Editing Audio and Effects

[fastlanephil]

I was wondering if it is better to fine tune in audio with dry instruments and then add effects or after adding effects or before adding effects and also after adding them. Does it depend on what your are adding such as reverb and compression

[Scoot]

I would have thought working with dry instruments would sound very unrealistic. If you were to do so, and then added effect such as reverb or EQ, the final result would be different anyway - for a start the levels of instruments would likely change and fader adjust would be required to bring everything back to balance.

If working with midi instruments, remember any added effect will not be able to be taken out of the audio track once it's recorded.......unless you keep the original, tweak it different and record it somewhere else.


Generally effects can be added as the composition comes together and you should try and keep as much of it available to be changed as it all comes together.....and CPU will allow.

The biggest trap for me was enjoying reverb so much cause it makes audio sound different and using it too WET......forgetting I could unlock the dry/wet amount of effect used and allowing the original track to be heard with the effect added resultant track. This works well for reverb.....obviously it's not something you'd do for EQ....as you're trying to add or remove something in the mix.


Is any of this useful?

[fastlanephil]

I thought it was best to add effects if they are not already present and then edit audio. I've never seen much mention of the subject so I thought it was worth asking about. I guess you don't want so much reverb that you loose seperation of the different sounds and it gets mushy.

I have read that piano can be left dry and mono in a mix if you want it to be less dominant.

Thanks for your thoughts.