JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Microphone and Vocalist Forum AUDACITY: Best Gverb settings?

(Sorry about posting in two forums. Wasn't sure whether one would be more appropriate than the other.)

I know a lot of factors play a role, but is there a general setting that gives a reasonable reverb effect without it sounding too horrible?

I ask because FAWM is coming up and for the heck of it I'd like to do a few a cappella takes with my lyrics. I'm NOT a singer by any stretch of the imagination, but thought perhaps an effect or two could beef my vocals up a bit.

The room I'm in is an open one, with an 11' ceiling. The room's about 40 sq metres (ca 430 sq. feet). I'm at one end of it, in a corner with my workspace and computer. (Maybe the fact I'm in a corner plays a role as well in terms of settings. I've already observed that if I put the room size setting at 40 metres, the echo is horrendous. The lower I go, the more reasonable it sounds.)

I know I'll need to fiddle the settings to find the best result, but hoped someone could give me a starting point.

And what other effects might be useful with Gverb?

Thanks!

Donna

Answering my own question here.

After more experimenting and a dedicated Google search, I found this link.
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=GVerb

I fiddled with all the settings, and the "quick fix" and "bright small hall" sound reasonable.

Would appreciate tips on what other effects might go well with these.

I know plug-ins exist that can be used with Audacity. Anyone had experience with ones that are simple and most useful?

Donna

Shoot DonnaMarilyn, with that size room you might just try to use the rooms natural reverb. Unless you have the room sound treated you will have natural reverb/echo. Try moving the mic setup to different areas of the room, starting from the center and moving toward and away, as well as from side to side, from your recording station.
You may like what you get.

Thanks for chiming in here, Dak.
What you say makes sense. Trouble is, I'm pretty restricted, since the microphone plugs into my keyboard, so I pretty much need to stay put in my workspace corner.
(The room is large for sure, but it's an open-plan area. I have a small room upstairs that would likely be better suited, but it would involve moving my whole "office" up there, which doesn't come into the eqution.)

Donna

Is the cable from the mic to the keyboard built into the mic? if so there are extensions available and would be easy for anyone with a bit of soldering skill to make if you couldn't find one the right length ready made.

If the cable is xlr to 1/8" mono the same extension will work but there are also longer cables made to replace the existing cable.

You should be able to go out to 25 feet with no problems.
If your mic is usb there are usb extensions available as well. If you end up with a length greater than 16 feet (5 meters) you'll need to use a repeater cable.



As to a smaller room, in general the larger the better.

Thanks, Dak. I apprecate the time you've taken.

I use a set of Logitech headphones with a moveable mic attached (I originally purchased the headphones for Skype purposes). The headphones plug into the keyboard via USB.

Yeah, I realised after posting my previous comment that a larger room would of course be more advantageous.

I'm not a singer at all, but would like to provide A Cappella tracks occasionally as melody guides. Just looking for some way to beef up my vocals a bit so that they're less cringe-worthy.

Donna

FX are far better applied to a dry mix..... to eliminate any ambient or unwanted echos is the preferred option. It is better to keep the wetness down and gradually re apply fx on low almost dry settings till you get the sound you want. It is important to note that each style of song and every voice is unique and people have diff tastes in fx so there are no rules for what is good or bad.....only what works for each application and your own unique voice. Experimentation is the only answer....Personally I use very lttle reverb and use a very dry mix. My tip is to duplicate the vocs and apply fx to that track only then the main vocs are kept clean...fx can then be added to the duplicate and volumes adjusted till the sound you prefer is reached. When both tracks are played back the FX are lessened and sound more natural.
I would suggest investing in a decent studio mic as better results depend on the quality of the clean recording and not so much on how much FX are applied.

Thanks for that feedback, Jim.

I'll play around on Audacity with some of your tips. (I presume I can duplicate vocal tracks?)

Can you suggest a decent-quality and not overly expensive mic geared for a non-singer like me? I have no singing aspirations: Just want to to provide reasonable-sounding vocal guides.

Donna