what order do i want my effects rack in to optimize my sound

[darrin_h2000]

my dillemma is this , iknow that as guitar effects go there is a certain order of effects the footswitches go in to achive the best tone.

how should the signal path from my hard disk recorder to my burner.

right now i have these in my rack

2/3 octive eq

digital reverb

dbx noise reduction unit

dbx 118 compressor/expander

aphex aural exiter

i plan on adding some more stuff in the future
so adding other devices in this chain would also be helpful.

thanks

 

[sonusman]

Given THOSE choices, I would not insert ANY of them between the HD recorder and the burner and try to get a killer mix without them.

After you feel good with the mix without the low end devices you are mentioning, you could then try to see if one or two, or all of them do anything good to the sound. I suspect though that they will do more harm then good in most cases IF you got a pretty good mix going on.

As to the order, and I am assuming that you want to use these as "mastering tools", it can be just about any order. When I master, I tend to EQ the mix first, add any harmonic enhancers next, then use limiting. There are a few cases where harmonic enhancers work a bit better before the eq, but that is rare. I know of some mastering engineers who like to compress/eq/limit. Really, it is a matter of what works well for the song. I do my eq/limiter first, then adjust if I am not getting the results I seek.

But really, none of those devices are going to do great things to your mix, IF, it is a pretty good mix to start off with. I think you should stive to make the mix as good as can be without them before using them.

Good luck.

Ed

 

[LongWaveStudio]

if you're using that rack in the studio, i woudln't daisy chain connect them. get a patchbay, and connect all your ins and outs of your equipment. connect your sends to the patchbay too. daisy chaining those units will producing noise and loss in signal quality.

-Romesh
Long Wave Studio