acoustic blues music - what reverb type and why?

Hi there,

I'm having an acoustic blues session (guitar and vocals) soon and I'm interested to see what kind of reverb do you guys use during mixing...
I think I will use the TL Space on Pro Tools with a nice IR. Not sure, maybe a plate reverb but if you have any other suggestions please share them 

thanks
Michael

Hi Micheal,

Depending on how much dirt the guy/gal has under their fingernails I love the vibe of micing the room.  If the room is not to large a pair of dynamics in XY (I use and love Senn 441s) do a great job of capturing space around the music.  Perhaps capture with  little compression?

For artificial verbs the trick will be getting something with character that gels with the sound.....not an easy task!

Best of luck,
Ruairi

I've built a little plate type reverb using a 2 x 4 piece of sheet metal. One of the few things it actually sounds good on is blues type singing guitar. Lol!
Good luck!
AC

depends if he sold his soul at the crossroads....

IMO a nice real room will hands down beat any digital reverb for this type of stuff. If that's not available then a nice analog reverb like a real plate, spring and or chamber.

If it´s acoustic instruments you will record the room the musicians played in with the instruments automatically. I often try to find a reverb that fits that room sound or which supplements and enhances the original room. This doesn´t work always, anyway.

hi guys, thanks for the nice responses. Actually one of the live rooms has a really nice natural ambience and I have done many sessions using room mics. However, it sounds quite bright and for the specific session I am looking for something a bit more 'dark' or 'dirty' or 'bluesy' or whatever, if you know what I mean...

Come to think of it maybe convolution is not a great idea. Maybe some normal reverb plug-in (?)

thanks
michael

PS. The guy's playing has lots of dynamics...

Try using very very short rev times on a digi-unit, carefully tailoring the tail to disappear at just the right moment.  I've had some luck with using this approach to simulate the explosive sound of a nice 'live' room. It helped the vocal and instrument transients jump out into a seemingly bigger space momentarily without getting murked or muddied by decay times clashing into one another.

The trick of course is leaving no evidence it's been done.

thanks lassoharp, apparently for the 1st of the sessions (yesterday) I used exactly what you suggested, a nice spring IR and I cut the tail as much as possible. Then I mix it fairly low just to blend the sounds nicely without the reverb being noticeable. It sounds nice for this purpoe and I think I'll stick to that.