HOW DO I TAKE REVERB OFF RECORDED TRACKS?

[Max Ventura]

I have some 5 songs that were recorded in audio on my DAW, of which I don't have anymore the MIDI files. At the time, for lack of savvy, I had recorded many of the track, coming from a MIDI module/workstation, with some reverb and some tempo-aligned delay added, so the effect got printed.

Yesterday we were mixing them with the singer, and we figured out that, with the vocals added, the amount of ambience was such that the whole thing seemed lacking presence, punch and urgency.

In short, I'd like to figure out how to "dry up" as much as possible recordings that have been printed with reverb/delay on.

I understand it's not technically possible, but might there be a way to disguise it? Extreme gating is not an option because the sounds are quite long, sustained, and we don't have too many short hits besides drums and bass, which are fine.

Also, re-recording them dry is not an option either. I'd grow old in the process.

I wonder if there's anything I can do to the individual tracks (mostly keyboard pads and leads) or to the whole mix? And / or to the vocals?

Please help.

[masternfool]

You can try a multi-band enhancer..instead of enhancing it can also reduce the reverb field by using phase...mono may not work..HB

[Emile]

Maybe to make things more focused you could use some of the tracks in mono (instead of stereo) by dropping a channel or making it just loud enough that your loud channel doesn't feel totally hard panned (use headphones for that) and pan them (the different parts) from each other. Cutting some low mids in the 200-600 Hz range might get some accumulated mud out. Cutting highs to get rid of the swiiiiishh of the reverb if there's any and although you've mentionned it some tracks (the leads) could use some gating. Maybe drop some parts periods. You're going for a compromise so it is always going to bug you to a point. Good luck!

 

Emile

[Max Ventura]

I'll try that-thanks.

[WFTurner]

I've manually got rid of reverb foolishly recorded while tracking

on some old 15-18 year old analog vocal tracks using mainly the

graphic fade function in Sound Forge but I'll tell ya that'll make

you grow old in a heartbeat. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif

 

Of course when ya work on an old system like I do and have to add effects in a destructive manner and don't make a backup of

the cleaned up track and then make it too wet again.... that'll make ya downright bitter;(

 

I did two tracks ruined one got one good one.

I figure the world is just gonna have to listen to Mr Gruffy's Voice. Much easier to

retrack em!

 

------------------

William F. Turner

Songwriter

turnermusic

 

This message has been edited by WFTurner on 06-06-2001 at 08:38 AM

[wilpye]

Argomax, I've got a thread going about correcting the tuning of rec. guitar tks. And that's cool, but of interest to you is a reply posting that gave me a pointer to a site about the removal of echos. Check it out

www.aspi.com

[Hippie]

I have little experience trying to remove reverb/delay, but I have read in the Waves plug-in user manual, that a downward expander will sometimes help with this. Hopefully, I will not ever need this; I've never had very good results trying to bring something back to a prior version. I usually wind up with something worse than when I started. Good Luck,

 

-Hippie

[archibald3]

I`ve had this problem before and i found using a gate on the parts helps alot-just tweak it to where its not effecting the track in a way you don`t like but its cutting off alot of that garbage. arch