what effects where?

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musicsdarkangel

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hey, I just realized my main problem with recording. I'm happy with the sound and everything, even though i mic drums with 1 mic. I'm still happy. But i really don't know how to put effects and where to put them. Shailat in another post had given 4 basic examples of where to use compression, when a bass is to whatever, and reverb on drums, stuff like that, and I was just wondering, can I have all of your opinions on where to use effects. Please try to name ANYTHING from vocals, to keyboard, guitars, bass, and drums. Those are all that I mix with. Anything about em will help, cause I have some problems with vocals being too loud when high or soft when low, etc. etc. The bass always is too punchy. The drums have the snare stand out way too much bla bla. thanx. What effects should I get that are a must have for a studio?
 
Sell your mic. Get a good beat machine. That will solve most of your problems.
 
You should own at least one multi-effects processor. They have many different effects in one box.

For keyboards I like almost any effect. Chorus, delay, rotory speaker, distortion, flanging. Anything can sound good on keys and synths.

Bass guitar rarely uses many effects, but compression is used often. Distortion or overdrive can make bass stand out in a mix.

TC Electronic, Lexicon, Alesis, and Sony make some good effects processors. The best thing is to just buy one that has a wide range of effects, and then start using them.
 
Yo Angel in the Dark:]

For vocals, you will need some reverb most of the time; most bad cuts come from using too much reverb or having a low budget reverb box. The Lexicon 100 is one I have in my studio, as well as an Alesis Midiverb 2 or 3? I use two reverb boxes and come up with some interesting effects.

For the bass: usually no reverb is needed unless you are creating a special effect for a special song.


Drums: they need very little or no reverb; you can bring out the cymbals by tweaking the high EQ on the track or tracks.

I do believe it is a tough job in a home studio environment to record "all" of the drums efficiently. I use a drum machine but then I don't have a band to speak of. I do singing clients and overdub to do my own stuff. I use CD backing tracks for vocals and it sure saves time for my purposes.

I would suggest, if doing a vocal, that you do the vocal last, after all the music is tracked. You might try doing the "very basic drums to keep meter" and later adding in drum splashes on a separate track.

Hope this helps...good luck and keep twiddling the dials.

Green Hornet
 
Recording drums isn't that difficult in a home studio environment. 4 mics can get the job done pretty well. Even if they are all dynamics. I for a long time used a $129 mic package (superlux) which had a bass drum and 2 tom mics, and a SM57. 57 on snare, bass drum mic on bass drum, and the 2 toms mics as overheads, all through a Behringer MX1604A. It worked. The drums sounded pretty good actually (to my great surprise). I mean, they weren't professional (not by far), but they sounded a hell of a lot better then a drum machine. I used a ton of verb on the overheads, brought up the highs and mids, and they sounded good. Toms were a little weak, but not bad.

If you have a room to put them in that doesn't sound to bad (mine is almost completely dead, lotsa furniture and padded walls) then like $400 can get you something decent. It won't be the greatest, but it'll blow away a drum machine.

examples of my drum recording (and great drum playing on the first one, second one is my old band which had a drummer) be warned, the 2nd one isn't for the light of heart.




Jake
 
chorus on backing vocals is sometimes good. helps them sit in the mix a little bit, cus it makes them sound nice and smoooooth.
try it.
 
A word on reverb...

You may try this technique and see how it does for you.
Solo a channel, and bring up the reverb you want until it is obvious, take notes. Now, with same track in the mix, bring up the reverb again until it is quite obvious, take notes. Place the actual amount of reverb somewhere between these 2 levels.
 
Effects are a very personal choice in mixing. I am sure I speak for anybody that does a lot of mixing in saying that:

1- Less is usually more
2- Shorter, bassier reverbs usually work better
3- Pitch shift effects should be used sparingly, and for a specific purpose.

Depending upon how a track was recorded, meaning whether it was a close or distant micing technique will depend on whether or not you use reverb. I read people talking about tracking in very dead rooms and adding reverb later, but I have found recordings like that to have a very "plastic" sound to them. If you pay a bit of attention to the room you are tracking in, you may find a really good sounding spot where the acoustics ADD to the sound, rather them muck it up.

I remember the words very well of a local producer/engineer from this area who is now working on some very impressive country artists stuff as an engineer saying:

"Effects should excite the song, not BE the song"

Like most things in the recording arts, there are not STANDARDS for choosing effects. Experimentation is the key.

Ed
 
123

The "less-is-more" thing Sonus mentioned is something I've incorporated for years in writing music. Simple things appeal more to more people than the complex. A short, simple melodic solo will be MUCH better than an Yngwie style psycho lead that lasts 2 minutes. In fact, I rarely ever hear a solo at all, anymore. And thank God, cause I probably can't do it anymore, although I used to.
This works well for alot of things. I wrote a song that had one chord for verse (stayed in same key), one for pre chorus, one for chorus, and back again. 3 chords, did it on purpose to prove a point. The vocalist took it and ran with it, it was totally catchy, and coulda probably made money had it landed in the right place.
Less is more. Print it out and hang it on your wall.
 
well

yea i have to agree, less is more if you know what you're doing. I'm pretty crummy at recording, so I was just wondering, where do you guys put effects for problems.....such as:
Punchy Bass
Vocals that aren't balanced and yelly at chorus
Guitars that need more character, and feeling
Drums that have the cymbals way too soft, snare way too loud, and bass drum about just right.

What are the eq ranges for these things?? I say lets keep this thread going cause it'd be great for newbies like me in the future. And thank you all for the help.
 
1 mic for drums? and now you want fx?

dude, trying to add effects to the whole drum kit is going to leave you pissed. even with my drum box (asr x pro) i record the midi drum parts into analog on separate tracks and then add effects accordingly. the reason is that you can't really add alot of reverb to the kick drum the way you would want it on the snare and cymbals.

for vocals, i either add more reverb to the back vocals than to the lead (to make the lead seem closer, in my virtual live band space) or i reduce the reverb on the back vocals and add a chorus effect [chorus first, then reverb in the chain].
 
I like to put maybe a touch of reverb on vocal. It depends on the song, generally I try to do no processing whatsoever on vocal tracks. But sometimes.... well if the song can get away with it, I'll even have crotchy distortion and flange on it. Generally speaking though, the less I play with it the better it sounds. With reverb, only a little is necessary. I mean a little! Delay is comon too, if you can get away with it in the song.(though not all at the same time) Generally I run just a

Lets see... guitar... eh... you can get away with alot more -compressor/distorion/reverb/delay/flange/chorus/ compressor and distorion, maybe bit of verb for rythem and take off the compressor for leads.

Bass, compression. That's about it. Delay could be used for a cool effect but it'd probably have to be pretty well integrated into the song.

Drums- verb on the overheads & some people like it on the snare. Like someone said, use real drums when possible. Then again, if you're in my situation that's just not a possibility, figure out how to seperate the individual instuments and apply verb to them....

get yourself a simple verb unit and comp, if you can't afford a multi effects.
 
I think reverb is part of placing the instruments in the mix... Puts the track further or nearer. So, listen to your mix, if something sounds like it's played in another room, or right next to you, anywhere that the rest of the band isn't, it might need some reverb. If it sounds like the singer for example, is in the next room with the rest of the band right in front of you, the vocals have to much reverb...

Compression is mostly also part of the mix, to correct the levels...

The other are more in the special eff range. They can be used to add to the music, but you could do a mix without them...
 
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