delays as sends question

[bethanyb321]

hi i always would use delays as inserts and recently read better to use as sends like reverbs instead. but now doing this lets say on a track ill put send1-delay and send2-reverb. I notice that the delayed signal comes out dry without the reverb, i thought the delay signal would be routed into the reverb, which is usually what u want, delays in reverb not dry, i dont understand how is this better? am i doing something wrong?...
thnks

 

[Massive Master]

You would send the delay return to the reverb. *Generally speaking* you'd probably have a lot more reverb on the delay signal than you would on the original vocal track (one of so, so many reasons that you use aux sends for additive effects as a rule of thumb). You can then EQ the delay return before it goes to the reverb send (another reason), compress it in a different way than the vocal (yet another), compress the send from the vocal to the reverb, compress and EQ the reverb, (etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., and so on).

 

[miroslav]

....i thought the delay signal would be routed into the reverb, which is usually what u want, delays in reverb not dry....

Not necessarily.
A delay without the addition of reverb has many uses.
I actually don't recall the last time I chained a delay into a reverb, other than say, with my my guitar rig stomp boxes...but I use just delay, no reverb, on many types of tracks, and on other tracks just reverb, no additional delay....though delay and reverb are "cousins", so you can try various combinations of the two or use them individually.

 

[Farview]

If you want the delay to go to the reverb as well, you need to have the delay routed in such a way where you can route the delay to the reverb. In Cubase/Nuendo, the effects channels have aux sends too.

However, it's not a given that you would want reverb on the delay, you might want delay on the reverb. You also might want to automate them so the the delay comes up as the reverb goes down for a part of the song. The possibilities are endless.

 

[bethanyb321]

o i get it so use aux send on the delay fx channel to reverb as well as the original track, didnt think of that, thnks!

 

[Massive Master]

Ah geez, you've got some 'sperimenting to do. Because the possibilities really are endless.

I think the last aux buss I set up for reverb was a chorus (a thick, lush chorus, 100% wet) feeding a reverb (also 100% wet). That sort of "detached" the original signal from the reverb and gave the verb a very "dreamy" quality. Fed that into a very low ratio (1.2:1?) compressor in the same chain with a very low threshold so the louder the signal going into the verb, the less verb would come out. The louder parts of the song were left without the "crowding" of too much verb, while during the quiet passages, the verb was allowed to invade the space much more.

You can do the same sort of thing automating the reverb sends and skip the compression, but I tend to like the way it "glues the verb to the mix" (for lack of a better term).

But the same thing goes with everything else -- You can squash a signal going IN to a verb, you can squash the signal coming OUT of the verb, or a delay, or a flanger, you can flange the signal going into the verb, coming out of the verb (where you might not be want to be 100% wet on the flange, but it can certainly spice up the verb) -- All things you can't do when the effect is in-line with the source.