I was wondering how you guys use reverbs. Quite a few videos I have seen show the wet/dry at 100% wet. And many of the presets in the reverb plugins I own are set to 100% wet. They always sound awash with reverb and not very useable and I always have to pull back the wet/dry a lot. I always thought this was a strange thing about verbs or I am doing something wrong?
 
I love the sound of verbs especially on vocals and lightly distorted guitars and I mostly set the wet/dry it to where I start to hear it and then add a little bit more.
 
What is your favourite setting for the wet/dry? Do you use 100% often?

When on a Reverb send to a separate fx bus, 100% wet
When inserted into the FX bin, Wetness blended to taste

Kamikaze
When on a Reverb send to a separate fx bus, 100% wet
When inserted into the FX bin, Wetness blended to taste

When sending to a bus should the track be post or pre and what should the bus post and pre be going to the master?

Post from the track so the ratio between the track and FX stays the same. The FX is either on the ProChannel or the FX bin of the bus, sending to the Master out

When using reverb on a send, whether you make the send post or pre fader depends on what you want to achieve. In the following examples, the reverb on the aux track is set to 100% wet (as it always should be on a send). 
 
Post Fader: This is the most common way of doing it. When you have a post fader send, the send amount is proportional to your fader level. So when you move the fader down, the amount of signal sent to the reverb comes down with it and vice versa. This is good if you always want the wet/dry ratio of your reverb to remain the same regardless of where your track fader is. The downside is that you're limited as to how wet you can get that reverb to sound - you can never get it 100% wet. 
 
Pre Fader: When you have a pre fader send, the send amount is absolute, i.e. independent of the fader level. So your send knob determines a fixed amount of signal sent to the reverb. Now you can configure a 100% wet reverb sound - by bringing the fader all the way down, all you hear is the 100% wet reverb coming from the send, and the send knob determines the volume of it. The drawback is that if you want to maintain a constant relationship between wet and dry with a pre fader send, you have to readjust the send level every time you move the track fader. But you can achieve some very nice effects with a pre fader send - for instance, if you automate your track fader to fade out the track volume, the wet reverb signal stays constant, and this creates the illusion of the sound moving into the distance. 

sharke
When using reverb on a send, whether you make the send post or pre fader depends on what you want to achieve. In the following examples, the reverb on the aux track is set to 100% wet (as it always should be on a send). 
 
Post Fader: This is the most common way of doing it. When you have a post fader send, the send amount is proportional to your fader level. So when you move the fader down, the amount of signal sent to the reverb comes down with it and vice versa. This is good if you always want the wet/dry ratio of your reverb to remain the same regardless of where your track fader is. The downside is that you're limited as to how wet you can get that reverb to sound - you can never get it 100% wet. 
 
Pre Fader: When you have a pre fader send, the send amount is absolute, i.e. independent of the fader level. So your send knob determines a fixed amount of signal sent to the reverb. Now you can configure a 100% wet reverb sound - by bringing the fader all the way down, all you hear is the 100% wet reverb coming from the send, and the send knob determines the volume of it. The drawback is that if you want to maintain a constant relationship between wet and dry with a pre fader send, you have to readjust the send level every time you move the track fader. But you can achieve some very nice effects with a pre fader send - for instance, if you automate your track fader to fade out the track volume, the wet reverb signal stays constant, and this creates the illusion of the sound moving into the distance. 

Thanks James, I can't thank you enough and I should have asked this question years ago. It appears I have limited the capability of a reverb when my only move has been playing with the wet/dry, post fader on the send to the reverb buss. With the send defaulting to post that's where it mainly stayed. I have similar problems with compressors as I don't really understand them. I only recently worked out that playing with the attack time determines how much of the transient gets through. I am a hobbyist as you can tell trying to create the entire production and not always successful but having a hell of a lot of fun trying.

When the reverb is on the send, just leave it at 100%wet in the reverb GUI, then balance the reverb bus against the dry track signal. Post as James says is the most common, it's a standard set up for most s I dn't think you have been limiting yourself.  Seems the bulk or reverb manipulation is in the shaping of reverbs and  the layering. If you have the reverb in the FX bin, then setting the ProChannel to be Post (or putting a ProChannel first the PrChannel chain), allows sme shaping with the QuadEq, thickening with tape of softube saturation etc. With layering, you may have three sends, and three reverbs. Ambience for sitting sounds, room for creating a unified space and plate or hall for some drama. I think this video puts it well.
 
 
Skip to 6:15 mins in

 
Compression is more tricky and I have little confidence in it. The wet/dry on some compressors is more f a standard feature nw, and is basically parallel compression built in. This allow a compressor to be more forgiving, and if you over compress or have the attack a little too fast, you can blend in some clean.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Kamikaze
When the reverb is on the send, just leave it at 100%wet in the reverb GUI, then balance the reverb bus against the dry track signal. Post as James says is the most common, it's a standard set up for most s I dn't think you have been limiting yourself.  Seems the bulk or reverb manipulation is in the shaping of reverbs and  the layering. If you have the reverb in the FX bin, then setting the ProChannel to be Post (or putting a ProChannel first the PrChannel chain), allows sme shaping with the QuadEq, thickening with tape of softube saturation etc. With layering, you may have three sends, and three reverbs. Ambience for sitting sounds, room for creating a unified space and plate or hall for some drama. I think this video puts it well.
 
 
Skip to 6:15 mins in

 
Compression is more tricky and I have little confidence in it. The wet/dry on some compressors is more f a standard feature nw, and is basically parallel compression built in. This allow a compressor to be more forgiving, and if you over compress or have the attack a little too fast, you can blend in some clean.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks Kamikaze for the great advise. The video was awesome definitely going to give layering of the verbs a try. I liked the guys rig I think I could adapt to a standing position very close to the performance position as an alternative to sitting for hours.  Something to think about but probably won't go to the expense of all the outboard equipment.