Setting sends to a certain percentage

[Beetimhof]

Hello Folks, I'm using a dedicated reverb bus and was wondering if it is possible to set the tracks up, so that for example 40% of a track is sent to the reverb bus and 60% to the master. So far, I have been using the slider which lets you reduce the send signal by db. But that's just more confusing than being able to set it all up with a percentage ratio. Essentially I want to be able to adjust the dry/wet ratio of my reverb for every track individually whilst still being able to have only one reverb bus/instance for everything.

Is there any way to do this?

[domzy]

I don't know of a straightforward way to do this. Maybe you could cobble something together with JS Swixmitch on your audio tracks and making them 4 channel?
Perhaps someone has a better solution.
Quite an unorthodox request - i personally can't see what the advantage would be to adjusting a wet / dry rather than a send, when using multiple input sources to a reverb bus.
In the context of getting a balanced mix it seems like it would just make things more complicated? Or maybe this is part of some sound design workflow?

[jrk]

I can't see the point either... but if you're prepared to make the sends on channels 3/4, a little jsfx like this:

desc: wet mix

slider1:50<0,100,1>mix

@slider
wet = slider1 /100;
dry = 1 - wet;

@sample
spl2 = spl0 * wet;
spl3 = spl1 * wet;
spl0 = spl0 * dry;
spl1 = spl1 * dry;

should do it.


But really, don't bother.

[Beetimhof]

Okay thank you. If it is so unusual maybe I should just do it like anybody else.^^ I just found it more intuitive to adjust the reverb by percentage ratio like it is done in many plugins themselves. Just helps me better imagine the instruments in a 3D space

[jrk]

Well, as a rough guide, (assuming the instruments produce the same level at some 'small' distance) if instrument A is twice as far away as instrument B, then A's direct level will be down by approx 6dB. A's reverb level will be approximately unchanged.

If you use prefader sends for your reverb, just pulling down the track fader will help create an impression of being further away. Course, it'll be quieter over all. So there's goes your balance. A mix control would be doing this *and* turning up the send level (in effect). Quite unnatural.

If you use the send control to get the thing sounding about where you want it (depthwise), since the reverb is *generally* rather quieter than the direct sound, it won't affect the balance much. Is why this way of working is generally preferred.



Some folks use short delays (a few 10s milliseconds) on the sends as a neat trick...

Instrument track >send> track w/ short delay >routed somehow> Reverb (with it's own predelay set quite low).

This way you can control the predelay on the reverb for an individual track.

Short predelay (not much time between the direct and reverberant sound) the instrument is set back in the mix) Longer predelay - the sound is more forward.
The delays typically wouldn't be long enough to create a distinct echo

The speed of sound being what it is, 1 ms predelay is akin to the sound source being a few tens of cm closer than otherwise. (or about a foot per ms, if you prefer)

Maybe this creates a more "natural" depth dimension without having to pile on so much reverb.

[Beetimhof]

Thanks that helped a lot! In the end it's probably just the best to trust your ears, but that takes some courage for me

That predelay trick is definetely somthing I'm gonna try!