The Reverb Jam: oddities of recording in a reverberant space
Anyone in the chamber reduces its reverberance
Anyone in the reverb chamber soaks up sound – so do their clothes, bags and musical instruments. So the more people and the more equipment there is in the reverb chamber, the less reverberant the space will become. We had a small audience during our first jam, for example, so the reverb on that recording is quite short. Compare it to the reverb when Mike’s alone, playing the whirlie (on the Sound Recordings page).
As the space is reverberant, any small creaks and scratches that we make really show up. A click that normally lasts a split second reverberates for several seconds. So we had to be very careful moving around the space, while music was playing. And we had to be silent for several seconds before we started recording any takes.
