Cleaning up excess reverb in a mix

[grazz16]

Hey guys,

I have a confession to make: i'm a bit of a reverb junkie. For whatever reason i just tend to use a lot of it. The problem with this is i start to get "nickel and dimed" by the reverb for space in the mix as the amount of tracks im using increases. The result is things can start to sound muddy and individual sounds become harder and harder to pick out. Its not like things are a complete mess, i just find it tends to make for a less "tight" mix.

So i have a dilemma: I like the effect reverb gives of getting things to sit in the mix properly. I think its pretty much essential to have in there. But if i dial back the reverb things just tend to sound too dry and not cohesive. Is there a way to clean up reverb after the fact using EQ or something, or some other trick I'm missing here to cut back on the amount of reverb that just stacks in the background? I'm already EQing each track to cut the unnecessary frequencies, but beyond that im not sure what the secret is.

Could this also be a problem with mixing on cans? I find I'm having a hard time accurately judging the depth of the sounds sometimes because everything is "right there" in my ears. Could this also be messing with my judgment of how muddy things actually are? Studio monitors are shipping as we speak, so maybe that will help some

[PjAndreasson]

I tend to cut all the low-mid frequencies and only have the high ones (in abletons reverb). I do this because I don't want the reverb to fight against the low-mid frequencies and because it sounds more "airy" and "sparkling". Sometimes I decrease the size and the stereo abit because sometimes the reverb gets too "muddy" and "big".

[tekneeq]

Not sure if this will work as I don't use reverb excessively, but try sending your tracks to a reverb on an aux channel. This will allow you to EQ each individual sent track as well as EQ the reverb itself.

[grazz16]

I tend to cut all the low-mid frequencies and only have the high ones (in abletons reverb). I do this because I don't want the reverb to fight against the low-mid frequencies and because it sounds more "airy" and "sparkling". Sometimes I decrease the size and the stereo abit because sometimes the reverb gets too "muddy" and "big".

yes i forgot to mention i definitely do that as well, that actually helps a bunch as well for creating space

[josephy]

Not sure if this will work as I don't use reverb excessively, but try sending your tracks to a reverb on an aux channel. This will allow you to EQ each individual sent track as well as EQ the reverb itself.

This is definitely a good idea and can help a lot with giving your other channels room. Having all your reverb tails on one bus also gives you the opportunity to sidechain compress or gate them, as desired.

[alchemy]

Use sends and returns this will allow you to maintain the dry signal as well as the effect signal without drowinng the original sound.
Use different kind of reverbs, delays, with different settings, short, long. etc.

Also, when you feel it sounds well, lower it

[grazz16]

if im using sends, can i adjust the individual parameters for the reverb per track though, or am i stuck with the parameters and just sending the amount of signal? For example what if i want the dry/wet on one track to be greater than another? If im only using one reverb on the send channel, how could i adjust one without affecting the other?

[tekneeq]

You can vary the reverb by adjusting the send level. Although I like to work with a couple reverb aux tracks as well as delay aux tracks.

[josephy]

if im using sends, can i adjust the individual parameters for the reverb per track though, or am i stuck with the parameters and just sending the amount of signal? For example what if i want the dry/wet on one track to be greater than another? If im only using one reverb on the send channel, how could i adjust one without affecting the other?

You can have as many sends as you want, with a different reverb on each one. If you're using reverb as a mixing tool and not as much as an effect, keep in mind that reverb is used to locate a channel in the mix--generally (and not going into frequency responses, etc.) being that the more reverb you add the farther away it will sound.

You can then locate two different tracks at the same depth in your mix by sending them to the same aux send.

Also, generally speaking, you always want the dry/wet knob on your effects sends to be 100% wet. Like Unique Freak said, you vary the amount of the effect based on the send level.

[Xonetacular]

Use sends and returns this will allow you to maintain the dry signal as well as the effect signal without drowinng the original sound.
Use different kind of reverbs, delays, with different settings, short, long. etc.

Also, when you feel it sounds well, lower it

All reverbs have a dry/wet control which does the same thing.

Send/Returns only exist from the days of hardware mixer consoles where you wouldn't always have an individual hardware reverb unit for every channel to share one reverb or other effect unit on multiple track.

There are still reasons to use them and sometimes it is simpler but you can achieve the same thing as inserts and busing sounds if you prefer working like that. I tend to use both.