The reality of TV composing—
or any modern music
production, for that matter—is
that it usually involves a fair
amount of DI (aka direct injection)
work. By that, I simply
mean there’s no amp involved.
You plug a guitar directly into
a preamp, DI box, or console,
and use amp-simulating software
to get your tone. While
the sound of amp simulators
gets better each year, to
my ears the Achilles heel has
always been reverb. Simulated
reverb tends to sound artificial,
especially when you’re used to
hearing the real thing. But I’ve
discovered a few ways to get
around that.
One of my favorite ways
to generate reverb in a DI
recording situation is to use
impulse response (IR) reverb.
IR plug-ins—such as Audio
Ease Altiverb, Waves IR1
Parametric Convolution Reverb,
and McDSP Revolver—use a
process called “convolution”
to digitally sample real spaces
and hardware units. This can
be done by either running a
sine wave into the hardware, or
sweeping a tone in the actual
space itself and capturing the
results to disk with microphones.
That waveform is then
put through a process called
deconvolution, which leaves
you with an impulse response.
Adding IR to your signal can
make it sound like you’re actually
playing in the given space
or running through a plate or
spring reverb device. Calling up
a sampled space or unit within
a plug-in gives you access to
some really sweet reverb sounds.
Another great thing about
these reverbs is that you can
download fresh IRs and install
them as needed. For example,
Altiverb has a set of IRs called
“Joe Gore’s Crap IR Reverb
Set.” Gore’s submitted set
includes samples of Fender
Super Reverb, Magnatone, and
Baldwin Professional amps, as
well as two classic rackmount
spring-reverb devices—a Tube
Works RT-921 Real Tube
Reverb and Furman RV-1. He
created these IRs by sweeping
a sine wave into each unit and
recording it back into Pro Tools
with a pair of AKG 414s.
Before using impulse
response reverb, I first remove
any reverb from the path of the
guitar-amp simulator. Then I
create a stereo auxiliary track
in Pro Tools (you can also create
aux tracks in other leading
recording software) and insert
Altiverb. Next, I load up the
Fender Super Reverb IR and
send some of the plug-in guitar
sound to it using an aux send
from the guitar channel. The
aux send itself then controls the
amount of Fender reverb sound.
If you push it up, it gets wetter.
Lowering it decreases the send
and, therefore, the amount of
’verb. The sound is very cool
and quite authentic. In the context
of a mix, you might never
realize the guitar sound is from
an amp plug-in.
To get even more authentic,
I’ll pan the stereo Altiverb
plug-in to identically match the
mono guitar track. This way, it
sounds more like a mic’d guitar
amp. Think about the fact
that, when using stereo reverb,
you’re often sending a mono
guitar into a stereo reverb and
artificially widening the sound
field. If you stick an SM57 in
front of an amp, you’ll have a
mono guitar sound in one pan
position within the stereo field.
That mono mic’ing is what I
often simulate by panning the
IR return to the exact pan position
of the dry guitar.
If I’m not seeking an authentic
amp-reverb sound and want
to widen my mono image, I
leave the IR reverb panned
full left and right. That maximizes
the sense of reverb width
around the guitar.
Another trick I use is to
place a mono-to-stereo reverb
plug-in directly after the mono
guitar-amp plug-in. That effectively
takes a mono channel
(the guitar) and creates faux stereo
with it. This places the guitar’s
mono audio inside a stereo
field within the plug-in itself.
Note that when you place a
plug-in directly on a track (as
opposed to using an aux send to
feed a stereo aux channel), you’ll
need to adjust the wet/dry mix.
With 100 percent wet, you’ll
have a washy signal swimming
in reverb. To avoid this, you
need to play with the balance
between the dry signal and
reverb sound until you’re satisfied.
Typically, this means the
dry signal is predominant. As
you “dry” up the sound, it will
create a tighter blend of guitar
and reverb.
With this technique, I’ll
often use a small room IR and
set the wet/dry mix to about
30/70. This takes a dry, mono
guitar and places it inside a
stereo room. Also note that you
don’t have to have IR reverbs to
use this technique. You can use
any software reverb you like, as
long as it sounds good. When
done correctly, it can be quite
convincing.
So the next time you plug
into an amp simulator and aren’t
happy with the reverb, try something
different. Send the signal
to an impulse response reverb
and load up a real amp, room, or
plate. In the production world,
there’s nothing quite like it.
Rich Tozzoli is a
Grammy-nominated
engineer and mixer who
has worked with artists
ranging from Al Di
Meola to David Bowie.
A life-long guitarist, he’s
also the author of
Pro Tools Surround
Sound Mixing and composes for the
likes of Fox NFL, Discovery Channel,
Nickelodeon, and HBO.