Hi guys, William asked me to chime in. A few tips I figured out along the way if this will help:
1. Don't widen past "default" of a certain IR: Correct - don't move the altiverb speakers further apart. There is normally plenty of width in the VSL files they don't need widening -do this over the mix via placement of instruments and groups in the field, not by widening them individually, narrow only if you wish.
2. Don't narrow to mono - but narrow a fair amount if you wish.
3. The speakers are not really panning at all, they are placement, which is different. It is hard to achieve a studio style panning effect with these speakers, and I figured out, they are not really for that. My suggestion is to use Waves S1 or another stereo panning utility before altiverb, do you narrowing of the field and positioning there if / how you want to, and then add to that effect by placing the altiverb speakers as well. In other words, do a bit of panning with S1 then finish off the job with altiverb - stereo speakers in altiverb should remain at default for this scenario, no need to narrow and narrow again or narrow then widen! all you are doing in altiberb is adding to the panning effect. [edit I forgot to mention the reason I think S1 is just fantastic is the assymtry parameter - it's awesome I don't know of another placement plug in that has this feature it is not only left / right and width the assymetry gives a whole new dimention of placing and shaping the sound and is absolutely invaluable, I can't rate this highly enough. If you can I suggest you demo it because it's really good. Instead of just placing the sound on the stage where it is like the instrument is playing 90 degrees to the stage you can turn it, and that kind of changes the sound source without filtering the sound in anyway, and you can achieve both MUCH more realistic panning techniques and also must more, where you wish, precise technqiues. Finally another small pointer, never "monoise" a stereo source with either S1, and never use the built in panning of your host. Instead, just take the stereo file, and mute one channel - you now have a mono recording.]
4. Very important. The direct signal should only be ON at ONE stage in the process NEVER more. This is where the phasing effects come in. In fact, you can leave this off altogether throughout, and just use the mix buttong but this is less effective for the placement effect.
5. Like they say, think of altiverb as a real room, what you are doing is placing speakers in a room, not the instrument you are playing through them - the result IS different - so they are there to emulate and to assist but they are not the real thing - that's why you need to use S1 or your choice of panner to refine the signal before going into altiverb.
6. William: The wet/dry knob is for use without "direct" sound. Direct sound *is* your dry signal *through* the IR being used. - adjust short reflections and tail to adjust the mix. When turning off direct signal, use the wet/dry as your wet dry [[:)]]
7. If you are using the altiverb "preset" style placement technique, you should turn down the short reflections on the buses - the placement altiverbs - don't leave them at -0db - these are adding short reflections. OR, you should turn OFF short reflections at the master - that might work, and only mix in the tail, but just be careful not to double up on SF in the chain.
8. The colour knob is important, I leave it set to IR most of the time. The IR used is also important.
9. The "master tail" should only have signals coming into it from the placement reverbs - no other dry signals - and those signals from the placement altiverbs should naturally be 100% wet from those altiverbs, so when you mix with direct signal off, and use just the wet/dry to mix your tail in you shouldn't get phasing effects since the dry signal we are talking about is actually the dry "non" tail version of the processed signal not the original dry sound from the instruments if that makes sense.
I hope that helps a bit [[:)]]
For my 2c worth, I think of all convolution reverbs available AV is the best one right now. It can be frustrating but once you work it out, and realise that what is frustrating is simply the many possible options, then you just have to tailor your options down and focus them into something that works.
Best,
Miklos.
