KVR Audio

midwaydj · Post by **midwaydj** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:13 pm

In general, what order should you place these effects? I know it may vary on what you are applying effects to...but let's say for a vocal stab...and then for a drum group channel...i'm using battery2 and group all of my drums together...i realize you wouldn't want to use delay on your drums but anyway

Delay
Reverb
Compression
EQ

also are there any disadvantages to using the effects in battery2? I would think it would free up the processor a little by using them, but don't know if the compressor is worth a damn really...it's not too complex..thanks!

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:31 pm

If I were going for conservative, I'd put the compressor last, the EQ before it, the reverb before it, and the delay first. Likely, I wouldn't put the reverb at all, though, or sparingly at least.

soulkraka · Post by **soulkraka** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:04 pm

you may want to use some delay on certain drums...its a great way to get groove going.

Stupid American Pig · Post by **Stupid American Pig** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:06 pm

I wouldnt put a reverb in front of a compressor unless you want to tail affected by the compressor...

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:21 pm

Stupid American Pig wrote:I wouldnt put a reverb in front of a compressor unless you want to tail affected by the compressor...

Which goes to show you just how often a)I use reverb, and b)I'm being conservative. Yes, listen to the Pig, he speaks good sense.

soulkraka · Post by **soulkraka** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:28 pm

Stupid American Pig wrote:I wouldnt put a reverb in front of a compressor unless you want to tail affected by the compressor...

it can sound really cool though when you put a room verb on a snare then compress it.

adds2one · Post by **adds2one** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:48 pm

soulkraka is right, delay on drums can be very cool sometimes.

the eq or compression first is a tough one, i don't think i follow a rule about it, sometimes i do it one way and sometimes another.

i would generally put the reverb last but if you did want to affect the tail of the reverb that would be fine, although i would usually use a gate for this.

honestly though i usually use reverbs and delays as sends rather than inserts.

fizbin · Post by **fizbin** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 12:02 am

EQ and Compression are usually insert effects. The order can be either way, resulting in a slightly different outcome. Inserts are applied before send effects (unless the send is pre-fader). Delay and reverb are usually send effects meaning that neither is applied before or after the other. Send effects are not chained and are triggered from the non-effected (except for inserts) signal. You can obviously force delay into reverb or visa versa by chaining them in a single send, but this is not usually the way it is done. Nothing is wrong, though, especially if it sounds good.

fizbin

The Chase · Post by **The Chase** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 12:55 am

shamann wrote:If I were going for conservative, I'd put the compressor last, the EQ before it, the reverb before it, and the delay first. Likely, I wouldn't put the reverb at all, though, or sparingly at least.

really? compression tends to f**k up your reverb tails...

when it comes to delay and reverb, it usually doesnt make much noticable difference (though it can under very wet reverb cases) unless your delay has some sort of changing effect in it (like an evolving filter, etc).

I'd say that there is no definate order that is always right. Different cases call for different arrangements.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 1:05 am

Stupid American Pig wrote:I wouldnt put a reverb in front of a compressor unless you want to tail affected by the compressor...

That would depend on your threshold and release settings. i.e. what the compressor is doing to the signal.

In general I would suggest that in 90% of cases you won't hear much difference however you do it so I would just do what works. The great thing about software is it is so much easier to experiment with that kind of thing because you don't have to go repatching leads whenever you need to swap the order of things.

Another vote for delay on drums here too. I often use it on my kicks to crank up the rhythm.

rpc9943 · Post by **rpc9943** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 1:57 am

i'd have to say experiment with effects order, just know what each fx does and what you can do with it. when you line them up just recognize that they will be affected by the previous. pretty simple, but very powerful.

FaX · Post by **FaX** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:05 am

I'd work totally differently myself.

Delay & Reverb would be bussed to Auxillary Sends Only.

Some tracks would use Eq only

Others would use Compression only (particularly partial to parametic eq's myself with a 4 band minimum with judicious use of q and used for subtractive eq work only).

Others would be chained EQ lowend rolloff highend boost into Compressor into EQ with lowend boost and highend rolloff.

Some will be eq'd into compressor (particularly vocals that will have a reverb aux send where I can remove alot of the 2.5-3khz-3.7khz frequency spectrum).

Drum parts (particularly snares) I will compress then eq after compression. Usually with dual boosts around 500hz and 2khz approx for nice "thunk and snap" (very high compression ratio is great for break beat styled snares doing this) .

Use Auxillary sends too taste on any given track that needs either reverb or delay or a combination of the two.

basic effects questions