how much reverberation is the right amount of reverberation in a space ?
SPIRITUAL , INSPIRED , CHEERFUL , THRILLED .
Using a combination of various measures like heart rate measurements and self-reporting of emotional keywords while listening to the same recorded chant with a variety of ‘ rooms ’ added to the dry source recording , Algargoosh and her colleagues were able to find some interesting possible answers to that question . In very broad-brush terms , “ the average heart rate of the participants while listening to the wet recordings was in general higher than while listening to the dry recordings ” ( Algargoosh et al ., 2021 , p 96 ). Cool ! So next time your pastor or worship leader asks for a mix that ‘ really gets everyone ’ s heart racing ,’ you know you can probably turn the reverb up rather than down ( all other things being equal ).
As it would seem to be obvious that a worship service that was described as more ‘ Spiritual ’ would be more desirable than a worship service that was described as ‘ Sad ’ or ‘ Tense ’, it would follow that , in general , we should aim for ‘ wet ’ mixes and in-room experiences vs . those that are likely to be described as ‘ dry ’. Progress ! We might have another general rule of thumb to set us on our way as we tackle the next big question in Part 3 of this series next month . “ How wet is too wet when it comes to our mixes ?” “ Is there such a thing as being too wet ?” Stay tuned for some possible answers to those questions in the next installment ! In the meantime , happy mixing !
Jeff Hawley A 20-year music industry veteran — equally at ease behind the console , playing bass guitar , leading marketing teams or designing award-winning audio products . He currently heads up the marketing for Allen & Heath in the US .
The really interesting metric in my opinion is the self-reported emotional keywords that participants reported in the various recordings in the Algargoosh study . The chart to the right tells the story quite nicely :
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