The Steel Guitar Forum

Ok guys so I have dry pedal steel track a guy laid down for me. I need standard pluggin suggestions for Pro tools with a dry pedal steel track. I tried reverb but it still sounded dry or horrible, I'm thinking about a chorus with a slap delay/echo sound with then a compressor, and here's another question. What compressor, and any other effect's settings do you usually use on Pro Tools? The acoustic guitar, gentle, etc. Thanks!

Paul, I would first carve out a space with EQ so the steel isn't sitting in exactly the same sonic space as vocals or other instruments. Delay is often more helpful to me than reverb for giving some ambience. The included ProTools stereo long delay plug-in will give you different options synched to the BPM of the track, if you're using the conductor/click... experiment with one side on a 1/4 note delay, one on a dotted eight, etc. I turn it up to hear and fine-tune the delays and placement, and then turn the delay way down to blend.
I don't often use compression on steel, but for other instruments, vocals and across the drum subs and mix buss, all the time. I like the Waves compressors, the digi comp and gate, Bomb Factory BF-76, and all the T-racks stuff.

Try notching and reducing around 800Hz with a narrow Q and vary the frequency, cut and Q as you listen. This might help with the previous suggestion of finding a place for the track to sit in the mix better. Also, instead of delay, you might consider using a longer pre-delay on your reverb. Let your ears be the judge as to whether to use effects such as chorus. I avoid chorus on steel personally, thats just me.

Clete

Here's another idea, often used on drum tracks... if you feel your steel part is clear and pretty enough but doesn't have enough weight or body, try cloning (copying) it to a new track, cut a lot off the low end (like say, everything below 250 HZ)and compress the heck out of it- 6:1 or more... and then sneak that track up under the original track to taste. That should help thicken it up, if that's what you need.

Another idea is to use several reverbs of different sizes, and EQ before the 'verb for desired effect- like a steep rolloff of low end (see above) to a bright plate for a crispier, airier 'verb, less highs and more diffusion in a hall reverb patch for a darker sound, etc.

Paul,
I have gotten some really sweet sounding steel tracks that were recorded dry with the following:
1) Fairchild 660 compressor. Don't go with more than about 3db gain reduction as this is mostly for a slightly warmer sound.
2) EQ to taste... see above replies for ideas.
3) TL Space reverb. I tend to prefer the EMT 140A plate with a medium decay and set the dry signal to 0db and the wet to around -8db, but that is a matter of taste as to how much reverb you want. (Watch your input and output levels with this plugin).
4) If the signal becomes a little too hot I will put a limiter on it (usually just a Waves L1) with the threshold at 0 and the out ceiling to -0.1 or -0.2db to prevent any clipping.
Hope that helps. Good luck!
David