While in the midst of a dialogue premix, I've been playing around with this Snapshot feature on TLSpace I never knew existed. Has made verbing so much quicker and easier now especially for recurring locations - in fact I wish I knew this for the past 4 years ;)
It has been nice to add just a touch of verb to interior scenes, with Snapshot settings matching the right feel and timbre of the space (some having a short pre-delay slap of a living room IR for an apartment, and a longer pre-delay with a slap back late delay of a garage for a big empty club/bar location that has high ceilings etc).
But when it comes to exterior spaces, I'm curious what some of you have done (or not done) regarding verbing the premix chain. I ask because when I have always added just a touch of verb to the dialogue ('a touch' meaning that in the case of TL Space, I'm running a ratio of 0dB Dry, -25 to -30dB wet) it seems to round it out with some warmth and make it pop, almost in that it diminishes the slightly flat sound that results from running prudent/conservative broadband Noise suppression (a la Cedar, C4, etc). In other words, just enough reverb to give some life and space back to the now-clean dialogue but not enough verb that you're hearing it as "oh my good, there's reverb in here!".
But then comes exterior spaces Something still sounds flat about raw dialogue even against BGz when it's fully dry. I have normally left it alone because it seems that in most exterior locations it feels natural that the dialogue doesn't react with the space (for example, on a mountain trail overlooking the city). But in spaces where we do naturally have slap-happy interactions like an alley or such, I did recently play with a dark plate verb I found and fit the bill. For seem reason, even that touch of it was enough to bring life to the exterior dialogue that the other dry exteriors didn't quite have.
So it brings me to the question of those who mix dialogue - have you experienced this 'sparkling' effect with how reverbs react with production in a pleasant way, and as such, do you tend to always add a tinge of verb to all of production regardless of interior or exterior (while of course choosing the right IR and parameters that feel correct for the type of space). Or do you find exterior verbing a waste of time/no benefit to the luster of the production track and just roll with it dry on exteior unless we're in an appropriately-reverberant space (e.g. an alley)?
There isn't a right or wrong answer here, just seeking opinions and experiences of others. Thanks!
NOTE: My signal flow: DX EDIT TRACKS => SIDECHAIN (EQ, Comp, Noise Suppress, DeEss, etc) => DX Submaster (sometimes I run the verb insert on this, sometimes I feed the Sidechain to an Aux Send for verb and feed that to sum into the Submaster - depends on a case by case). So ultimately, my verb is always at the tail end of my chain before the DX signal hits the stem print track. if this at all helps visualize.
I think my question may be slightly mus-interpreted, although I appreciate the responses so far they've been great to read and learn about. I'm asking more though about "why" verbing Exteriors (beyond the obvious verby spaces) could be useful or a waste of time on helping/hindering the dialogue track, versus the "how". Thanks!