Reverb without the decay - choir recorded too close

[lfstudios10]

I don't even know if what I'm looking for is reverb. We recently recorded a concert of a choir with generally close micing. The conductor and director would like a further sounding sound as the whole point of the choir is not to be able to hear each of the individual voices. Simultaneously I'm not looking to make it sound like they were in the world's biggest concert hall. My problem is that there is always a long decay with reverb which makes sense. I need something (could be a reverb plugin or otherwise) that would accomplish what I am looking for. I am using Studio One to edit and have tried the built in verb plugins plus Waves IR-1.

 

[Txtech]

If you're open to trying something different, I'd suggest Audacity. The Gverb is really flexible and has a lot of utility. Plus, there are people who put their Gverb settings out on the Internet with descriptions of how it sounds. Just a suggestion.

 

[TimmyP1955]

With careful reverb preset selection and some tweaking, you should be able to make it sound as though the choir is in a living room, a train station bathroom, a small church, a warehouse, a cathedral, etc. The first thing that I usually do is to turn the early reflections, modulation, and pre-delay all the way down, and the diffusion all the way up. I fiddle on from there.

 

[museav]

Realistically, you may be able to do a lot with the recorded signal, however applying effects to a mixed signal is not going to be quite the same as a live experience. In a sense TimmyP is accurate in is saying that you should be able to adjust the Studio One Room Reverb controls to get different effects including reducing the overall reverb or decay tail, but if you are applying the effects to an overall mix then you are starting with the choir as a single source rather than being a number of individual sources spread out over some area. So in effect, instead of multiple sources with the room affecting each source individually and then all of that being mixed together you would be taking the sources and creating some mix to which some room effect is then applied. That may give a perfectly acceptable result, it just may not be the same as a live performance.

 

[pmolsonmus]

There's a lot of information that I would want before any advice. How many singers? How many mics? is it unaccompanied or with piano/orchestra/ rhythm bed? Are they tracked separately or one big mix that bleeds onto the other mics?

With reverb (IMHO) its all about the pre-delay and the tail. How many milliseconds before the first bounce and then how fast does it decay and get covered up by the next sound? You may be able to get away with 100% wet mix (reverb only) with no dry signal to get the effect you are describing or that could create a complete phase nightmare with other sounds hitting those mics. If the director has any ears at all and the choir is good he/she will not likely be happy with the generic free plug-ins. If you don't have access or the budget to do otherwise, take a shot, but any decent studio (and many home studios) have quality outboard or plug-in reverbs that could be patched in to your master track and get you a lot better results for an hour or 2 of studio time. Choirs are complex beasts (I have been recording them for over 20 years). Most studios are cutting their rates to get business if they're still open.

Can you post a sample? It would help steer you in a better direction.

Phil

 

[hsaunier]

If you choose to use Audacity, the method I use is as follows. Before adding any affects to the original track, make a duplicate. Then bend and beat the duplicate track as much as you want and then increase or decrease the gain on the effect track, you may find this easier to reach a desired result.