using a stereo aux with mono sends...

[polf]

hello people,

I read somewhere the following idea is possible but i cannot find the thread again....

I like being able to have say a guitar on a mono track and send this to a mono aux track with a reverb on it. Then I can pan the mono reverb anywhere id like left, right, centre, behind the guitar etc...

this is fine but then i need a stereo reverb for other jobs so i have to create another aux in stereo, add another reverb which uses CPU.

I read that i can achieve the above using a stereo aux track by panning the send to the desired place. This doesnt work for me. If i send the guitar to the left buss of the stereo aux track (if its on buss 1-2 i would just send to buss 1)it does come out to the left but id like more control.

any suggestions?

thanks in advance

polf

[daeron80]

Instead of sending the guitar directly to the verb:
1. Send it to a short delay, something in the 8 to 33 ms range, depending on the dynamic character of the sound.
2. Turn the delay all the way down for starters, and send it, pre-fader, to the verb, with the track and send panned to the desired location.
3. Slowly turn up the delay fader. There should be a region of level within which the impression of directionality of the verb increases without giving the impression of a descreet delay.
4. If that window is too narrow, it may help to gently roll off (6 dB slope) either the lows up to around 400 Hz, or the highs down to around 3 KHz on the delay, depending on which range is drawing the ear's attention to the delay.

This will often work just as well with a mono-to-stereo verb. I almost never use a full stereo verb, because it takes a little more CPU and it hardly adds anything to most mixes. You usually have to be listening intently on headphones to hear the difference, and even then it has to be a mix with a lot of verb level. Unless you're mixing at 88.1 or 96 KHz, any verb is going to sound grainy enough to discourage a heavy-handed use in most situations. I can imagine some possible exceptions, but I don't think I've ever encountered one.

[polf]

David,

Thanks for your advice - much appreciated

will try this later

cheers

steve