snare verb mono ?

[Star Ark]

for about 10 years ive struggled with snare drum reverb. In solo it always sounds great but in the mix it sounds dry and the verb is just turning everything else to mud. By accident I swithced the verb buss to mono and finally I think I found the trick to snare verb.

To the more experienced guys is this common practice? I see lots of people having snare verb problems and I wonder if it is due to default stereo busses in most daws. Or am I doing something wrong and should be using stereo snare verb?

 

[Daybreak]

I think in a really dense mix a stereo reverb might not be needed. Don't know if you do this, but it's pretty common practice that you put an EQ after your reverb on your reverb bus and high-pass it pretty drastically, so it doesn't add to some mud build-ups - Kind of makes it "float" on top of the mix. If you already do this, try just EQ'ing some more, if it sounds muddy to you. Perhaps you're using too much reverb?

 

[Sloan]

use a mono verb AND a stereo verb.

 

[Mago]

mono verb, stereo verb, mono room, stereo room, combinations of those...whatever kicks ass for that song man...
a mono room/verb to a signal can help to pinpoint it to a more fixed position in the mix, maybe that's what you dig more.
I wouldn't disregard stereo drum verb though, especially if you don't have room mics available.

 

[RedDog]

use a mono verb AND a stereo verb.

Holy shit

 

[Nimvi]

use a mono verb AND a stereo verb.

That's nothing. I use surround verb on everything. I won't rest until I hear 20 seconds of mud from all cardinal directions :Smokedev:


But if that doesn't work, I usually use stereo verb if I can get away with it, and stereopan it to wherever there is space in the field. In your typical metal setup, I often end up at around 60% width intuitively.

 

[Sloan]

stereo verb is generally covered up with guitars or whatever, but when the guitars are NOT playing it sticks out more. the mono verb will be heard more all the time and can give depth.

 

[Alphanumeric]

I always have 2. Some kind of plate in mono for the middle, the early, then a stereo one, something dark and big, but high passed really high up, right over the guitars mids.

If theres guitars everywhere like a chorus, here's a trick: make sure its stereo verb ... a plate, but, in mono, have some pink noise, side chain with the snare, and send to a mono bus with a plate on as well, gives you a distinctive snare verb in the middle sound.


I hate small room sounds and chambers, especially small room reverbs, whats the point?

 

[Star Ark]

Thanks for the ideas. I'm actually running two verbs, a stereo and now a mono plate on the snare. It really helps to make it feel centered and it has given the whole mix a nice spread of all the elements. It's a mid tempo song similar to Metallica's black album and Anathema's Judgement so I'm going for spacious with a very obvious snare verb decay. Next I'm going to try stereo but only a 50% spread or so like State of Serenity suggests. Thanks people and merry xmas

 

[ArthurD]

Just limit the bus about -10db reduction than add the stereo reverb. It will cut through any mix

 

[XxSicRokerxX]

As has been mentioned before, verb Mono for depth, and verb Stereo for width. Use a combination of both.

 

[Nimvi]

^Question about that concept:
Wouldn't reducing the width of a stereo verb essentially work like a balance slider between a mono center and a stereo spread verb? Or do you guys go for distinct flavour differences between the two?

 

[Alphanumeric]

^Question about that concept:
Wouldn't reducing the width of a stereo verb essentially work like a balance slider between a mono center and a stereo spread verb? Or do you guys go for distinct flavour differences between the two?

So like if on the stereo verb pulling in L100 and R100 closer to the middle?

And yeah, the plate verb in the middle is for early reflection and reverb you can hear poke through the mix, the stereo one is there for colour and when there's a part where a snare hit is on its own away from guitars it sounds cool haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ERhtNN_Bhw

2:28

 

[Nimvi]

So like if on the stereo verb pulling in L100 and R100 closer to the middle?

And yeah, the plate verb in the middle is for early reflection and reverb you can hear poke through the mix, the stereo one is there for colour and when there's a part where a snare hit is on its own away from guitars it sounds cool haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ERhtNN_Bhw

2:28

Yea that was what I meant indeed, and I can tell what you mean from the track. While I never noticed problems with my snare verbs, I agree it does sound more distinct this way. Going to give this a shot on my next mix!

 

[Machinated]

should make sure you're using a verb with a proper mono output, or at least check that putting it into mono isn't doing anything weird with phase. heard of some people flipping the phase of one side of reverb channels on occasion.

 

[Nimvi]

^Always a good point indeed. I mix mostly in mono so problems like that should be pretty clear from the start.