Hi fellow audiosexers. That's the question. I want to sound desing some electronic drums but to give them the impression of being live in a room, like LORN do with real mics but emulating that in the box. I think using only reverb fall short in this aspect.

Thanks a lot!

 

Don't know of a specific plugin, but a reverb would actually be sorta enough if you use it properly.

You would need two short and loud full wet room reverb sends, hard-panned left and right. You can then route them to a bus to process further.
Send each of your drum sounds to each of the reverbs according to their panning (the center sounds have the same send volume to both reverbs, th farther the sound from the center, the louder the respective send and the quieter the opposite one, the farthest difference about 6dB or maybe a bit more, also kick and toms have slightly lower overall send level than other drums). With big cymbals (that means everything but hi-hats), lower the dry signal level and raise the sends so the reverb is at about the same volume as dry signal or even a bit louder.

One specific reverb I know would work for this is FabFilter Pro-R with "Space" of less than half a second and "Distance" at the closest. You don't even need two instances since it's true stereo and you can just pan the individual sends if your DAW allows it. Remove all the equalisation for starters, and then adjust it how you see fit.

 

Last edited: Mar 1, 2023

Maybe IK Multimedia T-Racks Farm Stone Room? It's more or less just a reverb, but it's kinda made for emulating a famous drum room.



https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/trfarmstoneroom/

Eventide Tverb is quite similar as well.



https://www.eventideaudio.com/plug-ins/tverb/

However, a "room" reverb is already doing exactly the thing you are talking about, so any room reverb should work. I would send all of the drum tracks that you want the room sound on to a bus, then first add an EQ (Pro-Q for example) and cut lows and highs (not too much tho) and also do a bit of notch filter cuts on specific frequencies to make it sound more roomy/phasey. After that I would a good room reverb, set to 100% wet. Lastly I would add a soft-knee comp set to 8:1-10:1 ratio and compress the heck out of it. A bit of saturation might help to dirty things up as well.

 

Last edited: Mar 1, 2023

All you need is a proper impulse response (IR) file.
You might be able to generate one from a drum sample library that has both close and overhead microphone samples.
Voxengo Pristine Space has an overhead Mic IR included IIRC, and Voxengo Deconvolver can help you get IRs from real world samples.

 

Actually yes, a convolver with a proper impulse response would outperform an algorithmic reverb by a mile in this scenario.

 

ADD was the one who give me the idea prior experimenting with the reel expansions. I'll definetly will check the Eventide. I was also palying with IRs ans such but I thought maybe some plug with a more fast workflow was around. Like "dragging mics around a space" type of UI and then adjusting to taste. XD

Thanks to all for the advices!

 

Great thread, thanks for asking the question.

 

As everyone says, the best would be to use 2 reverb, one for left mic and one for right mic, kind of the same setting but not exactly so they accentuate the stereo effect. Small room with very short tail, or using a convolver.

Also, to simulate the different mic position, you have to send everything from the drum in those 2 reverb, but at different level, according to how close to the mic they are virtually placed, cause in a real drum setting, you don't ear all the cymbal/snare/tom and even kick equally on both mic. So try to visualize how your virtual drum is set and ajust your level according to that position (for a realistic effect, but you can also be more creative).

Also, another more simple alternative, as I saw above, is to use a virtual drum like Superior Drummer 3 or Addictive Drum, they're made for real drum, but they also have some electronic kit like 909/DMX/808 and others, all recorded like real drum, with overhead and room mic, it can be an easy way to add that room vibe to your kit.

 

There aren't many of them, unfortunately, but wouldn't that be a job for reverb plug-ins capable of Dolby Atmos? They will also give you sound "from the ceiling".
I would recommend the "3D" plug-ins from Exponential Audio (iZotope), for example. But to use them, you need a DAW that can handle the corresponding number of channels (e.g. Cubase). You don't need Atmos. Not even surround. But the DAW must be able to provide, for example, a 7.1.4 bus.

 

you want to achieve fake room mics, there's tons of video tutorials on YouTube for that,
it's always achieved with combination of multiple plugins, no big deal