| Phantom Reverb: Taming Time-Based Audio | | | | and compression “cut off” (or at least |
| EffectsBy Clay Butler | | | | “push down”) the mountain peaks (loud |
| Ok, I’ve got to be honest. | | | | moments) so that they are close to, or even |
| Growing up in the 80’s, I love reverb. | | | | level with, the valleys (quiet moments). Then |
| There, now that I’ve gotten that off my | | | | everything is then pushed up together as high as |
| chest, I’m going to address something in this | | | | it will go. In essence, this process makes the |
| issue that I refer to as Phantom Reverb. | | | | quiet moments of the song perceivably louder, |
| Everything was huge the back in the 80's: | | | | and with it, the reverb. In the mix process, the |
| huge drums, huge guitar solos, huge hair, and | | | | reverb was very subtly sitting in the mix, where |
| so…huge reverb. I suppose the mix had to | | | | it was psychoacoustically “felt” more so |
| make room for the band’s big hair. But, alas, | | | | than actually heard. Whereas now, in the |
| gone are the days of expansive, cavernous | | | | mastering process, the reverb has swollen to |
| ‘verb in favor of a more natural room sound, | | | | where it is much more noticeable on a conscious |
| focusing more on early reflections rather than | | | | level. While this might not always be a big deal, |
| long decay times. Today’s trend is to make | | | | sometimes it can adversely affect an otherwise |
| the listener sense as though the band is right in | | | | good mix by making it sound dated. |
| his or her face. But some novice engineers, as | | | | The key to keeping the Phantom |
| well as some of us more experienced ones, can | | | | Reverb in check is to force yourself to mix in less |
| unknowingly fall into the trap of adding too much | | | | reverb than you think you need, knowing that it |
| reverb, simply because they don’t hear it yet. | | | | will appear louder once the track is mastered. |
| Although mixing engineers resist the | | | | Another trick that I use is to increase the |
| urge to crank the ‘verb in the mix stage, the | | | | output volume on my reverb unit, nudge up the |
| dreaded Phantom Reverb rears its head during | | | | effects return on the console, or increase the |
| the mastering process. Mastering engineers use | | | | volume on the bus I’m using for reverb in my |
| compression and limiting to increase the perceived | | | | DAW somewhere between 3-5db. Then, when |
| volume of a recording. If you think of the | | | | it’s time to print the mix, I’ll pull it back |
| dynamics of a song as a mountain range, limiting | | | | down. Just don't forget to pull it back down! |
