Effects Question

[dsealer]

I may be the only person who downloads tons of effects. So now I've got a bunch of effects that I don't know what they do, and I really don't have the time to go through them all and see what they do. So my question to you all is, what are the effects you use? What do you use for;
Vocals,
Processing,
Instruments,
Anything thing else I may not have thought of.

Thanks,
Don.....

[Fergler]

If you haven't thought of it you don't need it yet.

[slipstick]

EQ, compressor, delay and reverb. All came with Reaper. Add Unlimited by Sonic Anomaly on the master and that's about it apart from one or two real oddities.

So you might as well just throw all those downloaded ones away. If you haven't got time to work out what they do then you don't need 'em.

Steve

[DVDdoug]

So now I've got a bunch of effects that I don't know what they do...

The "big 3" are compression, EQ, and reverb. Do you understand what those do?

I like to start with the philosophy that a good recording doesn't need any effects. In reality, that's not practical for modern professional studio recordings, but it's a good starting philosophy. Start by using effects to correct weaknesses/defects before thinking about "special effects" to "enhance" the recording.

It's common practice to use compression to overcome playback limitations and to get "loudness" and reduce the dynamics for "home listening" without having to listening at realistic concert levels. ...Or, just to make your recoding louder than anybody else's!

Artifical reverb is added because most studios are intentionally "dead", but music doesn't sound good in dead rooms and most people don't listen to their music in a concert hall or music room with nice acoustics. A little artificial reverb can help with that. If you record acoustic or choral music in a music hall, you don't need added artificial reverb.

EQ can be used to correct for microphone problems, etc. Or, to help with some vocal problems. It's also common to high-pass everything except the bass and kick drum because low-bass from the other instruments and vocals tends to turn to "mud" in the mix.

[Philbo King]

Other than SIR for reverb, Isotope for some mastering, and a few Kjerhaus and Oxford EQ plugs, I don't use much stuff from downloads. The stuff included in Reaper does just fine. In fact, I haven't even gotten around to check most of the Reaper plugs out... ReaEQ, ReaComp and sometimes ReaFIR covers >90% of my needs. Your milage may vary; I record and mix real instruments and some MIDI stuff. It might be very different if I was designing Foley sound for movies or something like that.

[hopi]

Originally Posted by dsealer

... and I really don't have the time to go through them all and see what they do.

hmmm... if don't have time to check out each one to see if it is something you want to actually keep, ...how will you have time to really use it?

[Stews]

Originally Posted by hopi

hmmm... if don't have time to check out each one to see if it is something you want to actually keep, ...how will you have time to really use it?

He can use the time he saves from not trying out tons of plugins to actually mix some songs

[hopi]

Originally Posted by Stews

He can use the time he saves from not trying out tons of plugins to actually mix some songs

while that is true... he could also use that time to dl some dll's that he will not try and that would save him even more time... so with that extra time, he might have enough to try a few of the ones he already has....

[cassembler]

Originally Posted by Fergler

If you haven't thought of it you don't need it yet.

This.

First, I would get a deep understanding of each basic type of effect, like slapstick suggested: dynamics, EQ, delay, and modulation... Pretty much everything is a flavor of one (or more) of these.

Once you know the basics, and further how they combine to make chorus, compression, reverb, filtering, 'echo', saturation, etc., then you can appreciate why some products/settings sound different, and why you'd want (or not want) them to.


In short, there's not an easy button here - take the time to learn the tools, it's vastly more rewarding.

[cassembler]

To add, effects chains tend to be pretty personal to the artist (engineer/producer/songwriter all included in that).

What you're asking is "how do you paint trees, and rivers, and mountains?" Everyone here will give you different answers, but they're all using canvas, paint brushes, and paint*.

(*or fingers, sprayers, blood and urine, etc... You get the idea)

[slipstick]

Of course if you really want to complicate your life get a convolution reverb (ReaVerb is pretty good) or cab simulator. Then you can spend days on end auditioning all the thousands of IRs (Impulse Responses) out there that can make that one effect VST sound completely different.

Personally I just go for a few simple effects and IRs that I know reasonably well. But then it's fairly easy for me because most of what I make these days is electronic so I sort most of the sound out at source and don't need too many additional effects.

Steve

[somebodyelseuk]

Originally Posted by slipstick

... I sort most of the sound out at source and don't need too many additional effects.

Steve

Golden Rule #1

[Dumbo]

Originally Posted by dsealer

...and I really don't have the time to go through them all and see what they do...

I once had this problem also, I downloaded every free vst I could get my hands on and then they all appeared in my vst list and I had no clue what they were. I then decided to take the time and check each one out. Just put a drumloop on a track and inserted one after another and took notes. 90% of the vsts went to the trashbin and after that I had a small but fine collection of effects (and I knew what they did). Besides: testing them can be quite fun and one can learn a lot and discover new sounds, so my advise: take that time...

Cheers

Dumbo