having reverb plugin on each track VS. sending all tracks to a reverb bus

[ni guang xin]

what's difference? which way do you prefer?

[Zipfunk]

I'd put the reverb on an aux send most definitely.

It uses less processing power and going to each track to change the parameters to match is tedious at best.

Having the same reverb setting on many tracks makes the mix sound cohesive and makes the instruments sound like they were recorded in the same room.

Just my preference. maybe others have different thoughts.

 

Drew

[David Nahmani]

I agree with zipfunk that generally it makes more sense to use a bus send and insert the reverb on the Aux that bus goes to. 

On top of the advantages listed by @Zipfunk, if you decide to change the sound of the reverb, either by adjusting its parameters or for example adding an EQ after the reverb to change its frequency spectrum, you only have to do it once, on the Aux. 

You can use an individual reverb plug-in on an instrument's track when that instrument needs to be placed in its own individual virtual space, or needs its own identity, its own sound, that you're not going to use for other instruments. 

[deckard1]

Regarding this topic...I remember reading something by a notable programmer of effect plugins where he stated the same plugin will sound different if it's placed directly on a channel strip versus being placed on an aux channel. How is this possible if both are matched gain wise? I read this awhile ago so I may be mistaken...but it caught my attention when I originally read it. The sound of the plugin is actually different...he was saying. I remember thinking shouldn't they sound identical? 

Edited November 18, 2022 by deckard1

[RobertAnthony]

It can give you drastic sound differences depending on how you use them, most notably

1) The order of the insert effects, and

2) The dry/wet knob on an insert isn’t doing the same thing as the send amount on a send effect.

I don’t feel like typing an essay, so just take 5 mins and do an A/B comparison on a reverb or delay as an insert and the same as a send, turn knobs/push buttons, and hear the results. 

Just to be clear, everything said above is still correct, you save CPU, etc. using only one reverb or any effect as a send vs each channel having its own insert, and it’s easier to manage one send plugin vs multiple inserts.

Just throwing out that they can sound very different.

Edited November 18, 2022 by RobertAnthony
So many typos lol

[polanoid]

9 hours ago, deckard1 said:

he stated the same plugin will sound different if it's placed directly on a channel strip versus being placed on an aux channel

As a general statement, this is plainly false, as it depends on e.g. which other plug-ins you use, and how you route the signal to the aux channel. For details, see @RobertAnthony's reply above.

You can try yourself, a Mixer configuration like the one in below screenshot with the two E-Pianos playing identical MIDI regions, the two ChromaVerbs (replace them by other plug-ins if you like) having the same settings and the Gain Plug-In doing a phase invert will output nothing on the Stereo Out, which means that the insert plug-in and the send-plug-in on the Aux sound exactly the same. 

Edited November 18, 2022 by polanoid

[David Nahmani]

On 11/18/2022 at 1:26 PM, deckard1 said:

I remember reading something by a notable programmer of effect plugins where he stated the same plugin will sound different if it's placed directly on a channel strip versus being placed on an aux channel. How is this possible if both are matched gain wise?

On its own the placement of the plug-in will not affect the way it processes the sound, assuming everything else is equal (meaning if you feed the same signal to the plug-in. 

Without more information than what you've reported, I am guessing that the programmer may have been referring to the typical usual use of an Aux channel for parallel processing: you send a portion of the signal to be processed by the plug-in on the Aux channel while mixing in a portion of the dry, unprocessed signal by routing the output of the original channel  strip directly to the Stereo Out. That would sound different than serial processing (inserting the plug-in directly on the original channel strip thereby processing 100% of the signal).

But if you're processing the same signal, it doesn't matter where the plug-in is inserted, it will process the signal in exactly the same way, and sound the same.