List of Effects Often Used

By Jacob Nevill

Here is a short comprehensive list of the effects that are used in DAWs for Mac and PCs. Please take the time to become aquatinted with their definitions and purpose. This will help in your own resent and future projects.

Equalizers (EQ) adjust the frequencies of sounds in various ways: 1. Can get rid of unwanted sound 2. Add life or presence to an instrument/voice 3. Can make room for other frequencies Graphic EQ - Chooses specific frequencies to highlight or eliminate. Shelf EQ - affects the range of a frequency below or above a set dB (decibal). Parametric EQ enables you to select a specific frequency. Dynamic Processors regulate the amount of sound or energy that get passed through. Use them to : 1. Control the signal going into the mixer & recorder 2. Tame the levels & correct an erratic music performance 3. Optimize the levels of the finished track Compressors/Limiters: Compressor compress the dynamic range of the sound Limiters is similar to a compressor in that it limits sound, but rather it effect the highest level of the sound source. Good choice only in extreme situations. Gates is essentially the opposite of a limiter. Rather than limit how loud, it limits how soft a sound can be. Often used for drums and guitars. Expanders the opposite of a compressor. Eliminates the quietest sound. Effects processors are most known for their use in mimicking real life situations. Here are a few of them: Reverb creates space and is used for depth. Delay ECHOEchoechoechoecho Chorus makes one instrument sound like several.

Flanger similar to chorus but it adds a bit of delay. Pitch correction fixes notes that allows popular artist to make millions of dollars when they couldnt even sing in pitch if their lives counted on it the little..fixes the notes that went astray.