Creating a send to a reverb

[cybercreature]

Hi all,

In order to save on cpu I'm trying have a single reverb on an aux track, and then use sends on individual tracks that I want to use that reverb.

A problem that I'm having is that if I want to automate a tracks volume to suddenly go to 0, the reverb continues on. This doesn't happen if I have the reverb added to a track as an insert instead.

I've tried changing the send to "pre fader" but it still happens. Maybe I'm going about this in the wrong way?

Thanks.

[Top Jimmy]

Effects sends are typically post-fader. This means that as you change the level of that track fader, the amount being sent to the effect changes too.

Don't confuse changing the level of the effect send with changing the level of the effect return. When an effect is inserted on a track and you automate the track fader, you're changing the level of that track after the return from the effect is mixed in. When you automate the track fader with a post-fader send, you're changing the level of the send to the effect. If you want to kill the effect abruptly, you need to automate the fader/mute of the effect track, or you automate the effect send/mute sooner so the effect dies out by the time you want the track out.

[cybercreature]

Thanks for the explanation

So it seems like compromises have to be made sometimes, like if the reverb on the effects track is currently receiving an input from lots of tracks then it might not be an option to automate the mute of the effects track. So as you say in that case the best option is to simply mute the send a bit earlier.

Or possibly have 2 or 3 reverb tracks to deal with different situations?

[simonchase]

Yes, two or three will normally do the trick. Or four or five... And it's of course still less hassle/resource hungry than one on every audio track

[Rich Breen]

Originally Posted by cybercreature

Thanks for the explanation

So it seems like compromises have to be made sometimes, like if the reverb on the effects track is currently receiving an input from lots of tracks then it might not be an option to automate the mute of the effects track. So as you say in that case the best option is to simply mute the send a bit earlier.

Or possibly have 2 or 3 reverb tracks to deal with different situations?

This is a totally standard way of setting a mix up (sends post fader to multiple reverbs/fx) - if you need the sound of the reverb coming to a dead stop rather than decaying naturally, you'll need to either automate the reverb return fader or else insert the reverb directly on the instrument's plug in chain.

[albee1952]

Automating the send level is another handy thing to do. Especially in the case of sending something like a vocal to a long echo when you only want one word to repeat.