Using Reverb Live

[SecretMachine]

Just got to thinking about perhaps buying a reverb pedal one day after having some fairly serious GAS for the Red Panda Context reverb
and I basically asked myself, "Is it worth it?".
How many of you use reverb pedals in a band context?
I've read that whilst obviously outside of a live situation reverbs can really add a 3d dimension to your sound and would be excellent for recording, but
in the live situation I basically get the fear of it being too mushy? Also, soundchecking in an empty room with a reverb pedal, then playing live with it to a room of people
are gonna be pretty different experiences.
Any tips for not getting potentially lost in the mix?

[Tristan]

If you're in a band with a more dense mix, that's basically what reverb does, put you more in the background, which can be cool of course.
Other than that you can use a bigger reverb as a special effect for parts where the other band members don't play as much / aren't as prominent.
I'm not much of a reverb guy though to be honest, I find I really prefer delay.

[backwardsvoyager]

it really depends on what sort of stuff you're playing
i've never liked reverb as an 'always-on' effect, i like running it before dirt and delay and using it to 'smear' the guitar in certain parts where i want less note definition and more textural support, dragging the note decay over so that everything sort of blends into one continuous sound, but as like a main sound it would be too muddy and awful for what i play.
if you're playing slower music in a less dense mix however, i think a small degree of reverb would add to the live sound nicely.
the actual pedal in question has a lot to do with it too, i like older filtery digital verbs because a lot of the newer pedals seem too bright and have really overt tonal characteristics that are too much for me personally.

[UglyCasanova]

Without more info on what sort of music you're playing, it's hard to give any solid advice.

The Context is sooooo freaking good though. I can't think of my board without it.

[theactionindex]

Like everyone else, I'd have to say style of music has a lot to do with it. Using reverb live with a more aggressive style of music where I wasn't the only guitarist was tricky except for some select spacey parts where I was less concerned with being present in the mix and more concerned with texture.

With my other post-rock-ish band, where I was the only guitarist, reverb was honestly kind of an always on effect for me. I personally didn't have any issues getting lost in the mix even when using particularly deep reverb sounds with a high mix.

[rfurtkamp]

If you're gunning for "realistic" reverb, harder to do.

If you're using it like an effect, much, much easier - season to taste, and go.

My live days called for far more delay than reverb though, but that was mostly what I was playing and a paucity of acceptable weird verb units at a price that mortals could afford.

[cedarskies]

I loooove reverb and add tons of it on my recordings and always use it when making music, but live I've stopped using it. When playing qt gigging volume, the venue already has reverb and other weird things going on with the sound so I now prefer to have a clearer sound to interact with the space I'm in.

[MEC]

I'm all verb all the time with the RRR and DBA Reverb Machine but when
I had the Context, I used it more as special effect.

[friendship]

I loooove reverb and add tons of it on my recordings and always use it when making music, but live I've stopped using it. When playing qt gigging volume, the venue already has reverb and other weird things going on with the sound so I now prefer to have a clearer sound to interact with the space I'm in.

I'm with you. Even if the venue you're playing in doesn't sound good, throwing a reverberated guitar signal into nasty reflections usually just makes it worse. I've seen so many locals bands who use significant distortion and turn up their amp's reverb and it just sounds like sloppy, sibilant mush. If you're using reverb as a special effect, by all means, but general reverb sweetening kind of sucks in a live setting. You're better off with delay if anything at all.

[UglyCasanova]

I'm all verb all the time with the RRR and DBA Reverb Machine but when
I had the Context, I used it more as special effect.

That's weird to me, because its range far surpasses both of those. From just a tiny little cupboard to galaxy size ambient bliss. I might have misunderstood you though.

[goosekevin]

Love love love reverb
Used big reverb sounds on bass in my last band, not all the time, but as a special effect as a lot of people have said.
It's just a colour in the palette and a beautiful colour to have

[MEC]

I'm all verb all the time with the RRR and DBA Reverb Machine but when
I had the Context, I used it more as special effect.

That's weird to me, because it's range far surpasses both of those. From just a tiny little cupboard to galaxy size ambient bliss. I might have misunderstood you though.

Oh yeah, the Context is far more versatile.

I just use the RRR for a subtle always on verb where I liked to turn the Context on for a more extreme effect.

The Reverb Machine is a different beast altogether but with the dirt and volume it doesn't seem to get lost in
the mix or make things get mushy.

[UglyCasanova]

I'm all verb all the time with the RRR and DBA Reverb Machine but when
I had the Context, I used it more as special effect.

That's weird to me, because it's range far surpasses both of those. From just a tiny little cupboard to galaxy size ambient bliss. I might have misunderstood you though.

Oh yeah, the Context is far more versatile.

I just use the RRR for a subtle always on verb where I liked to turn the Context on for a more extreme effect.

The Reverb Machine is a different beast altogether but with the dirt and volume it doesn't seem to get lost in
the mix or make things get mushy.

Makes sense to me!

[skullservant]

In what I do now (ambient post rockish type stuff) live, I've always got a holy grail running into drive, and then an El Cap after with the reverb cranked on that too. It's definitely smeary, but makes everything sound soooo much bigger and expansive

[frigid midget]

I might be echoing (Ha!) what other people already said, but my golden rule with verb:

Whatever you use in rehearsels/recordngs, turn it down considerably for live shows. The exact definition of 'considerable' depends on the venue, sound guy, your music and style, etc...

Imo there's a fine line between sounding big/spacious/lush and sounding muddy and way too washed out for the average listener.