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Dry vs. Wet


Max

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I know I risk sounding ignorant by asking this, but can someone please explain dry recording vs. wet recording or provide some examples that illustrate the difference?

I listen to both Williams and Giacchino, and even though Wallin is complained about a lot here, I don't think I can really tell a difference in their recording styles--not enough for it to seriously bother me, at least. What is it about the recording styles that makes them different?

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In (most) Wallin recorded Giacchino scores, the microphones are placed very close to all the instruments, meaning you lose all sense of room size and ambience, you're just hearing the instruments and nothing else.

Somebody will be able to explain it better than me.

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In the most general sense, "wet" just means that you're hearing a lot of a given effect/filter/modification/whatever, and "dry" means you're hearing more of the unaltered sound. A lot of the time, it's reverb or ambient room sound we're talking about. If an album has a wetter sound, you'll be able to hear the music echoing, essentially. An extremely dry recording usually sounds like it was recorded in a tiny room with foam walls - which is indeed sometimes the case.

If you don't hear a difference between the sound of the instruments in Williams and Giacchino scores, that's not a bad thing. But generally, Williams scores (especially more recent ones) tend to have a fuller, wetter sound. There's something else that makes them sound different (aside from compositional styles), but I can't quite figure out what it is.

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But generally, Williams scores (especially more recent ones) tend to have a fuller, wetter sound.

Right. You know how you can hear the soloists breathing in Lincoln and War Horse, and creaking chairs and stuff? You'll never hear that in a Wallin-recorded Giacchino score.

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But you do hear "string air" or whatever the real term is for when you hear that weird sound under a string sustain.

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So... Wet is echo-y and dry is not?

I guess the original STAR WARS main title is rather dry.

As is Goldsmith's GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (all Tomlinson).

James Horner since ca. DEEP IMPACT sounds wetter than a catholic schoolgirl on prom night.

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Wet is also "unaltered", unless reverb is added to the recording (which is actually done a lot). 'Dry' is when you hardly hear the room, hall or studio in which the music is recorded, or reverb.

Alex

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I hate really, really, really wet recordings where the notes start to lose definition.

where you hear too much of "The Room" and not enough of "The Music".

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Talking about Abbey Road Studios, there's a difference between the mix of The Phantom Menace regular and The Phantom Menace UE. The latter sounds much dryer (and better, IMO).

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The Phantom Menace UE sounds like it's right of the mixing board of the studio, just the untouched film mixes.

Then the OST CD sounds like after assembling the sections desired for the OST, they re-EQed the whole thing and added reverb.... it sounds muddled, harder to hear the definition of the instruments.

You can hear every instrument perfectly in the UE, it's one of the best sounding CDs I have.

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Isn't Abbey Road supposed to be very dry?

Recording studios will usually have a drier sound than your average concert hall I assume. But in general rooms vary lot. For example, the famous Golden Hall at Vienna's Musikverein is famous for its sound, which is quite on the wet side (so much that it seems to me some orchestras overplay the hall, losing transparency), while on the other hand the great hall at the Konzerthaus, just a few minutes away, has a rather dry sound, as has the State Opera (where too much orchestral reverb would probably make it harder to hear the singers).

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Could you say that, based off of those two videos, wet recordings sound "softer" than dry recordings?

Now that I think about it, when I first started listening to Giacchino, that was something that initially bothered me. I don't hear it so much now, but his music sounded sharper, almost harsher, than Williams's music does.

Thanks everyone!

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Could you say that, based off of those two videos, wet recordings sound "softer" than dry recordings?

I think you are referring to Bright vs. Dark, or Warm Vs. Cold.

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I know I risk sounding ignorant by asking this, but can someone please explain dry recording vs. wet recording or provide some examples that illustrate the difference?

It was more than a risk. You just went ahead and exposed your ignorance for everyone to see. Wow.

Well, now I can go ahead and thank you for doing so . . . because I've been wondering for quite some time now what the HELL the difference is between the whole "wet" and "dry" recording thing. (Yup.) I just never got around to asking. Now I get it!

So thanks!

- Uni

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But generally, Williams scores (especially more recent ones) tend to have a fuller, wetter sound. There's something else that makes them sound different (aside from compositional styles), but I can't quite figure out what it is.

With Williams circa 1989, it's synth doubling.

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The most simple and intuitive explanation:

Imagine you are singing in a giant old stone cathedral.

Now imagine you are singing inside a closet filled with clothes.

Sound in the cathedral is wet. Sound in the closet is dry.

In technical terms wetness is a function of reverb, delay/echo, and decay. Reverb is really fast and rapid echo (all reaching your ear within .1 s of the original sound). Echo/delay is a slower more distinct repetition of a sound long after the original sound. Decay is how long it takes for the sound/reverb/echo to die out.

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That would be like applying a Low Pass Filter.

The man with the answer for everything. . . . ;)

- Uni

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  • 2 years later...

Reading through the massive "preface" to Ives' fourth symphony by both the composer and others, I came across this, which I will now refer people to when justifying my taste for occasionally heavy reverb.

oeFYUzH.png

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