Advice needed for applying Reverb/Echo effect

[AjnabiZ]

Hello

I need some help in trying to replicate the following audio effect in the video here, its sutble:






Here is another audio, i like the reverb/echo effect in it as well, the effect in this one is a little pronounced:






I tried using Sony soundforge, and applied the following setting. But it did not come out like the one above. Do i have to use another software such as Cubase elements or any other software to achieve the above results ?

http://static.zooomr.com/images/10102680_e19f5bfed9_o.png


Can anyone help ?

[budwzr]

As the saying goes, "It's not the gear, it's the technique".

That first sound was hand crafted, not simply applying a reverb effect. The "echo" floats out to the ears while the voice stays centered.

[AjnabiZ]

As the saying goes, "It's not the gear, it's the technique".

That first sound was hand crafted, not simply applying a reverb effect.

Do you have an idea of how it was achieved ? Could it be achieved with Soundforge ?

[budwzr]

Don't know. I don't use SF that much.

I would say the voice was de-essed, and cleaned up real good first though.

Some possibilities might be:

Mono recording was doubled into stereo.
Some reverb was applied to each channel and panned separately.
A VST effect maybe.

[AjnabiZ]

im taking a look at Ableton, just found a tut on youtube of its reverb effect. Ill give it a try .

[chowmein]

The second one sounds like it has quick "one-step" delay applied, and then a reverb. The reverb doesn't sound anything too special to my ears, just a standard "hall" or "cathedral" verb maybe? There are many free reverb VST plugins out there.

[budwzr]

im taking a look at Ableton, just found a tut on youtube of its reverb effect. Ill give it a try .

Ableton is good, I use it a lot. It's especially good for voice. Might take you a few days to get used to it.

[AjnabiZ]

im taking a look at Ableton, just found a tut on youtube of its reverb effect. Ill give it a try .

Ableton is good, I use it a lot. It's especially good for voice. Might take you a few days to get used to it.

I am testing the reverb effect, and i think i am getting a hang of it.

Its pretty easy and its also quite thorough effect unlike soundforge's reverb effect.

Just going through the following article

http://abletonlife.com/understanding-ableton-lives-reverb

and the following youtube video explaining the reverb effect:

[budwzr]

Yeah, I was going to mention a fast decay because it stops fairly close to the ears.

Did you notice in the first piece? The echo doesn't travel far.

Do you have a sample monologue?

[AjnabiZ]

Yeah, I was going to mention a fast decay because it stops fairly close to the ears.

Do you have a sample monologue?

I have a simple recording without any effect, im trying the reverb effect on it and trying to come as close as possible with the video effect in the 1st video i posted.

Are there any good quality Free VST reverb plugins ?

[budwzr]

Yes, just google for them.

[budwzr]

Can you post a short sample? I'd like to give it a try too.

[Cornucopia]

Maybe convolution reverb (using impulses found from some cool, REAL mosque/temple/church/cathedral/auditorium).

Way back when, prior to DAWs, I did the same thing by taking a recording to a venue, playing it back on stage through good speakers, while re-recording the output from the back of the hall. (You can do some REAL WEIRD stuff if you do both at 1/2 speed!!).

Scott

[AjnabiZ]

Can you post a short sample? I'd like to give it a try too.

Here is the test file without any effects:

http://www.mediafire.com/?q3a3lhtea5e11dd

Thanks for giving it a try.

Just received my Zoom H2n, and Wavelab Le is included in it for Free. Ill try it as well.

[AjnabiZ]

Maybe convolution reverb (using impulses found from some cool, REAL mosque/temple/church/cathedral/auditorium).

Way back when, prior to DAWs, I did the same thing by taking a recording to a venue, playing it back on stage through good speakers, while re-recording the output from the back of the hall. (You can do some REAL WEIRD stuff if you do both at 1/2 speed!!).

Scott

Check this one, its through the speaker system live:

[budwzr]

Can you post a short sample? I'd like to give it a try too.

Here is the test file without any effects:

http://www.mediafire.com/?q3a3lhtea5e11dd

Thanks for giving it a try.

Just received my Zoom H2n, and Wavelab Le is included in it for Free. Ill try it as well.

Can you just post 30 secs here? I don't let scripts run in webpages. How's that new Zoom looking? And smelling? hehehe.

[AjnabiZ]

Can you post a short sample? I'd like to give it a try too.

Here is the test file without any effects:

http://www.mediafire.com/?q3a3lhtea5e11dd

Thanks for giving it a try.

Just received my Zoom H2n, and Wavelab Le is included in it for Free. Ill try it as well.

Can you just post 30 secs here? I don't let scripts run in webpages. How's that new Zoom looking? And smelling? hehehe.

The zoom h2n is quite good, the teacher was very pleased with it : ). I got the accessory pack with it as well.

Just tested it as well.the recording is very clear. Still have to test it in the Hall with all the noise in the background, and see how it goes.

I have attached the audio test file here:

[AjnabiZ]

Here is an advice i received regarding achieving the above result, from someone on Youtube:

Basically in those video the audio engineer is using some long reverb and delay.

About the reverb:

I would have to play around with some settings to know for sure, but right now it sounds like he is using a very long tail. Most likely something 3-5 seconds or longer. It also sounds like he is dampening the highs and bit and also attenuating the lows. Also give yourself a healthy amount of pre-delay on the reverb (50+ms).


About the delay:

I think he is using a stereo delay with some different settings for the left and right. It does not sound too big of a difference, but perhaps 10-20 ms differences or less. He also seems to be filtering the delays as well. Cutting some of the really highs and some of the lows (so it gives it that muffled a bit, echo).

I would guess he is using a medium to long delay, but since the reverb is so long it is hard to tell for sure; but you can almost hear the passage get repeated in the echoes (just muffled a bit) so I would imagine he is using something quite long.

I wouldn't be surprised if he used more than one delay. One shorter with a decent amount of feedback and one really long one with almost no feedback to just repeat the previous passages but filtered.


You can do all of this in Cubase without any additional plug ins; the factory plugins in Cubase are fine. Just make sure you put the delay before the long reverb.

[budwzr]

Here's a first pass try. There's a lot of noise from moving the mic or handling it. OOps, my own mic was open and mixing in, hahaha.

Did you record that sample? With the H2N? Are you going to record your project in stereo then?

[budwzr]

I managed to squeeze some intro music for your video:

[AjnabiZ]

Here's a first pass try. There's a lot of noise from moving the mic or handling it. OOps, my own mic was open and mixing in, hahaha.

Did you record that sample? With the H2N? Are you going to record your project in stereo then?

Thanks for taking time out in trying out the effects.

Its very sutble, i like it. But the effect shifts in at around 10 secs into the audio.

What were the settings you used ? Can you take a snapshot of it.

I just recorded a test audio of my teacher and I played around with the effect in Ableton.

[AjnabiZ]

I managed to squeeze some intro music for your video:

There is no plan on including any music into it.

Its purely vocals only.

[AjnabiZ]

Any advice on using which Bitrate recording ?

44.1 or 48 kHz with 16bit or 24Bit ?

[budwzr]

I kicked in the effect at 6 sec. so you could hear the difference. AFA bitrate, it doesn't really help to go past 44/16 for voice, but Scott would know more than me.

There is a lot of noise in your sample. I thought it was my mic, but no, it was in your sample. Remember not to touch the mic when recording. The Zoom is VERY sensitive. And you need ABSOLUTE silence during the recording session.


[Attachment 9355 - Click to enlarge]

[Cornucopia]

Will get back to you with an example attempt next week...

re: what settings,
If you intend CD output, 16bit, stereo, 44.1kHz will be your output.
Most all else, 16bit, stereo, 48kHz will be your output.

What you INPUT is determined by you, but for good quality you always want EQUAL or BETTER than the final output.
So that means, 16 or 24bit, and this depends on your needs. If 16bit, processing will have very minor quantizing error noise added but exporting to output is more fast like a file copy. If 24bit, processing will have extremely low quantizing error noise (which will probably get removed when downrezzing to 16bit at output) and you have more headroom with which to adjust volume/dynamics, but you HAVE to downrez (and wait the convert times) to get to 16bit output. (If you do go this way, make sure you dither when downrezzing)
Usually, if you have the drive space available, and can wait the little bit extra time involved, 24bit is much more pro/highquality.
Wouldn't change the sample rate to higher (88,96, etc) since you're only doing speech. 44/48k is plenty good for that.

Scott

[AjnabiZ]

I kicked in the effect at 6 sec. so you could hear the difference. AFA bitrate, it doesn't really help to go past 44/16 for voice, but Scott would know more than me.


[Attachment 9355 - Click to enlarge]

How do i get the Speech Echances and the Echo plugin which you are using ?

What are all those FA_112 audios ?

[budwzr]

Only the first column is active (your sample) with those two plugins. They're in the Live Devices/Audio Effects/Audio Effects Rack/Voice Processing folder.

The "fa112" stuff is just me fooling around with different loops. Ignore that.

Ableton is not technical like other software because it's geared toward sampling and performing music live. Not so much toward Sound Engineers.

[AjnabiZ]

Only the first column is active (your sample) with those two plugins. They're in the Live Devices/Audio Effects/Audio Effects Rack/Voice Processing folder.

The "fa112" stuff is just me fooling around with different loops. Ignore that.

Thanks Ill take a look at those

How do i pause and play the audio file from the same position of pause ?

Whenever i press spacebar, it stops and starts from the beginning of the audio file.

[budwzr]

Use the loop selection tool and highlight a selection. I never tried to pause anything, so don't know.

[AjnabiZ]

Use the loop selection tool and highlight a selection. I never tried to pause anything, so don't know.

Guess im used to the audio editor a bit.