Dry?

[Birdinator99]

What does it mean if music is dry?

I only ask because a reviewer referred to my music as dry in general. Sounds bad :p

[loansindi]

'Dry' typically refers, technically, to a track, song, or instrument that does not have any effects applied to it. You'll find effects modules (such as reverb) that have a 'dry/wet' knob to adjust the ratio of original signal to modified signal.

If someone says a song is dry, they might be referring to a particular lack of 'space' as lent by effects such as reverb or delay.

[joshhunsaker]

At 12/27/10 04:13 PM, Birdinator99 wrote: What does it mean if music is dry?

I only ask because a reviewer referred to my music as dry in general. Sounds bad :p

This usually refers to a lack of reverb. On typical effects you have wet and dry controls. Dry is the un-affected signal and wet is the affected signal. Usually there is a percentage based control for each but also can be in decibels. Sometimes there is a single mix knob which replaces wet and dry controls and then a gain control for makeup. It's not necessarily a bad thing but music tend to sound more rich with some artistically applied signal processing (especially reverb/chorus/phasing/flanging/delay/etc ).

[Buoy]

alternatively it may mean that there are relatively few, natural sounding instruments which can all be heard clearly, which of course is more likely to be true if you don't use much reverb or delay

[Birdinator99]

Thanks guys, that clears it up for me.

[FatKidWitAJetPak]

It means you aren't using lube. Remember to get a lube VST or something to give your sounds a bit of an extra slip.

[Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud]

It means that your song reminds them of a desert. Get the listener a cup of water.

[Buoy]

At 12/27/10 06:13 PM, Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud wrote: It means that your song reminds them of a desert. Get the listener a cup of water.

will a song about an oasis be regarded as dry?

[djInTheDark]

It can also refer to the lack of low frequencies with in a song. Like, if all the highs are present, but the lows are taken away, it will sound 'dry' if that makes any sense.

And then there is the latter which is the song loses its highs and is left with the lows, making it sound 'wet.' This could also be called 'warm' as well.

But most of the time, the person is talking about what loans explained.