Delays and Reverb in the Mix

[Debutante]

Can anyone suggest ways to contain delays and reverb within a mix so that the combined effectuation becomes an instrument in its own right... sort of like a sonic force field that would allow for easier and more discrete placement of the event within a mix. Everything seem to spill over for me a little more than I would like....CHEERS

[griels]

Compress your reverb/delay tails? Also, EQing/filtering your effects may help, e.g. high passing a delay. Also, avoid ping pong delays if you want to keep the instrument in a particular stereo position.

You could also experiment with a ducking delay (there are a few around, but can't remember the names) - this brings down the volume of the effect when the input signal is loud.

[Hermetech Mastering]

might seem obvious, but syncing the delay time to the track tempo (or very close to it for a bit more weirdness) might do it.

also maybe try to narrow the stereo width of ping pong delays.

[sangha]

Can anyone suggest ways to contain delays and reverb within a mix so that the combined effectuation becomes an instrument in its own right... sort of like a sonic force field that would allow for easier and more discrete placement of the event within a mix. Everything seem to spill over for me a little more than I would like....CHEERS

I've never tried anything like this, but you might try increasing the level of the early reflections and compressing the crap out of the reverb.

[Jbravo]

one trick that I use to beef up a rhythm or bass track is, add a reverb with very short decay, but delay it so it falls a beat or half a beat later (ie. in sync with the tempo or it'll sound chaotic), then compress the hell out of it! (the dry and wet mix together). It can make a really weedy track sound much fatter - though obviously you want to get the level and colour of the reverb right according to what your using it with... hope that helps