30-04-2015, 05:52 PM
I agree with Patrick-- getting the ambience right is key to making a virtual drum kit work. Plates are a good choice for drums because they consist entirely of a reverb tail and lack early reflections, so you get blend, tonal enhancement and increased sustain/body without the snare sound rattling around. If I might chime in, I think it would be best to keep dedicated snare reverb in mono to keep it locked in the center of the stereo image, and mono compatibility won't be affected. Usually this sort of effect should be less than half a second long, probably closer to 300 ms depending on the tune/tempo, or you'll struggle to get the level high enough to make the most of it without blurring the snare sound in the mix.
There are a couple other things you can do to create depth/space without some of the knock on side effects of reverb and delay. It never ceased to amaze me how much saturation can enhance almost anything in the mix... it can really open up the stereo image and almost magically creates space, depth, and warmth. Bussing your drums together and saturating the entire buss can round out and unify virtual drums in a way that reverb never seems to compete with.
Also, the use of transient modellers or fast, low ratio compressors can round out the attack of an instrument. In nature, sound sources that are further away are perceived as having less attack, so this will subtly fool the ears into perceiving a given sound deeper into the mix. This trick works great on toms or really pointy plucked bass guitars.... the more rounding off of the attack the deeper something will sound, so keep it subtle.
Finally, reducing an instrument's high frequency content relative to something you'd like more upfront in the mix will naturally create depth.
Depth in a mix is obviously an illusion, and your friend here is contrast. Applying depth techniques in equal amounts to everything in the mix won't create three dimensional depth... it'll smear the sound. Tastefully applying space and depth in small amounts on certain tracks will polish your mix and give it a more professional, coherent sound. Just don't make your primary concern until the balance is right... it should cohere fairly well without much help or the balance is likely off.
There are a couple other things you can do to create depth/space without some of the knock on side effects of reverb and delay. It never ceased to amaze me how much saturation can enhance almost anything in the mix... it can really open up the stereo image and almost magically creates space, depth, and warmth. Bussing your drums together and saturating the entire buss can round out and unify virtual drums in a way that reverb never seems to compete with.
Also, the use of transient modellers or fast, low ratio compressors can round out the attack of an instrument. In nature, sound sources that are further away are perceived as having less attack, so this will subtly fool the ears into perceiving a given sound deeper into the mix. This trick works great on toms or really pointy plucked bass guitars.... the more rounding off of the attack the deeper something will sound, so keep it subtle.
Finally, reducing an instrument's high frequency content relative to something you'd like more upfront in the mix will naturally create depth.
Depth in a mix is obviously an illusion, and your friend here is contrast. Applying depth techniques in equal amounts to everything in the mix won't create three dimensional depth... it'll smear the sound. Tastefully applying space and depth in small amounts on certain tracks will polish your mix and give it a more professional, coherent sound. Just don't make your primary concern until the balance is right... it should cohere fairly well without much help or the balance is likely off.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!