I'm not a professional musician or sound engineer but I'm willing to learn.
At the moment I'm reading several things about mixing, mix down and mastering because I want to optimize my caustic tracks.
And now I'm asking myself what's the best order when using a combination of filter/EQ, compressor and sound effects in the insert section.
- filter or EQ and compressor
- filter or EQ and sound effect
- compressor and sound effect
And when using the vocoder to have additional inserts than there could be the combination
- filter or EQ and compressor and sound effect
But what do I put into the first slot and what in the second (and in case of using the vocoder, what in the third?)
in my opinion there really is no right or wrong in most situations...its best to expieriment with different settings and combinations to get the sound your after...i generally put compression at the end of the chain and the same with eq...but thats just a personal preference...many people develope thier own particular sound by using a default set up....while other people mix things up and change things to see what happens...but the nature of experimentation is there are going to be hits and misses.
I asked the same question but specifically about where the compressor should go, the reply from Steve Conroy was pretty much the same as Dan's. No set order but Steve favoured FX first, compressor second too.
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I'd generally put the compressor last. Especially if you're automating the eq insert.
Unless you're still on version 3, I'd stop using the vocoder just to make a longer insert chain if I we're you. Use a Modsynth machine input instead. It's far more efficient.
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I usually have compression last as well, but could certainly imagine a slew of exceptions. delay or reverb inserts would be a good example of fx I might break that order for, it rreally comes down to what kind of sound you are looking for.
I agree with what James said I said but also agree with what Jeraste said about changing the order of fx when it comes to reverb and delay.For example adding reverb as an insert and then compressing it would make the reverb tails louder, I use it as a special fx sometimes but it's far more sensible to put the reverb after the compression.
The same goes with delay in my book.
Anyway there are no rules, just use the best judge of things, your ears!
Ha ha! My bad - I misunderstood and thought you preferred the reverb before/above the compressor in the FX chain...but yeah, anyway...above all else it's the ears that are the best guide - the 'optimal' set up will change from track to track.
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I do both, having the reverb before compression is an effect in itself.
a synth sent through a second channel - tight heavy delay - compression side chained to the original channel is another example of how breaking the "optimal" routing can have interesting results. experimenting with different effects chains can really lead to some crazy sounds.
Bingo! Tasteful yet descreet reverb settings -- especially when trying to create a Global Sonic Environment in your song, fed through a Master Compressor, greatly enhances the effect in a subtle fashion but yields a nice presence that gives a larger overall character.
But on a side note, my Aux Send tricks using Vocoder, or even easier now with the Modular MachineInput, expands the Reverb effect even further giving a more professional sound not to mention a more realistic tone......
Regarding IFX chains? Slot 1= Reverb, Slot 2 = Stereo Delay, = cool effect.
Some variants of Reverb gates are also possible (Skarabee has a video that demonstrates this very well)
Thank you for your answers.
All in all it confirms my opinions.
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The order you choose for your inserts depends on what you want to achieve. Reverb and delay producing a slightly different tone depending on the order you put them. You can get really nice effects just by changing the order of your inserts. Try to add a slow phaser to a drum then add a delay to that, how does that sound? Now switch the inserts and listen again, isn't that nice? Experiment with different combinations and you soon learn how the effects affects one another.
Using two pure sound effects can create funny sounds, I know.
But my initial question was about using filter/EQ and compressor with each other or in combination with one sound effect.
With sound effect I mean all effects except filter, EQ, compressor and limiter because these are singnal manipulation for me.
And to experience with changing the order it would be nice to do a quick swap.
The feature I've already requested in "Feature Request". Hope Rej can implement this...
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