Just wondering if it's usual to add reverb to metal rhythm guitars, and if so what sort of settings are recommended?

I'm working on some mixes in the vein of Killswitch Engage or As I Lay Dying, going for that big american sound. The (double-tracked) guitars are close-miked and dry, SM57 near the cone and a condenser about a foot away. There's little to no room sound on there, for the simple reason that I don't have a nice sounding room. That said, the results are better than I expected given the equipment I'm working with.

I know that the trick to this sound is a good valve amp and cab, cranked right up, but I don't know how much room sound you'd normally get, or if reverb would be added anyway.

Cheers!

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hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

Personally I'd never put reverb on those sorts of guitars. And unless the mics were exactly the same distance from the cone I'd almost always bin the condensor. But of course it's impossible to say without hearing it.

J

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www.jackruston.com

Typically I'd have them bone dry. If the mix suggested it I might be tempted to some early reflections, a small room, or maybe a short delay.

I like to use early reflection clusters as a short 'smudged' delay, rather than a single repeat. For rhythm guitars I may well have the dry to one side and the reflection to the other - it all depends.

But yeah, mostly just dry.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Dry they will stay, then.

Know what you mean about multi-micing, Jack. What I've ended up with sounds better with both mics than just the SM57 alone, though, and I've got them phase-aligned. Of course, "better" is still not necessarily "good"...

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hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

No if you've got it better, then good it is. It's just that normally I find that it gets mushy with multi mics at different distances in that sort of music where there tend to be a lot of layers.

J

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www.jackruston.com

I usually have a small or mid room as an external bus on the whole mix bus that gets printed to jel the whole mix together, usually with a very low settings so it is not much noticeable.

Peter Tangtren (probably my favorite metal producer) adds quite a bit dark reverb but in such a subliminal way that it doesn't add the 80s dated sound to the mix but beefs it up and makes it bigger. Check out Hypocrisy to see what I mean.

Personally on some mixes I'd also do short to mix room and feed them opposite for bigness. If guitar is panned hard left I pan the verb hard right and vice versa. I've been known to add big room or concert hall settings in some instances and get away with it if you mix it "subliminally". What I mean by that is if you hear the reverb, you've applied too much.

Another thing you can try is reamp or feed through monitor speakers and capture the room with a big concender or maybe two in stereo configuration and feed that back in as your guitar reverb.

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www.descentintomadness.com

I'm definitely going to see about adding some reverb to the whole mix. Hypocrisy aren't my thing, exactly, but I do like the Abyss sound.

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hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective