A clarification

Either way is fine. Putting the reverb on a separate send gives you a bit more control, because you have an untouched portion of the dry signal blended with the reverb and its separate fx. Doing this has some benefits, for example mike pushes the reverb on the sides with wideners leaving a spot for the woods in the centre.

 

Echoing & supporting Mattia's comments:

Reverb as send (instead of insert) saves CPU and system resources, so that's a big plus. Additionally, you're trying to place them in the same "space" so there isn't much need to have individual inserts for most situations. I do see a lot of libraries needing reverb as inserts for early reflections only (no tail) if they are super dry or close mic'd. This can be simplified by sending like sections from the same developer to a early return bus and to a reverb tail bus. A word of caution though, adding early reflections or panning a library that was recorded "in place" can mess things up, so reserve it for things like Sample Modeling.
An example would be:
Berlin Winds Tree Mic instruments summed to a Winds channel group, the resultant group channel has EQ (if needed) and a reverb send to a tail only.
Sample Modeling Brass instruments (panned) summed to a channel with a reverb insert with early reflections only, the resultant group channel has EQ and a reverb send to a tail only.
Spitfire Strings Tree Mic summed to a Strings channel group, the resultant group channel has EQ (if needed) and a reverb send to a tail only.
You may add an additional algorithmic light tail reverb for additional glueing to create the impression of a more coherent room.
You may also benefit from widening or narrowing the reverb or instruments to enhance the sense of depth.

Lastly, some reverbs have EQ/dampening built in, so you may not need an additional EQ insert on the reverb fx channel. Hopefully this makes sense and I look forward to hearing some other folk's workflows.

 

@Bradley Boone

Yo..... where have you been ? Post some tunes !

Hope all is well

 

Hey Doug, temporarily pausing thread with an update. I’ve been wrapping up the year so things have been hectic. I’m writing a commission for a beginning band that I’ll post here when I get it done. I’ll also post a beginning ensemble challenge for the board in a separate thread when it goes live (if anyone wants to participate!). It is a fun exercise to work within strict limitations.