Gated reverb

[Mara]

This is twice in one day I've seen this used. Once while reading about Genesis, and again, just now in the thread regarding narration in Rush songs.

 

And Wiki does a crap job of explaining, so can someone please enlighten? I'm curious. . .

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

Reverb is what you hear when you're in a big open room without a lot of sound absorbing material, like a big stone church. You yell something, and it kind of softly echoes around -- or reverberates -- for a second. It's different than a hard repeat echo (ECHO ECHO ECHO). It's more smooth and ambient.

 

Reverse gated reverb is an artificial effect that makes it sound like that reverberation is happening in reverse before the note is struck instead of after. The vocals in the Hyperspace section of "Natural Science" is a good example. Listen how the first syllable of each phrase kind of fades in before the word is sung.

 

In the case of that Hyperspace section, the effect makes it sound like the vocals are taking a quantum leap forward, yes?

 

The gated part of it refers to how the effect is sharply cut off, as if a gate were closed on it.

 

If I didn't explain any of this right, I'm sure one of our studio gurus will correct me.

[Rush!]

I've also read that gated reverb was used mainly in the 80s for drums, which resulted in the very "big", heavy sound of the drums. I think it was used mostly on the snare.

 

Someone back me up on this.

[Godeater2112]

QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Jan 14 2009, 01:33 AM)

Reverb is what you hear when you're in a big open room without a lot of sound absorbing material, like a big stone church. You yell something, and it kind of softly echoes around -- or reverberates -- for a second. It's different than a hard repeat echo (ECHO ECHO ECHO). It's more smooth and ambient. Reverse gated reverb is an artificial effect that makes it sound like that reverberation is happening in reverse before the note is struck instead of after. The vocals in the Hyperspace section of "Natural Science" is a good example. Listen how the first syllable of each phrase kind of fades in before the word is sung. In the case of that Hyperspace section, the effect makes it sound like the vocals are taking a quantum leap forward, yes? The gated part of it refers to how the effect is sharply cut off, as if a gate were closed on it. If I didn't explain any of this right, I'm sure one of our studio gurus will correct me.

Nevermind. You're an awesome f**king explainer!

 

*applauds wildly with both reverb and reverse gated reverb*

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Ok, time for another lesson.

 

Reverberation is basically reflected sound within a defined space. The size, shape, and point of origin of the sound will determine how the reverberation occurs/sounds. Reverberation for recording purposes, or reverb for short, is used mostly to simulate space these days and comes in many flavors of hardware and plugins with varying calculations, algorithms and technologies. In early recording a studio would create rooms called echo or reverb chambers whose dedicated function was to have a speaker placed in the room and a microphone at a distance away. A signal was sent to the speaker and the sound reverberated within the room, was picked up by the mic and mixed in with the original signal and voila... Real reverberation! I did this early on in my recording endeavors using my parents bathroom and a small guitar amp. It was later discovered that a signal could be passed through metal springs or plates and the result was almost as pleasing and took up less physical space. These were the first hardware reverb units. Guitar amps still use spring reverbs today. If you ever use a plugin or hardware reverb unit with settings called plate or spring this is why. They are simulating those types of units. In the 1980's with the advent of digital technology we saw the birth of digital reverb units. Digital units were heavily programmed with algorithms to simulate physical spaces as well as spring and plate reverbs. Because they were made with what we consider today to be lower sample rates (another lesson) the sound of the first digital reverbs were often brittle sounding or harsh but still somewhat pleasing. Today we have quite an array of awesome reverbs that can actually simulate (or model) a real-life physical space. In fact Audio Ease's AltiVerb has an "impulse" for Allaire studios where Rush recorded Snakes and Arrows (the studio is now defunct unfortunately, but you can still use their main hall for your drums!). Reverb plugins are very CPU intensive because of the many calculations and simulated reflections, which are in essence a complicated series of delays (so technically it is numerous echos, sorry 1-0-0-1, they are technically the same effect. Then again most audio effects are creative delay settings; phase, chorus, flange, delay and verb.)

 

The second part of this particular equation is the gate. A "noise gate" is a fairly simple device and does exactly what it describes. It allows a signal to pass through. A level threshold is set and any signal above that threshold will pass through the gate and if the signal decreases the gate is closed. Imagine a gated fence with a spring and no latch. The spring keeps the gate closed until enough pressure pushes the gate open. Once the pressure is released the gate closes. Same deal here, only with audio.

 

Ok, now back to the 80's. Digital reverbs (well digital tech anyway) changed the way people recorded and mixed, drums in particular. You used to hear these massive snare drums on power ballads and such. Heavy rock probably over used digital reverb in the beginning, but it was very effective. Somewhere along the line someone discovered how to use a gate creatively with a reverb. Phil Collins used this technique quite a bit, as did Nile Rodgers. In the case of drums a gate was used on the reverberated sound, but used the signal of the drum itself (not the reverb) to open the gate (sorry this has to do with signal routing which is another lesson in itself). The gate was set to close quickly on the reverberated sound. This makes drums seem to "explode" within the sound field. This is still common practice today, but far less exaggerated than in the 80s. Nile Rodgers did something similar with David Bowie's vocals on the Let's Dance album where in setting up there was a main vocal mic and a distant vocal mic that was gated and fed to a reverb. When Bowie's vocal hit a certain volume level the distant mic would open up and the signal would pass through the reverb and his vocals would explode. Cool stuff!

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

QUOTE (CygnusX-1Bk2 @ Jan 14 2009, 05:17 PM)

...A signal was sent to the speaker and the sound reverberated within the room, was picked up by the mic and mixed in with the original signal and voila... Real reverberation! I did this early on in my recording endeavors using my parents bathroom and a small guitar amp.

"Natural Science" provides another example of that...the opening section's vocals featured natural echoes recorded off the mountains near the recording studio! They stuck speakers outside and recorded the echoes coming back. Crafty!

[Mara]

Thanks guys! You need to go in and redo the Wikipedia entry - you are much better at explaining!

[Jon]

QUOTE (CygnusX-1Bk2 @ Jan 14 2009, 10:17 PM)

Nile Rodgers did something similar with David Bowie's vocals on the Let's Dance album where in setting up there was a main vocal mic and a distant vocal mic that was gated and fed to a reverb. When Bowie's vocal hit a certain volume level the distant mic would open up and the signal would pass through the reverb and his vocals would explode. Cool stuff!

Small correction to otherwise great explanation: Actually, that was Tony Visconti (or perhaps Brian Eno - seems to depend on who is telling the tale) with Bowie's 'Heroes'.

Edited January 15, 2009 by Jon

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

I heard Nile Rodgers talk about it in an interview a while back.

[Jon]

QUOTE (CygnusX-1Bk2 @ Jan 18 2009, 11:49 AM)

I heard Nile Rodgers talk about it in an interview a while back.

Without wishing to be a smart arse, I've seen Bowie discuss the technique being used on Heroes, which predates Let's Dance by a few years .

 

It's pretty easy to hear on the recording and it's actually well documented, e.g. here:

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct04/arti...assictracks.htm

 

 

Might be where Nile Rodgers got the idea.

 

 

Of course this isn't 'gated reverb' as it became recognised in the 80s, as there the gate is actually slicing off the tail of the reverb.

Edited January 18, 2009 by Jon

[the masked drummer]

I hate gated reverb. That's the sound which became popular in the late 80's. Crappy effect that sounds dated imho. It distorts the natural decay and sustain of an instrument. Especially horrible on drums!