Reverb Plugins - Multi-Track?

[barefoot]

I'm composing and mixing electronic music in Acid. It seems whether I add a little 'blending' reverb to all the tracks or to the final mix down the results are pretty much the same. It's as if the reverb assigned to each track is not really running separately, but running as a single unit with multiple inputs.

To get around this I tried mixing groups of tracks with reverb added down into say eight individual 24 bit tracks - sort of like having a separate reverb unit on each of eight buses. Then I mix those eight tracks down. The result is noticeably different. The reverb is more lush, the mix sounds more open, plus I still get the cohesiveness I'm looking for.

This is all true for Vegas too, so I don't think it's peculiar to Acid. But, it could be a Sonic Foundry thing.

Do plugins generally work the way I've described? Is this multi reverb mixdown method a common technique?

barefoot

 

[MONTE]

Barefoot,

Hey man! You may have just asked the question to help me figure this out also. I have noticed the same thing in several different types of software. So far, I've been very unhappy with software reverbs, and I've tried a lot! I've actually gone to sending tracks out of different sound card outputs through a reverb unit and bringing them back in to get that lush reverb you describe. I don't like leaving the digital domain once I get there, but hey, It sounds tons better. I'll be watching the thread to see what gives!

 

[Tom Hicks]

Hey guys
Different software may be different.I use n-track,which works like an analog setup.That is to say,if you put a reverb on an individual channel ,only that channel gets effected.If you put the reverb on the aux bus,all channels can share that effect.
Cpu usage is a big deal on multi plugins,so it makes sense to share as many effects as possible so that you can get more tracks out of the setup.

Tom

 

[barefoot]

Tom,

So your software launches a separate plugin for each track you assign it to? Which n-track do you use? Do you notice a difference in sound quality running multiple reverb plugins as opposed to running a single reverb on the aux bus?

Thanks,
barefoot