Need help with reverb and delay buses

I'm trying to work on getting better with reverb and delay. I was hoping someone could point me in the direction of a good tutorial or something.
I'm not quite wrapping my head around whether to use 2 buses (one short and one long) and feeding everything into those to create a 'room' for my track or if I should be leaning more towards using individual reverbs and delays for things like snares etc.
I'm also really struggling to understand gain staging when using a reverb bus. I'm not sure if I should leave the fader at 0db on the bus and just use the sends to adjust level or if I should be using the bus fader for level. All of which (I think) messes with my gain staging for the bus.

Any help would be appreciated.

Depends on your style. Do you do organic music, e.g. folk/jazz/rock, or modern electronica/dance?
 
If the former, the longstanding practice has been to use two reverb busses, one with a short "roomy" tail and the other with a longer "hall" type tail. Yes, you're (mostly) trying to simulate a band playing in a real physical space with the short reverb, but also helping out the lead vocal with the long one.
 
If your style is the latter, sorry, I can't help. Best guess: use a single long reverb and dial it up until it's obviously too much, then add a little more.

RSMCGUITARI'm also really struggling to understand gain staging when using a reverb bus. I'm not sure if I should leave the fader at 0db on the bus and just use the sends to adjust level or if I should be using the bus fader for level. All of which (I think) messes with my gain staging for the bus.

Any help would be appreciated.

 
Personally I always keep my bus fader levels at 0dB and use the send levels on the tracks to control how much reverb/delay is applied
 

same as above: 2 reverb buses, one long one short, keep the buses at 0, adjust the send level to taste, unless it's creative then whatever goes

Same here, one long and one short reverb bus. However, for things like a snare, I still might have a separate reverb just on that track because it is usually a specialty reverb.
 
Dan

if you use reverb sends on individual channels,
automation is cool....
and if you DO automation, 
a tip:
i always set the send level at ZERO first, THEN add the automation,
then it's all the way down, and you can bring it up at will using nodes....
 
now, if i have a lot of background vox, for example...
and i want reverb on all of them...
rather than doing it to individual tracks,
just create a new sub bus, routed to the master..
and send all the backups to THAT new bus,
and automate reverb on just the bus.
 
easy peasy, quick, and so easy to mix.
 
in fact, i've done entire mixes where the individual faders were all 'up', 
everything routed to sub busses, and the entire mix done with automation on JUST the sub busses.
 
 

Ok, first maybe try using one verb or one delay to practice. I tend to use 3 or 4 or more delays and verbs when I'm mixing depending on type of track, but for a newb...stick to one of each.
 
Second, gain structure. As long as your mix track is correctly gain staged...set the send to -3 or set the send to the verb or delay buss to -3. The chain for a verb should be the verb first, then I tend to use a separate EQ, not always, rather than the supplied ones which you find on the verb. This is because I like to add some flavor, or I tend to use an emulator...I'm not going to give all my tricks lol. Unless you're trying to simulate a hall or a stadium, use a shelving filter and set the hi-shelf to about 4khz and the low-shelf to about 80hz, but use your ears to get use to what your hearing before being a bit of set and leave person...that takes time :). This emulates the basic sound of a room's EQ. Remember if you use a separate EQ rather than the supplied EQs on verb...set the Verb's one to ZERO. Now if you're using platinum or a version of Sonar that has the Pro Channel, after the verb, and the EQ use the Tape Console emulator, and use the rec and playback knobs to set the gain structure to around -18 rms. This chain and gain structure can be used for both delays and verb. If you're using the console emulator, you're probably not, but I do...then a bus console emulator. This helps with the edges of the transients. You can then use the fader to set the level, use your ears to work out how much delay and verb the mix or track needs.
 
 
Now if you're very tricky like me...I tend to use a couple of special effects to increase depth of field to all my verbs and delays...depending of course on mix. But this is beyond a newb IMO, and will only confuse you...plus I'm not giving all my tricks away :).
 
Here is a demonstration of my verb and delay technique...so you get an idea that it works and works well...maybe listen in headphones to because you should be able to hear the verbs and delays wrap around your head due to my depth of field trick. https://youtu.be/46MA8Uw1w8c 
 
Ben