Reverb & Eq spectrum not working for field recordings

[christopherwv]

Hello fellow creators,

Ive been sampling field recordings I took with a shotgun and h4n, but when I try to add reverb it doesn't affect the file at all.
Other effects like simple delay work fine! Also it doesn't appear on the eq eight output spectrum.

Any of you know why this is happening? or what i can do to fix it?

Thanks! I appreciate any info

[Tarekith]

Which version of Live are you using? How are you using the reverb, as an insert or send effect?

[christopherwv]

Im using Live 9.6.2 and using reverb as an insert.

[Tarekith]

Hmm, very odd. Which reverb, the stock one or the Convoultion one in Max4Live? You have the dry wet knob turned up, and have tried a few different presets for that device?

[[jur]]

Did you record with a zoom h2 or other m/s capable recorder?
It really looks like your dealing with an encoded m/s file.

[christopherwv]

I'm using the stock reverb. When I turn the wet/dry knob up the volume decreases. At 100% you can't hear a thing.

I recorded using a rhode ntg-1 mic into a zoom H4N. I guess big brother to the H2. Im not familiar with m/s but
could I work around this issue?

Thanks for the support

[Tarekith]

Voxengo's free MSED plug in will convert mid/side signals to left and right instead, might be worth a try if that's the issue.

[Stromkraft]

Any of you know why this is happening? or what i can do to fix it?

Not unless you share a snippet.

[[jur]]

It really sounds like an m/s issue.
Is your file mono or stereo? If I'm right it should be stereo even though you've only recorded it with a mono source. You can either open the file in an audio editor and split the file to only keep the appropriate channel, or simply use an Utility as your first device in Live and switch between the left and right input to find which one is the good one.

[TenSquare]

Ableton Live's standard Reverb device is not a true stereo audio effect...

In fact, left (L) and right (R) audio inputs are first added together to form a L+R mono audio signal, which is then passed to the reverb processing unit. The output audio signal is stereo, and you can control its width using the knob labelled "Stereo".

Maybe your field recording sample is a mono audio sample with - for some reason - one of its audio channel inversed in polarity. If it's the case (you shoul check that as a priority), you will get perfect silence at the output of the Reverb unit when its dry/wet knob is set to 100% wet! (Just because in that case: L=-R or R=-L, then L+R=-R+R (or =L-L) = 0! > So, nothing to be reverbed here! > Output = silence... )

I would then confirm it is potentially a Mid/Side (M/S) encoding problem that should be easily fixed either:

- in your digital audio recorder (have a look at the options available, maybe a bad setting here...)
- or in Ableton Live > insert a Utility device before the Reverb. Then enable "Phz-L" or "Phz-R" button in Utility in order to re-establish a good signal polarity. Now you should get sound at the output of the Reverb, even at 100% wet setting.

All the best from France.

Guillaume

[jestermgee]

Hey, I have a Rode NTG-2 and a Zoom H4n (close to what you have) though I run the mics through a SoundDevices MixPre amp into the Zoom.

Check your format settings and make sure you are recording just a plain Stereo WAV. I personally record WAV 24/96 but on my MixPre I have a "mono" switch so I can send a signal to both the L/R inputs so it really ends up as a dual mono signal.

Should be nothing that prevents things working within Live if it's just a standard stereo Wav file for sure.