How do you go about adding effects?

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guitar enthusiast
Member Since: Apr 05, 2006

I’m a new user using Cakewalk. I recorded some drums, guitars and vocals.

I wanna add some compression to the guitars and some chorus to the vocals. How do you go about tweaking all of the options that are available for each effect? I guess you just gotta sit there and keep trying until you get the effect to sound good to you but is there any efficient way to do that? It seems like it’ll take forever.

I did try applying a preset but then my vocals were distorting. That’s a whole other issue. I’m guessing that I recorded my vocals too hot and the chorus preset jacked the volume making the peaks even higher.

Thanks for any help!

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Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Nov 20, 2006 04:51 pm

What version of Cakewalk are you using?

Depending on the version and the pluggin's you are using there should be many presets that will work great. But yes, you may have to tweak them to get it just right. Especially watching the level as some do tend to add a little to the over all level of the track. Compression, yes you will need to watch both your input and output gain as they can add a little dirt to the sound.

Answer:On a good day, lipstick.
Member
Since: Jun 24, 2004


Nov 22, 2006 09:23 am

Look on the interweb for 'free VST' effects. There are literally thousands out there (most of them ended up on my machine...). It amazes me that in the 'old days', when everything was hardware based, I would have had to have had a room full of 19" racks to hold all these effects, compressors, limiters etc.

The presets are really just general guidelines, and what may work for one sound might be hideous for another. Welcome to the world of 'tweaking.'

"Classic Compressor" and "Classic Limiter" have dug me out of many a hole.

Remember the old adage, "crap in, crap out" - so make sure you're input sound is as close to what you want as possible. Then the amount of tweaking necessary drops exponentially.

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