Anybody aware of a de-verb plugin for Ardour?
I’m recording from home during the pandemic and despite my best efforts to pad the walls, all my vocals sound like ass because of the natural reverb in my closet. I’ve heard that de-verb plugins exist, and have even found a few for Windows (eat my fart, Bill Gates) online, but haven’t found anything for linux and Ardour.
You might try one of those portable vocal booths by sE: https://bit.ly/3kvK9Hu
I don’t know of any de-verb plugins on Linux either.
p.s. I take issue with your insult toward Bill Gates. This isn’t the place for such expressions and, frankly, if you knew how much Bill Gates has contributed to charitable causes including the fight against COVID-19, you might think beyond your personal hatred of Windows.
To add on to this, the ‘de-verb’ plugins that exist don’t really remove all reverb (Speaking as someone that has some of them). Realistically once reverb is on the track you aren’t going to be able to clean it up but so much, you need to record the track clean to start with really. The deverb is only when you have no other option.
SeabladeCreate a bus, send the track with reverb to the bus, polarity invert it and add a heavy [multiband] compressor:
Compressors modify the volume of output audio based on loudness of the input, so when the sound is loud, we’ll compress the polarity/phase inverted channel (very heavily), making the two tracks different from each other which will allow the audio to leak through from the primary track. Between the hits, where the sound is quiet, the compressor will no longer be working, so the two channels of audio will be identical and will cancel out – no audio will be heard.
This is from the following article, that has more details and other hints as well:
In addition to the above replies, in some cases you can get away with simply using a Gate plugin. It can at least help you get rid of long tails.
(btw I feel like throwing digs at Bill Gates is still absolutely fine, no need to make it a political issue)
Robin’s compress-and-invert plan is clever, but isn’t it pretty much the same as a gate or expander? Perhaps the wider availability of compressors provides more choice to find one with the best characteristics for the job.
Quite honestly, I’d go for trying harder with the room treatment. One of those semi-circular behind-the-mic shields, best combined with with a hypercardioid or figure of 8 pattern mic, should help. Hang a duvet on the wall, or pile up spare pillows in the corners. Or choose a different room, if possible. And get closer to the mic, using EQ to compensate for proximity effect.
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: my daughter, aged 10, enjoys reading this forum because she’s learning Linux and dipping her feet into audio recording. It’s a shame that we have to put up with crass language and the occasional ad hominem attack.
I know there’s no Linux version, but Acon’s Deverberate tool can actually do a good job although deverberation works best on spoken word rather than music. There’s a detailed discussion of it on Gearslutz here, with input from the developer. https://www.gearslutz.com/board/all-things-technical/1289743-how-use-avon-deverberate.html
Maybe you can use a vocal shield booth thing, I have one and I don’t have these issues, or you can make one. I find it’s better then using plugins to always fix things such as this. Cheers!
I use the Aston Halo, which works really well for sung vocals, especially because it blocks reflections from the floor as well as the walls on three sides. It’s a less optimal choice for voiceover or other spoken-word recordings where someone’s reading from a script, because there’s no place to put the script (on paper or an electronic tablet).
Thanks for the input everyone!
The article Robin shared looks especially helpful.
I am super aware that it is better to record clean first. I can’t afford to buy one, but I will definitely try building myself a portable vocal booth. I also can’t afford to buy new mics or even spend money on software. I am disabled and need to work with the equipment I was able to buy when I was still able-bodied. However, those solutions may work for other people who read this discussion.
Ya you can even check at the dollar store to see if you can get some cheap supplies to use. Got to be very creative on this one.
You mentioned recording in a closet, is it just a matter of adding more clothes/soft goods to the closet? Particularly full walk in closets can work remarkably well for recording spaces if you want dead sound, which for home recording you usually do. No need to go overboard, just look at how you can use what you already have. Maybe store extra bedding in there to help while you are recording, towels, etc. all work well.
SeabladeHey Seablade. Thanks for your input.
I think I’m making the best use of the materials that I have already. Part of the issue is that it’s not just my tracks - my bandmates also send me tracks and some of those tracks are particularly bad in terms of natural reverb. I have made suggestions to my bandmates to try to mitigate this, but I don’t think they can even hear what I’m talking about and ultimately I have no control over how those tracks are recorded.
I’m definitely stoked to try out this reverse polarity + compression trick from the article Robin shared. Very cool stuff.
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