Is Recording With Reverb Really Harmful to Your Audio?

Another reader writes in with a question about recording with reverb:

I always seem to add a slight reverb or echo effect when recording guitar
or voice….It seems to smooth it out…It’s not overdone I feel, but I’ve
read this is a mistake? Why would it be.

Now, there is a part in Recording Strategies (www.recordingstrategies.com) that goes over some of the reasons why you shouldn’t record with reverb, but I’ll elaborate.

Recording Without Reverb

The reason you shouldn’t record with reverb is because once that sound is on your guitar track, it’s never coming off.

It’s even worse than tattoos. Not even with lasers are taking tha echo off your vocals.

Consider the production. If you haven’t thought through all the parts of the arrangement and the production, the feel of the song to something different.

What then?

You want a dry sound that you can manipulate, IF you aren’t 100% sure how you want the final mix to sound. If you’re recording in a really great room then you can always throw up an extra room mic to capture that reverb.

This doesn’t pertain to live recordings with everyone in the same room though. Then you just get what you get, room sound and all. If you’re overdubbing or recording every instrument after one another, you should be careful to keep it as dry as possible.

Recording With Reverb

“Know Your Enemy” by RATM without the tremolo effect turned on? That effect is the essence of the whole part, and without it that song would just sound weird.

So that’s the gist of it. If you wrote the song with a specific effect or echo in mind, then don’t go out of your way to record it dry. It’ll just sound weird.

But if you’re not sure how the song is gonna sound, keep it dry. Simple as that.

I only touched upon this briefly, so if you want to know more about recording with reverb or without, or using space in your mixes, check out Step By Step Mixing: How To Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins.

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