Front-Back Mix (Reverb)
I've just started reading a book titled This Is Your Brain On Music which was written by a musician turned producer turned neuroscientist named Daniel Levitin. I'm really into learning about the science of music at the moment. I've recently read two other books on this topic: Musicophilia & Music, The Brain, and Ecstasy.
It's a very good sign that I'm going to really love this book that on page two of the introduction I've already found something in it that "clicked" with me to the point where I want to share it here.
This little tidbit may be quite obvious to most of you reading this, and it probably should be obvious to me but for whatever reason I never quite thought about it like this.
The author was talking about listening to music on headphones for the first time and he wrote about how he could clearly hear "the placement of the instruments both in the left-right field and in the front-back field (reverberant) space."
It's that bit about thinking of the "front-back field" in that way that got my attention. This is something I already know really (a dry sound is more up front while a reverb sound is farther back) but yet it still seems like a revelation in a way. Like something that will help me when I'm doing my mixes. To think not only in left-right terms but in front-back as well.
What this really leads to is thinking more clearly about when and how to use reverb. I've already been experimenting with different amounts of pre-delay on my reverb lately and how that can make a huge difference in the sound. And reading this makes me want to go further with this experimentation.
As you can surely tell, this blog post is not really meant to be a "how to" lesson from me (like some of my other posts are.) This is more about a cerebral thing just to get you thinking (and to try to get whatever I'm thinking more clear to me.) I love thinking about mixing in different ways. I think that this can help open up new possibilities.
It's important to be open to learning new things and to be open to looking at what you think you already know from new perspectives. To never think you have it all figured out. I've noticed that some people are inclined to thinking they've got it all figured out when they've really only scratched the surface and this keeps them from progressing. Don't fall into this trap! (I say this to myself as much as to anyone reading this entry.)
Tags: Reverb
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