Panning Your Reverbs

[SDB_12]

Talking about reverbs ITB:

I find it crucial many times to pan my reverbs around, whether they be placed right behind an instrument, or somewhere else. However, sending a mono source to a stereo reverb in Pro Tools doesn't allow you to pan it, using the send pan...only if you pan the stereo aux track with the reverb plug on it will you be able to pan around as you wish. This obviously doesn't work if I have multiple sources going to one reverb track.

So, how do you guys pan your reverbs around. I've found the most flexible way for me to work is to print my reverbs. Take for instance, the snare, maybe I'll send it to a stereo verb on a separate aux, pan as I wish, and then print the effect to it's own track, and move on one track at a time as needed. Takes awhile, but it seems to yield the most flexibility. I guess I could create two mono sends from the source, and play with those levels to pan as I need.

[couch11]

Sure you can pan a mono source feeding a stereo reverb. Just send the mono source to a STEREO buss send. So if you have a Snare track that is mono, on it's send send it to Buss 1-2(or where ever your reverb is) and use the pan control on the send. Be sure you actually are using a Stereo In/Out reverb and not a Mono in/out.

[JonMiller]

I thought that if the send was mono and going to a stereo aux(Reverb Bus) and you panned the send left or right it was refelcted on the stereo aux(Reverb Bus)

[SDB_12]

That's the problem guys, that don't work.

Mono Snare track
Create a send from snare track to bus 1-2
Create a new stereo aux track, set input to bus 1-2, insert reverb plugin on it

Works fine, except for panning. I can pan it back and forth from left to right using the send level pan, and there is little to no change. Only way to really pan is to pan the stereo aux track with the verb on it. That's fine if that's the only source going to that verb.

[couch11]

Originally Posted by SDB_12

Works fine, except for panning. I can pan it back and forth from left to right using the send level pan, and there is little to no change. Only way to really pan is to pan the stereo aux track with the verb on it. That's fine if that's the only source going to that verb.

It might not be a true stereo reverb. There are many mono in/stereo out reverbs and pseudo-stereo reverbs. What reverbs are you using?

[JonMiller]

Perhaps you are not hearing it correctly.

I know for a fact this works as I stated and I do is quite over with clean guitar intros.

As an example, Dry track on the left, reverb on the right.

What version of Pro-tools?

Are you running the send pre or post fader?

Have you tried a reboot of the computer and PT hardware?

[SDB_12]

I just thought of an interesting trick to try out. Maybe I can create pre aux tracks that will feed my stereo reverb. Let's say I have a stereo plate reverb set up, and I want to send multiple tracks to it, but would want full control over pan, eq, compression, etc. for each element going to it. I wonder if this would work:

Original snare--create a send to a mono aux track, named "snare verb fader"
Set the output of that aux track to go into my stereo plate reverb.

Now, I should be able to pan my "snare verb fader" aux around, as well as put eq/comp/whatever on it, and it will feed my stereo verb track. I could then do the same for the vocal, guitars, etc...all sending to their own dedicated aux track, then going into the stereo reverb track. This is actually about the same as just duplicating each track, and sending the duplicate to the verb track.

Just a thought.

[JonMiller]

It should work how we have described. Can you post a Screen Shot

[SDB_12]

Originally Posted by JonMiller

Perhaps you are not hearing it correctly.

I know for a fact this works as I stated and I do is quite over with clean guitar intros.

As an example, Dry track on the left, reverb on the right.

What version of Pro-tools?

Are you running the send pre or post fader?

Have you tried a reboot of the computer and PT hardware?

Thanks Jon. Trust me, I'm hearing it just fine. It don't work. It's been this way for years for me. I'm on Pro Tools 9, on a mac running 10.6.3. To be honest, I haven't done much troubleshooting in quite awhile, as I have really just enjoyed reprinting the tracks anyways, as it seems to change the way I think as I work. But last night I was mixing and tried the above, and got the same results...I just can't pan the send around. It works fine for delays...but not for my reverbs using TL Space. Maybe I'll try with the Digi verb just to see if that makes a difference. I know this "should" work, but it don't. Maybe tonight I'll dedicate some time to playing around more with it. As I said, it really hasn't been an issue since I like to reprint things anyways, but I'd still like to get it sorted out.

[JonMiller]

hrmm....you may kill your buss count that way.