Stereo vs. Mono D-Verb

[John Link]

I'm editing some recordings of solo piano I made with a single mic. I notice that there is a substantial difference in the stereo image if I insert the D-Verb into the mono track or into the stereo master fader. I clearly prefer the results obtained by putting the D-Verb in the master fader, since it gives a much more spacious sound.

Does anyone have any idea of how the spacious sound is created? Is it just some sort of random difference in the two reverb signals?

John Link

[JohnGalt]

When you create the D-Verb on the mono track, are you selecting (from your plug in list)
the mono version or the mono in/stereo out version? Since your master is stereo, you will
always get a stereo D-Verb, but it sounds like
you're putting a mono D-Verb on your mono track. I would create a mono Aux track, and put
a mono in/stereo out D-Verb (or other reverb
plug in-there are better sounding ones) on the
aux. Set the input to the aux to be a bus, then,
on your piano track, create a mono Send to the same bus and play with the send level to get
the right amount of reverb. Just make sure that
the Mix control on the reverb is set to 100% wet.

[John Link]

Yup, I had chosen the mono reverb. I didn't realize that (mono/stereo) referred to mono-in/stereo-out. Thanks for the info.

So does anyone know just how a stereo reverb gives such a spacious sound?

John Link

[Zeus]

The left and right processing channels are "tuned" differently so as not to correlate. Some plugs (or reverb boxes) do that better, some are worse.

Z