Assuming that you're working from a live recording...
For the Conductor's perspective, higher early reflections, lower pre-delay.
From the audience's perspective, lower ER, higher PDLY (100ms+).
Personally, I've never had a lot of luck with SIR... I like it, and I like what it's all about. I've always just had an easier time working with DreamVerb or something...
Anyway, back to the verb... If you haven't tried this (I did a lengthly RecTech article on this about 10 years ago when most of the world was analog and it's wonderful for classical):
Dial in a nice sounding verb -- Put a compressor plug after it -- set the ratio to 6:1 or so -- Play a louder passage and bring the threshold down until the gain reduction is at -4 to -6 ish -- Play a softer passage and set the reverb level -- Note that there should be no gain reduction during soft passages -- Tweak to taste.
What this will do is imitate what your ears will do in a concert hall. On the louder passages, the compressor will bring the verb level down. On the softer passages, the verb will be allowed to rise and open up (just like your ears will). It also minimizes the whole "not enough level to get a good verb sound" as the level going to the verb will be set by the SOFT passages. The verb will be spacious and airy for soft areas, and move out of the way a bit to make room for the loud. Obviously, it shines like a diamond on songs with a cold stop at the end, AND it automatically gives depth to a song with a slow fade at the end (as the apparent distance increases as the volume decreases).
This is all in the tweaks - Sometimes fast attack & release work best, sometimes painfully slow sounds better. Sometimes 4:1, sometimes straight limiting.
However, as I almost always say, once you get the perfect setting, back off on it a little. You don't want the verb "pumping" too much (although it sure can be used as a cool effect!), so feel free to "play it safe" a bit.
The over-use of verb being one of the most "rookie" sounding mistakes out there, this also minimizes that problem. If you have clients that say they need "more verb" this is a nice way to tame it a little. They get their verb, you get to keep your reputation.
If I can find the article, I'll repost it on my site (with the publisher's permission, of course)...
John Scrip -
www.massivemastering.com
