Layering Reverbs

[moofi]

Playing with two of the new toys, Suitcase73 + Valhalla Vintage Verb, I found especially Suitcase73´s internal reverb in series with the Valhalla one quite pleasing to listen to. Suitcase73´s is a little more upfront and delivers the presence while Valhalla adds the body and longer tail, resulting in a bright shiny wide yet deep and full atmosphere.

I often put two reverbs in series, like Softube´s TSAR-1 with 70% early reflections and medium setting for it´s close-up stereo spreading while the following one delivers the body/tail. Sometimes I put more than two in series aswell.
The experience I just made with Suitcase73´s and Valhalla has been a little different, even though SC73´s is by nature not as longtaily, at least not as is Valhalla. Yet it´s dialed in way more than I usually put TSAR-1 before the second reverb. More towards an equal layering. Though I already combined reverbs quite often, aswell in a more equal layering sense, combining these two with mentioned pretty pleasant result, I looked at it from a new perspective. I feel like there is a lot to discover in that area aswell.
Going to explore further how reverbs can be arranged to sculpt a sound´s environment and what makes sense in what situation.

Gonna link some audiodemos eventually, possibly in a few days, currently pretty busy.

So does anyone layer reverbs aswell and if, what are your experiences if you´d like to share.

[BRIGGS]

I've learned to start small...so to start, I use the rv-7 (0% cpu on my machine)

After the basic sound is done, I'll replace or add a better reverb, depending on what I am going for.

Sometimes, all you need is the rv-7, or two. : )

[Jac459]

On voice I like to use a short reverb plus a gate triggered long reverb (meaning when the voice is louder than a threshold, it will trigger the longer reverb).

[moofi]

Ah, that sounds interesting, gonna check that one out, thank you

On voice I like to use a short reverb plus a gate triggered long reverb (meaning when the voice is louder than a threshold, it will trigger the longer reverb).

[Kalm]

It’s rare that I do so but it’s not abnormal. I’ve done that when one reverb gives me space and width but another gives me depth. I’ll also put reverbs in-line on the source track then feed that track to a bus <— that’s a trick of mine.

[moofi]

It´s certainly a good way to keep things working CPU-wise and "polish" afterwards.
Then I´m not too fond of rv-7´s overall quality, reason I basically don´t use it at all, because I prefer listening to and also working with an appropriate device from the get go, not only for improved quality but the differing sound itself in regards to mixing, overallimpression and how it gets along with other devices´ sound. What could work with one reverb doesn´t necessarily work with a different soudning one. In addition the sound of Valhalla´s reverb for example can immediately inspire and also further influence the composition/creation and direction a song is going.
Could check on it once again though anyway.

I've learned to start small...so to start, I use the rv-7 (0% cpu on my machine)

After the basic sound is done, I'll replace or add a better reverb, depending on what I am going for.

Sometimes, all you need is the rv-7, or two. : )

[mcatalao]

I prefer to use a long reverb and a small reverb as sends, and add specific reverbs for some cases as inserts. I really don't see the benefit of adding a short and a long in series, as you can't control the amount of reverb of the different sounds for each one.

I really like the long tail reverb from U-He Uhbik A, and i use Tsar 1 for short room's. These make up the space of my sound stage in a lot of my projects. Then anything goes for specific stuff, like grainy thick reverbs for vocals, dark woody mid centered for pianos, etc, etc.

Do not dismiss Rv7000. With an EQ (in series, before or after) it is a great reverb, specially after it got the convolution mode in MK2.

[selig]

If chaining reverbs I tend to prefer short rooms into long halls. I spent a few weeks many years ago when I first got my second PCM-70 trying all different combinations, finding that configuration to be the best - BUT still, it was quite subtle, not at all as ‘interesting’ as I first thought it would be. I assumed I would end up with some huge dense reverbs, but the PCM-70 is already pretty huge and dense so maybe that’s why it didn’t really get much bigger sounding.

[moofi]

Yes, that´s, like described, how I at some poit started doing it aswell simply because TSAR-1 was the only reverb I had at the time being able to turn a monosounding source into a stereo one because of the stereoprocessing inside TSAR-1. I aswell feel, though a bit colder, the room TSAR-1 creates are quite well to work with, hence a short room with a longertailed reverb afterwards. Yet when putting Valhalla on top of Suitcase73´s reverb though it is indeed roomier compared to valhalla, yet much longertailed compared to the TSAR-1 room I usually create for the room-longtail combination, it had the effect of a pretty rich reverb resulting from the combination. Hence I became especially interested in this combination aspect and created this thread to find out about your experiences. Gonna post the example of S73 + Valhalla in a few days and also experiment a little further.

If chaining reverbs I tend to prefer short rooms into long halls. I spent a few weeks many years ago when I first got my second PCM-70 trying all different combinations, finding that configuration to be the best - BUT still, it was quite subtle, not at all as ‘interesting’ as I first thought it would be. I assumed I would end up with some huge dense reverbs, but the PCM-70 is already pretty huge and dense so maybe that’s why it didn’t really get much bigger sounding.

[moofi]

Not sure, what you mean. You can set the amount of reverb for each -> setting the amount together. Could also be simplified via a Combinator.
Soundwise it is about combining thus sculpting the overall reverberation by layering, similar to like you can layer bassdrums aswell. Where for one the room delivers the up front presence part, like an attacky bassdrum while the longertailed reverb shapes the depth/body/tail (decaying part of a bassdrum).
At least from experience I would need two serial reverbs doing so, because with merely one reverb I either set it to room, or longtailed or something in between, yet when mixing I can work out the presence with the roomy reverb while the second reverb simultaneously delivers the rich atmosphere. The S73-Valhalla combination though, went a bit further as the S73 with the setting I used is much more longtailed compared to what I set the TSAR-1 to when combining it with a second reverb, resulting in a pleasantly rich + present reverb, neither Valhalla nor S73 would produce alone. I at least guess it´s becoming a lot clearer when I´m posting audio examples.

[...] I really don't see the benefit of adding a short and a long in series, as you can't control the amount of reverb of the different sounds for each one.[...]

I really like the long tail reverb from U-He Uhbik A, and i use Tsar 1 for short room's. These make up the space of my sound stage in a lot of my projects. Then anything goes for specific stuff, like grainy thick reverbs for vocals, dark woody mid centered for pianos, etc, etc.

Do not dismiss Rv7000. With an EQ (in series, before or after) it is a great reverb, specially after it got the convolution mode in MK2.

[mcatalao]

Unless I'm not seeing this right, once you layer the reverbs in series, you can't control the send amount for each of the reverb for each channel, so the 2 reverbs are in a send and work as 1 single reverb. Did I make myself clear?

[selig]

Unless I'm not seeing this right, once you layer the reverbs in series, you can't control the send amount for each of the reverb for each channel, so the 2 reverbs are in a send and work as 1 single reverb. Did I make myself clear?

I think, at least for me, the point is to create a single bigger/denser reverb - not sure of a case where I’d want to send to separate reverbs but in that case ‘spiders to the rescue’!

[Jac459]

For long and short reverb I think I would naturally go for parallel processing with mixing with a short and a long reverb and not in series.
One case I could see is you could have a snare with a big gated reverb (to have the big splash reverb brutally interrupted) and then another subtle long reverb.
But then it is not really the intial topic, because the first reverb is more for sound design than a real reverb.

[mcatalao]

I think, at least for me, the point is to create a single bigger/denser reverb - not sure of a case where I’d want to send to separate reverbs but in that case ‘spiders to the rescue’!

[selig]

For long and short reverb I think I would naturally go for parallel processing with mixing with a short and a long reverb and not in series.
One case I could see is you could have a snare with a big gated reverb (to have the big splash reverb brutally interrupted) and then another subtle long reverb.
But then it is not really the intial topic, because the first reverb is more for sound design than a real reverb.

Parallel is how 99% of all reverb has traditionally been used in the mix studio. Series reverb is a special case to create bigger/denser reverbs or to have more specific control over the early reflections vs the reverb tail. And that's another reason I 'think' I prefer short reverb into long, which is that it is more how it happens in real spaces - meaning, first you get the initial first reflections and it's all those earliest paths that then 'feed' the longer reverb 'tail'. It's really all one process, physically speaking, but it's easier to simulate real spaces thinking of the two as "part 1" and "part 2" of one big/overall effect.
Some reason to process early reflections vs reverb tail: making the early reflections compressed and bright and the tail darker, or making the early reflections more mono and the tail extra wide so the effect 'blooms' from the center out to the edges. And there are some cases where you may want to split the output of the first reverb, part going on to the second longer reverb and the other being filtered or compressed so you don't pass that effect along to the long reverb.

Lots of possibilities for building special 'spaces' for special 'cases'!

[Jac459]

Lots of possibilities for building special 'spaces' for special 'cases'!

Indeed! I never thought about the mono to stereo approach for blooming effect, great idea! Thanks for sharing!