn't loud enough.

[cosmiclight22]

TO STEVE or TREBOR,
I was advised previously in this forum , (thank you so much for that)
that if I want to boost my voice (before applying the Gverb) i can do through the Equalizer :

" If you want to deepen the voice (more bass), try boosting the low frequencies with the Equalizer"
And that " Bass are the = low frequencies = sounds below 200Hz (approximate)" and that I "could push up the sliders around 50-150Hz in the equalizer" to achieve this boost

I have been trying to do that, in the Equalizer-- but when I move the sliders, I cannot find a way to see when these frequencies are reaching the below 200Hz value, the numbers do not change,
there are two sets of sliders, the 2 on the left, (db) values---and then all the horizontal sliders at the bottom, with the Hz values, I do not know how to change the values of the latter and also I do not know where the dB sliders should be in order to achieve the result

About the BassBoost, there are : the Frequency and the Boost---where would the boost slider go for a slight boost, More to the Right? or to the Left? I have chosen the Frequency at 200 Hz --- and the Boost at 12 dB, I get a pleasant boost, but I do not know if is right or wrong...or if might distorted...---but the Equalizer is more of a problem understanding

So I wonder: is there a way you could come up with a similar settings (more or less) like the one you have posted below,(which was extremely helpful) but this time for the BassBoost and the Equalizer? (for a fairly voice boost) -- I know is not as easy for the Horizontal Slider of the Equalizer, but maybe just some general picture?? --would that be possible
That would be great if you could!!

For a fairly subtle vocal reverb using GVerb, try something like:

roomsize: 40
reverb time: 1.3
damping: 0.7
input bandwidth: 0.5
dry signal level: 0
early reflection level: -36
tail level: -30

Thanks a lot
Anna