anonymous
2 September 2006
I'm just starting to learn how to record seriously and I want to buy something to make the sound better...signal processors.
The main problem is that i dont know what most of them do!
I kind of understan compressors and reverb, but not completely.
What i ask of you guys is just kind of clarify what some of them do.
for example, Limiters, Gates, Sound Enhancers/Exciters, crossovers, blablabla.(yeah, i was looking at musiciansfriend.com)
I'm into recording from Ska to Punk to Grunge to Metal... you get the idea.
and it would also be nice if you guys could tell me whats recomendable to get first. THAAAAAAANK YOU.
ps: "Dumb it down a bit"...could you try to keep the answer simple, I usually dont understand what you people say. :oops:
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gabrieluko, Don't ask for much, do ya? OK, there's no way to t
gabrieluko,
Don't ask for much, do ya?
OK, there's no way to truly answer you questions accurately and "dumb it down" all at the same time... so, any RO'er that wants to chime in with flames on my butt, realize my first statement (this paragrah) is my disclaimer... cool?
Let's take this in several installments, shall we?
I'll try to give you the big picture and then let's start to expand that knowledgebase of yours... good to go?!?
Let's take em' in a pseudo logical order...
Effects are where we can start with the simplist circuitry. You send a copy/part of an original signal to an effects unit and bring back just the processed signal where it's added/mixed with the rest of the audio in the mixer to achieve a desired "effect".
Effects units are just that. Sound Effects... like a reverb or delay.
The copy is typically made with an Aux Send on your mixer. From the Aux Send, you take that to the input of the Effects device. You select which effect you deisre. Take the output of the effect and bring that back into the mixer. Depending upon your console/mixer, you can bring the effect in on an Aux Return, FX Return, or channel strip. (Which one depends upon your console/mixer.)
Quite often, you might wish to use different effects for different things...
An example; Lets say you want to put drums in one type of space, guitars in another, and only parts of the vocals in yet another... with a couple of key vocal phrases only needing a delay.
This would require 4 different effects units; 1 for each effect.
You could route Drums to Aux 1, Guitars to Aux 2, Vocals to Aux 3 AND Aux 4. You would then return these effects to 4 different channels.
Turn up the corresponding Aux Send on the channel strips and viola, you are sending audio to each of your 4 effects processors.
Just bring the effects back and mix to taste.
Let's make sure you've gotten this straight before going on to compressors/limiters...
Max