Effects: Overview

You’re ready for the second holy trinity of mixing: Effects. This is, again, a short chapter to take a breather and indicate we’re moving to a new section.

I will only discuss the three basic effects. They will be enough for most mixes. They are built into every DAW, and otherwise you can find many quality free ones.

They are effects, not controls. This means you …

• Need to add them to tracks yourself (there isn’t already a button doing it)
• You can add multiple of the same type
• And order matters

Effects are executed in order. The result of the first one is sent to the second one, and so on. You can apply two compressors to a track—in fact, most recommend this over one compressor doing a huge job.

The three effects are,

• Compression
• Equalizer (EQ)
• Reverb & Delay

“Compression” handles volume differences. It compresses the range of volumes of a track, so it’s more consistent and doesn’t jump up and down.

“Equalizer” handles frequencies. You can add frequencies you miss, or remove those that annoy you.

“Reverb & Delay” add effects to increase (or decrease) your stereo image. They are your most direct way of controlling the 3D space for mixing. They handle stereo width, but also depth. (Instruments with lots of reverb will feel like they’re further away, for example.)

Yeah, technically that’s four effects. But reverb and delay are so intertwined that I think it counts as one.

In my interactive examples, effects appear as icons underneath the pan slider. Click the icon to open/close the effect window below the track it belongs to. The example below has a default reverb effect making the guitar sound bigger.

Take a deep breath. Practice and play with the topics explained before. They should be enough to get quality mixes already, albeit a bit dry or bland. Once you can do that, continue reading!