Recording - September 2015 - 47

Rooms & Verbs
Over the past five decades or more,
engineers who either can't or don't want to
record bands together in a great-sounding
room will instead isolate the instruments,
record them cleanly, and then use artificial
reverb to put them all in a common space
so they feel like they're playing together.
To that end, engineers have used whatever tech was at their disposal to create
these artificial spaces. From sealed rooms
with speakers and mics in them to large
vibrating metal plates or groups of
springs in metal boxes to analog circuits
to digital algorithms, every step forward
in reverb creation has yielded more and
more realism, while the sounds of the old
methods are often retained because
they're simply beautiful as they are.
In this Pack, a process called convolution
is used to give us many of these reverb
types, all in one place. In convolution, a
loud sound (an oscillator swept through all
the audible frequencies, or a gunshot) is
recorded in a space, and the original sound
is then removed to leave behind a sonic fingerprint called an impulse response (IR). IRs
can be generated anywhere and with anything; in rooms, through analog spring and
plate reverbs, through digital effects, even
stompboxes. A convolution reverb can then
apply these IRs to any source you like,
putting it in that space.
The effects module at the heart of
Rooms & Verbs is a convolution reverb
with 50 different IRs ranging from buildings and rooms to an EMT 140 plate
reverb, digital reverbs by a couple of
very famous names, spring reverb from a
guitar amp, and much more. These IRs
are presented naked or nearly so; no
patch in this Pack has more than three
modules-reverb, EQ, and delay-and
most have only the first two.
The result is a collection of beautiful, realistic ambiences that can suit any kind of
mixing task. Tonally they're all wildly different from one another, and choosing what
works best for your stem or mix is half the
fun. If I had to choose favorites, I think the
plate reverbs are at the top of my list, followed by the larger spaces with plenty of
slapback like Echo Church and Stone
Chapel. Other presets are application-specific (Guitar Stage, Snare Chamber Plate)
or just fun (Station Wagon Front Seat, Tour
Van). While Lo-Fi may very much be a matter of taste, music in pretty much any genre
will benefit from a good recording space,
so Rooms & Verbs is a no-brainer if you
want to get the most from your mixes.
So
We love EZmix more with every new
Pack that comes out. From sweeping spaces
to deep-down dirt, these new offerings will
widen your palette, bring you inspiration,
and help you make better mixes. And isn't
that what this is all about?
RECORDING September 2015

47
http://www.prismsound.com/music_recording/studio_events.php http://www.prismsound.com/music_recording/studio_events.php http://www.pearlmanmicrophones.com http://www.pearlmanmicrophones.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - September 2015
