Pads in the MIx

Hello guys, its been some time now that i wanted to write and ask you. In some of my tracks i sense a very irritating brightness in the reverbs applied to the pads and atmospheres im trying to create. some sense of artificial and plastic and sometimes this washy reverb. i always remember that smooth and velvet feeling in the works of Steve Roach for example or Vidna Obmana and try to at least approach that sound. I know a couple of years of learning to make electronic music on pc is not even close to enough, but im trying. after all, its only been these last 4-5 or so months that ive been doing some basic post production, like EQing, Panorama, very little Compression and generally a better mixdown. I know there is a lot of EQing involved, mixing techniques and at least one decade of experience in order to do that and make this velvet sounding Reverb on pads and Synths, so any kind of info you guys would be invaluable. For example , there is a typical chain in the "Inserts" (of a pad for example) that would look like this: EQ + FX + Reverb. Some things ive tried to fight this brightness and unwanted high frequencies that i dont like after the Reverb is: 1. high cut or high-shelf the EQ that is the 1st in the chain before Reverb 2. Cut the bright frequencies within the Reverb itself. If it still does not sound the way i want it to 3. One more EQ, this time in the end of the Insert chain, and try to remove high frequencies there. Most of the times the final result does not satisfy me at all. I dont know if its the Reverbs that i use, ive been told that convolution Reverb is a secret weapon for ambient stuff. Would you also recommend to use the Haas effect in order to give some depth to the sound, If you have you tried it, it would be great to hear your experience. Another thing ive tried lately, is to pan the Pad to the right and and pan the "sends" of the Reverb to the left, i think it made a little difference. Also one more question that i would normally ask in a new thread, but since it came up im going to ask it here: So, should it be "Sends"? "Inserts"? 'Both"? Thank you all in advance guys, i would really appreciate any piece of info from your experience.

This may sound uberobvious but maybe try tweaking the synth patch rather than going through all the extra steps.

digital synth + lotsa filtering + delays for me

My usual signal path for pads is like this:

Synth -> EQ -> reverb

And maybe splitting the reverb so the wet signal goes into a phaser or a filter with lfo. If your reverb plugin doesn't allow tweaking of the colour of the reverb, then it's not good enough. Try 'Ambience' vst. It's amazing.

Thanks a lot for your replies people.

  On 12/30/2011 at 2:43 AM, RadarJammer said:

This may sound uberobvious but maybe try tweaking the synth patch rather than going through all the extra steps.

Im so glad you mentioned that. Sometimes while sculpting a soundscape, the patch comes out quite complex involving many effects but the sound comes out so beautiful that the only thing that irritates the ear is the reverberation and i wouldnt really like to change anything else in the sound, just remove this awful brightness in the reverb, especially if a patch comes out a little noisy. I will try tweaking some effects, maybe it will help if i can modify it so that it sounds as i want.

I think its not only the Reverb itself, but various simple but very effective mixing tricks, involving filters, phasers, delays, choruses, reverbs etc...i have underestimated the power of the panorama in the past, so any tricks with panning would also be great. Ive been reading some articles from various websites concerning this issue, but still would like an opinion from you guys. your tips have always helped me with my music and making sounds generally.

Here is one idea http://www.voxengo.com/product/pha979/ put this at the end of the signal chain and try playing with and automating the "side mix" its fun to bring things in and out of stereo through the different sections of a song.

thank you

use soft sidechaining on the pad!

  Quote

i have underestimated the power of the panorama in the past, so any tricks with panning would also be great.

this is mostly what it's about, think width instead of depth. wide stereo sound with narrow reverb and vice versa. combining two different reverb units with different wetness, decay etc. if you don't like brightness in the reverb, try making it damper? but in my opinion bright reverbs are a good thing in a mix.