I received a recent note from Lucas in Brazil and I wanted to first share it with you.
"I've just discovered the Octave Records now and I'm really impressed as well; it's a brilliant job! As a musical producer and musician, I've been reading about the purpose of the label, listening to some recordings (on the website), and I've noticed the absence of reverb in the mixes. By the way, I saw in another video previously that you told quickly about building reverbs to studio. So I want to know if the absence of reverb is something related to the label's sound signature or if it's due to any technical considerations linked to the DSD recording, mixing, and mastering process. Actually, all recordings with the DSD process from the label are really faithful, like a real capture of the recording moment. Incredible! Thanks in advance."
First, a little history. The reverbs he is referring to are 6 custom-built vacuum tubed based reverbs designed and hand crafted by our good friend J.I Agnew. To my knowledge they are the only 6 in the world. They are wonderful sounding. Very natural.
I have used these reverbs on nearly every Octave recording I have ever made in Octave Studios.
The trick with reverbs is the same as using a subwoofer in your system. It must be applied in such a way that it is unnoticed in the music.
Reverb should not stand out and point to itself just like a subwoofer should enhance the bottom end of the main speakers but never shout out "I am here!".
Without the reverb the recording sounds rather dry. With it you hear life as it should be.
As soon as you hear reverb, it's too much.
