Are you using headphones?

No, I had sound running through my monitors. I did tinker with the reverb setting for the A/D, changed type, wet/dry mix etc.... I thought A/D input doesn't travel through any of my 16 MIDI channels so there isn't any shared reverb settings..unless somehow they are both routed under COMMON reverb effects. Could A/D feed back affect a track reverb setting? Just in case, I turned A/D GAIN all the way off..Still couldn't get the reverb to settle off.. Once I switched back from MIC to LINE in everything worked normally. Mystery to me. I rarely use a mic in A/D.....

Phil, Any words of wisdom on this one?

The reason I asked about headphones was to make you realize that if you have an open microphone within 50 feet of your speakers expect to hear what comes out of the speakers going into that open mic. This sounds like a reverberation signal until it is loud enough to just FEEDBACK horribly. You need to completely isolate the open microphone from getting any input from your speakers!

Get headphones and power down your Monitors while using the microphone. It’s the reason recording studios have a soundproof Control Room... to keep the speakers from impacting the microphones. They spend thousands of dollars to create and maintain this isolation. You can simply turn off your Monitors and connect headphones!

Understood... at the risk of sounding even a little more stupid or naive, would /should the feedback affect the reverb settings on the controllers. Like I said they kept fluctuating. Is that all caused by feedback?

Reverb is an actual effect.
Something that sound-like reverb is not technically reverb. If you have an open mic in the same room with speakers — this is a bad situation. You get the sound of the speakers going around in a loop ... if you turn things up enough or if the mic gets too close to the speakers you will be in a FEEDBACK Loop... and it will howl uncontrollably all on its own.

I’m not sure what you are talking about “affect the reverb setting on the controllers”??? Not sure what that means.

I was referring to the actual reverb settings 1-127. With the Mic connected to the Motif in Pattern Mode, I attempted to lower the amount of reverb to A/D (mic) using the knob control function and to lower the amount of reverb on my Track 1. I even tried to turn it down to 0, however, on its own, it drifted back up. I turned down and it then went up.....I couldn't get rid of the reverb. Once I went back to UTILITY and switched from MIC to LINE, everything worked normal.....meaning I was able to use the knob to adjust how much or little reverb I wanted. No more drifting. It was something caused by MIC but what?

I attempted to lower the amount of reverb to A/D (mic) using the knob control function

It's been more than 16 years but I don't believe the A/D In is available for control in the KNOB CONTROL FUNCTION area, at all...

You can adjust the amount of Rev Send on the A/D Input as follows:
From within your Performance or Song Mixing/Pattern Mixing program:
Press [EDIT]
Press [COMMON]
Press [F5] A/D IN
Press [SF1] OUTPUT
Here you can adjust the Volume, Pan, Chorus Send, Reverb Send, Dry Level, and Input Type.
Press [SF2] CONNECT
To see an overview of the signal flow through the INSERTION BLOCKs
Press [SF3] and [SF4] to adjust the parameters of the assigned Insertion Effects (if any).

and to lower the amount of reverb on my Track 1.

Track 1 is a sequence Track - only MIDI data is recorded to Tracks... You probably mean PART 1, which is also a synth sound, not your A/D Input. Whatever Synth sound is in PART 1 is on Track 1 (in all likelihood) and this would have nothing whatever to do with the A/D In.

I even tried to turn it down to 0, however, on its own, it drifted back up. I turned down and it then went up.....I couldn't get rid of the reverb.

"drifted" is not a MIDI term... It can only 'drift' following specific MIDI Commands

I couldn't get rid of the reverb. Once I went back to UTILITY and switched from MIC to LINE, everything worked normal.....meaning I was able to use the knob to adjust how much or little reverb I wanted. No more drifting. It was something caused by MIC but what?

The difference between MIC and LINE is about -50dB... so its still there, you just can't hear it. LINE Level is approx. 0db, while the MIC Level is to accommodate signals approx -50dB lower. Because MICs are such weak signals they require a huge boost to be heard versus an input like a CD Player or another Keyboard. The reason you don't hear it. It is still the MIC, you just can't hear it...

Please check the value for REVERB SEND - if it drifted, it should have a value, what is it????
If your speakers are On, and you can hear them SO CAN YOUR MICROPHONE. Does that make sense? Listening to yourself on a microphone through speakers is not what you want to do. If you have a mic, turn off the TV, turn down the radio, unplug the refrigerator, tell the dog not to bark, and for goodness’ sake turn OFF your speakers and work in headphones.

As soon as you do you will hear what the mic ‘hears’ — as strange as that sounds. It should not be a revelation, but it is what is happening. The perspective change of putting on the headphones focuses your attention on what you are hearing.

As a human you can *selectively* listen. You can pick out one conversation in a room full of conversations. This is what allows you to listen to speakers that are not only outputting your voice, but the music you are singing along to, yet you don’t think the mic can “hear” that music.

Well, it can... and it is ever so slightly delayed, and is on a cycle going round and round... it starts to sound like the early reflections of a Reverb, until it reaches a point where it becomes a feedback situation...where it seems to howl and expand on its own.

If you are trying to record with the microphone... Turn OFF your speakers. If the drifting Reverb disappears then you’ll know it was this that was causing what you are hearing.

Phil,

I really appreciate you reaching back so far in your knowledge base. i was more concerned with what I was seeing on the screen on my Motif rather than what I was hearing. I think you answered / clarified the relationship between A/D input, the various PARTS of synth voice and the MIDI data contained within Pattern Tracks 1-16. To summarize, adjustments to A/D input REV send should have no effect on synth voices. Accordingly, if I edit PART 1-4 of my synth voices,, there should be no affect to the A/D sound. They both have their own Effects block. Let me ask though, if there is any COMMON Rev setting that can or should be applied to both meaning an entire MIX + vocal thru MIC ? I am sure that I am again showing my music production ignorance, but do you commonly try to match REV send setting across different instruments and vocals or is it acceptable / personal choice to have very different levels and types mixed together in a song.

Let me ask though, if there is any COMMON Rev setting that can or should be applied to both meaning an entire MIX + vocal thru MIC ? I am sure that I am again showing my music production ignorance, but do you commonly try to match REV send setting across different instruments and vocals or is it acceptable / personal choice to have very different levels and types mixed together in a song.

As you may know, I used to be a recording engineer and have taught audio engineering at the college level (in a previous life)... the subject of audio recording is both a science and an art. There are some things that are right and wrong, and there are somethings that are purely subjective.

The best you can do is know as much of the science (where right and wrong really matter) then when you are doing something subjective you know what’s what. Setting record levels is more science than art, but applying Effects is more subjective and falls in the area of an artful decision.

In general, Reverberation is a ‘necessary evil’ because of the convention of “close miking”. Literally, placing a microphone very close to the object — this makes for very detailed recording with little but the intended instrument. While excellent for isolation, this miking technique removes the natural distance we are used to experiencing when listening to a sound. A singer is never that close to your ears when they are performing... certainly you’d never put your head inside a Kick Drum! Or that close to a snare drum. It’s not natural.

In a normal situation, our ear and brain do a very sophisticated analysis about where a sound is coming from. Normally, about 11% of sound travels directly from a sound source to our ears, the other 89% bounces off of the environment (walls, floor, ceiling, etc). This distance means most of the sound is reflected off the environment. With just a brief burst of sound in a completely dark room, you can tell where the sound is coming from, whether to your left or your right, in front or behind you; from that sound you can estimate the size of the room you are in, the height of the ceiling, whether there are rugs on the floor, where the hard wooden surfaces are, etc., etc., etc. all just by hearing the briefest of sound bursts.

We are very attuned to sound... if it reaches your right ear ever so slightly before it reaches your left, (and at 1100ft per second) we can locate, no pinpoint is a better word the exact source. We can hear the slightest of delays, down to the point where you can even detect the finest movement of your speakers.

Say you send the same signal to your left speaker and your right speaker.
Now say you Delay the signal to the right channel by 30ms, you will hear it as two separate events.
Delay the signal just 2ms, you will detect this as a swirling sound.
Delay one signal just .1ms, yes you will detect this.
Even if the speakers are synchronized, but on moves out initially while other moves in initially, your ear/brain will detect the phase difference. If both are reproducing a sine wave @ 440Hz, you will be able to detect if one is moving positive and ghenother initially negative.

Reverb, is huge... it is the Decay in the sound after the signal source has stopped vibrating.

Reverb recreates the sense of distance that exists between the sound source and the listener’s position. Typically, a single Reverb is used for all the instruments to give the illusion that they are a band in the same room. Typically, low frequencies are rolled off because Bass frequencies do not bounce around like high frequencies do. How much Reverb is totally subjective.

You do not have to put all the instruments in the same Reverb chamber, just know that this is what is normally done to give the illusion of a band playing together in a specific space... but no one says you can’t place some sounds in a completely different space... this is the subjective artsy part of audio engineering.

Listen closely to your Favorite Recording... you will notice Reverb used throughout, less (or none) on low frequency items like Kick drum and bass guitar, more on lead instruments, snare drums and vocals.

In general, do what sounds good. Too much Reverb can be annoying. It depends on the song, the tempo, the instrumentation, ... so many factors can play into it.