Where do you guys record?

Hi crevs
Recording in the bathroom maybe a little uncomfortable and dangerous with all that water flying around….
I record in a spare bedroom and impart all I need in the way FX (reverb echo etc) with the software I use.
I think all the budding amateur needs for recording is a quiet environment..
ark

I understand that the difference between reverb and delay is the decay time but when should you use which ?

In terms of vocals I tend to use delay with a little reverb (sometimes). In terms of acoustic guitar I sometimes use a little reverb to push it back in the mix.

I know that it all depends but what delay times do you use and what combinations of delay and reverb ?

mikeshead

Delay is a single echo. In other words, it is a copy of, for example, the vocal which is heard slightly later than the original live sound. In the simplest case you can control the delay time - what fraction of a second the delayed sound comes after the original, and the delay volume - how loud the delayed sound is compared to the original. Delay is really an effect.
Reverb is more complex. It consists of multiple echos or delays applied to the sound. It is meant to simulate how the listener would hear the sound in a room or hall, for example. In this case the listener would hear the original sound first, and then the sound after it has bounced off the walls and ceilings a number of times.
The idea of reverb is that it places the sound in a "room" or "environment" when you use it.
The bathroom is a real environment with multiple echoes and so gives you a reverb.
In my recordings I place echo on instruments on their individual tracks depending on what sounds good. Vocals alway need a little echo/delay. Solo instruments too. Pianos in particular and guitars when picked need careful treatment. Too much echo can muddy the sound.
I only place reverb on the final mix. This places the whole performance in a "room" and gives it life.
The reason I don't usually place reverb on individual tracks is that it can make them sound like they were recorded in different "rooms".
That's just my technique. I'm sure others have different techniques.
If you have an acoustically dead environment and the facilities to add these effects later then I would say do it.
If you have to record in the bedroom, add the reverb, if you have it, later.
If you have to record in the bathroom, you are stuck with the reverb for ever and can never remove it.
Hope this helps.
Edit:
I forgot to add this.
Delay time is important if you apply the delay to a rhythmic track.
As an example, if you have a snare drum that is being hit on every beat and the song is going at 120 beats per minute, then your snare is hit twice every second. If you put delay or echo on that, you do not want the delayed sound of each snare hit to run into the sound of the next hit. For this reason you would never use a delay time of more that half a second. (500ms). In fact you would possibly use one of a quarter second (250ms) so that the delayed sound also falls at a regular point in the rhythm. In this case exactly half way between the two snare hits.

Mikeshead
What you do depends a lot on what equipment/fx you have available, what recording equipment you use, and what instruments you are recording. I could only answer for my own setup. There is nothing "wrong" with putting reverb on individual instruments.
My comment about different "rooms" was just my own preference for when building up a recording on a multitracker.
If you have no effects then recording a track the bathroom is a way to get reverb if you are using a mic to record acoustic instruments or voice. Once recorded, the reverb is always there and can never be removed. Moving the mike nearer or further from the source will reduce/increase the amount of reverb recorded. In this case, the reverb is put on each track. It's not really practical to try to put reverb on the whole final mix in the bathroom.
If you have sufficient effects (reverb and delay/echo) and the recording equipment to do it, I always recommend these FX are placed on afterwards and the sound is recorded initially "dry". (Or as dry as possible within the room you have).
As to what effect to use on what... I agree with the other guys really. Listen to what you think sounds right.
There are some general guidelines. I always say that it's probably better to use a little less than too much. It's very easy to get carried away and overdo the effect. You don't want your recording to be swimming in reverb and echo.
The voice always sounds better with some echo or delay added (in addition to the reverb).
In general, instruments like flutes and violins when playing a melody will benefit from some echo or delay.
As I said in my other post, you need to be careful when putting echo/delay (and in some cases reverb) on rhythmical instruments or tracks.
This is because the delayed sound interacts with the original.
I personally never put echo/delay on a bass guitar, for example, and usually only a little reverb if it seems to need it. The reverb or echo from a bass track can easily swamp the whole mix if you are not careful.
I had a look on the web for sites to explain the delay time and beats per second issue. They all go on about mathematical equations and generally make it even more complicated.
What it boils down to is that the listener will hear a beat, say a snare, twice a second, shall we say. (This is 120 beats per minute, 2 beats per second)
If you put a delay/echo on that, the listener will also hear the echo just after the original sound. How long after depends on the delay time. You need to make sure that the delay time is such that the echo comes before the next beat.
In my example, the echo must come in less than half a second. Most delay/echo units have an adjustment to do this. Just turn it down untill you hear the echo clearly coming in before the next beat. Exactly where the echo happens is up to you. What sounds right.
Reverb is different. The reverb time is a measure of how the reverb sound "decays". In a large hall or cave the reverb lasts a long time before it slowly dies away. In a smaller room the reverb dies away more quickly. Reverb is made up of multiple echoes.
Of course, in a bathroom (not usually very large) the reverb dies down more slowly because the smooth walls create multiple echoes.
Increasing the decay time on a reverb, puts the sound in a larger space.
Increasing the "amount" of reverb (compared to the volume of the original sound) places the sound further back in the mix. It's like moving the mike away from the instrument you are recording and picking up less of the original instrument, and more of the sound from the environment.
I'll stop here because this is starting to sound like a tutorial!
I hope it has been of some help. Remember, use your ears to judge the final sound. But don't overdo the effects!