Synth reverb or external reverb? (Trance & Progressive)

[mid_knight]

Hey guys, I'm curious about how you apply reverb on synth parts. Do you guys use the reverb built in to the synth or deactivate it to use an external reverb processor? I've heard that when applying reverb to electronic music you don't have to be concerned about using the same reverb on all your sounds since synthesized sounds don't exist inside a real space. But when listening to a breakdown of a trance track that is done well it transports the listener to a certain environment, as though all the sounds are encapsulated in uniform space. When you guys do this, do you deactivate the synth reverbs in favor of a reverb plugin and apply the same reverb via sends, one long, one medium, and one ambient (or something of the sort). Or do you just mix and match reverbs? If so, how do you achieve that spatial uniformity?

[vladi013]

Well there is a reverb for effect and there is a reverb for actual placement in the uniform space.

You can use reverb of the softsynth for the effect or you don't have to but no matter what you do you need to bus it trough your predetermined reverb space anyway. Yes, reverb on a reverb pretty much but it makes sense cause it gels it all together.

Sound space placement using reverb, panning and transients is in my opinion the most important part of the production together with composition of available frequency palette.

My advice would be to forget about compressors and EQs, for now at least, and go google reverb science and it's application. There are many types of reverbs and they all have different purpose, some are good for drums, some for vocals, etc. Like anything in music production there are no general rules here as well, it all goes by the ear, but for uniform spaces try to go with the rooms instead of the halls.

[mid_knight]

The reverb on reverb thing was where i was getting confused. That's why i was wondering if it would just be best to eliminate the synth reverb in favor of a reverb plugin. And sorry but i don't understand why you brought up EQ and compression, seems irrelevant to what i'm asking. Perhaps you can elaborate? and could you please explain the use of a room reverb as opposed to a hall? When i listen to a progressive trance breakdown, my ears seem to tell me that i'm hearing everything happening in a hall? perhaps the synths, and incidentals are using hall presets but are you saying it is best to bus them to a room for gluing purposes? Thanks for your input

[vladi013]

Sure no problem.

What you hear as a hall reverb is reverb for effect to get the leads sounding big and spread out. You can achieve this either with sofsynth built in reverb, Live's own reverb or some vst like Lexicon. After you have applied big stadium like sound experience on your leads just push them through a return tracks where you have your mixdown reverbs just like you said long, medium and short or just long and short. Now those reverbs on your return tracks are usually placed within a room not a hall, I say usually cause there is no set rule for such thing. And on those return reverbs you want to use some high quality vst like Lexicon to glue it all together.

Your leads which already have applied reverb for effect from your softsynt go into a return track with long reverb, of course you don't have to go all wet on the return track, just use your ears to tell when its enough. Drums usually go on the short reverb return track and yes you will benefit from applying reverb on all of your drums including the kick but again make it subtle.

When you push your tracks to reverb return tracks listen each instrument separately to see if it feel right.

As far as the compressors and eq goes I just wanted to make a point when we all started doing music first thing we did was to crank the compressor or eq the crap out of the sound but we had no clue how to apply reverb or even its position in effects chain. Even today you have people putting reverb before compression and eq. In my opinion properly positioned instrument makes or breaks the track. Once you get a hold of reverb and panning you will see how sounds stand out even without any compression or surgical EQing on them.

[NoSonic822]

you have more options and control on a standalone reverb effect

[mid_knight]

thanks vlad. It's all making sense now. Much appreciated.