Best ways to 'squash' unwanted excess reverb in precut track?

[Roy Howell]

These are doubled rhythm guitar tracks that I thought sounded perf at the time. I was so young (6 months ago), and didn't have the vast knowledge that I pretend to have today.

Actually, the guitars stop at these 'holes' here and there, and the reverb rings out too much(it's on the track).

How best can I keep the meat of the guitar, and try to hold some of that verb back? (Limiter, compressor...?)

Thanks, Roy

[QuikDraw]

If you want to cut the reverb out of the holes I would try a gate. Adjusting the gate timing will effectively adjust the reverb tails in the holes. It won't do anything to reduce reverb where there are no holes though.

Mike

[Roy Howell]

Thanks Mike,

Should have known you'de come through for me. I thought about EMailing you, but I thought I'd give you a break (LOL).

Thanks, Roy

[Mark_Knecht]

Roy,
If there are a lot of holes, then Mike's gate might be the best way to do this. If it works, that cool, but I think the other problem that could be created is what the gate might do in the middle of the phrase if it cuts in at all. You may find yourself trying to balance the whole thing.

If you're looking at just a few holes, I'd prefer to use the volume and mute automations, probably drawing them in by hand.

I often have to do this with my poor guitar playing. I'll get through a phrase corrctly, but get a little extra note or some other junk afterwards that I want to remove, so I have to take it out this way.

Cheers,
Mark

[IOP Drummer]

Use the gate/expander plug with the key filters set to ONLY LET THROUGH the pick noise, or attack of the guitar. Set your range to -6 or so and your threshold, attack and release times accordingly. This should effectively 'turn the verb down' when there are pauses or breaks, or even long notes {if the threshold is set right}. If this doesn't work but you want it to, you can copy the guitar track over to another track and eq it like crazy where the attack is. You can even hard gate ot on the copied track (optional) then use it to key the original gate, with the same setting as I said above. If you're only doing the breaks, why don't you just do a fade?

[gerax]

I would be very carefull in using a gate: if not set properly it could chop off something it shouldn't. To me it's a better idea to use volume and muting automation to crate a smooth more natural (and shorter) fade out for the reverb tail; I used this technique to correct the holes of silence in a few tracks that had a fairly noisy background, and although you can't completely get rid of it (otherwise you'll notice something strange in the continuity of the track) you can find a good balance (or compromise); I think a gate behaves more abruptly.

L.G.

[gerax]

Oh, I forgot: don't use compression at all, or you'll get exactly the opposite effect, as compression increases the average signal levell, thus bringing out ambience and lower level signals.

L.G.

[Roy Howell]

Thanks ya'll. Great advice...

Roy