HowTo: Post-Production Reverb

[Not a Number]

As we all know, the PC version of MTVMG1/Music 2000 has this thing where there's no stereo reverb; even Yellow Stereo has no effect. And whilst I still haven't gotten myself using MTVMG1PC yet, I figured this method could benefit those who do use it, which is I've put this here because it can help with those who use the PC version of MTV Music Generator / Music 2000, but in reality, this method works with every mp3 file. It can even be used to enhance songs that already have a form of stereo reverb.

Sadly there are no images to use as a reference, so just trust me on this one; this works.

What you will need:

- .mp3 / .wav file of the song
- Audacity (get it here, it's freeware)
--- For reference, I am using Windows XP. Keyboard shortcuts may be different in Mac OS.
- Patience, plenty of it. (and I ain't kidding here. )

1)
So open up Audacity, and import your song into it. It's easiest if you just open up My Computer, go to the file and drag it into the Audacity window.

2)
Now, ideally, your songs should be "dual-mono" where it has info for both the Left and Right speakers; you can tell if it is by looking at how many channels the file has; if it has two, then proceed to Step 4. It should be dual-mono anyway, but if not, go to Step 3.

3)
If your song is not in dual-mono, then select the channel by clicking on the bar on the left, go to Edit, Duplicate. Set the one channel to 100% Left using the L/R slider and set the other channel to 100% Right. Hit CTRL+A on your keyboard and go to Project, Quick Mix. This should take a minute or so to mix. Go to Step 4.

4)
Now, with the dual-mono channel selected, go to Edit, Duplicate. Do this again. Press CTRL+Shift+F to bring all 4 channels up. Close only one of them by clicking the X at the top-left of the channel. (any one will do, but there has to be 3 left.)

5)
Now, select the middle channel by clicking the bar on the left, and go to Effect, High Pass Filter.... and hit OK. Once the effect has been applied, pan it 100% Left.

6)
Now select the bottom channel by clicking the bar on the left, and go to Effect, Low Pass Filter.... and hit OK. Once that effect has been applied, pan it 100% Right.

7)
With the bottom channel selected, hold SHIFT and select the middle channel (by clicking the bar on.. you get it now. ). Go to Project, Quick Mix.


With the newly created channel selected, go to Effect, Amplify... and in the box next to "Amplification (dB)", type -9¹ and click OK. This should take a few minutes.

9)
Once the effect has been applied, keep the channel selected. Select the Time Shift Tool (which looks like a double-ended arrow ( <-> )) and drag the channel to the right by one pixel. If you mess up, just hit CTRL+Z and try again.

10)
At this time, your song has technically been made stereo. For a much better reverb, keep the selected channel.. selected and go to Effect, Echo....

This is where patience comes into play.
For the delay time, set it to 0.001 seconds.
For the Decay Factor, set it to 0.333333.

Click OK and go do something else. Regardless of how long your song is, this will take hours. I am not kidding. My computer may have 512MB of RAM, but it can take up to 3 hours for a 30-second sample. I've had to leave it on for 24 hours for a full song.

Once this has finished, go to File, Export as MP3, and save as you would¹. I'd recommend saving it as a different file.

Congratulations; you have acheived Stereo Reverb.

Good luck.

Notes:
¹-9 is a guideline; some songs may need to go lower.
²IMPORTANT: DUE TO LEGALITIES, YOU NEED A FILE CALLED "lame_enc.dll". THIS CAN EASILY BE FOUND ON THE INTERNET. WHEN ASKED BY AUDACITY TO FIND IT, JUST LOOK FOR IT IN THE POP-UP AND IT WILL WORK AS NORMAL.

[147 crew]

Cheers for that!! I use psONE, not emulator but I guess I can do all those things?? It does make sense.

[JCW]

Ty, will work on this later.

[Not a Number]

Cheers for that!! I use psONE, not emulator but I guess I can do all those things?? It does make sense.

Yes. So long as you have the file on your PC then it will work.

[JCW]

I checked it out with one of my tunes in Audacity, sadly I only have a left speaker and a sub woofer at the moment. Despite having only one speaker, it sounded like it had more depth. Thanks for this NaN.