CATEGORIES OF EFFECTS (AN APPROACH FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A GUITARIST)

Introduction to Music Production

By: Andrs F. Regalado Bucheli

Introduction
Hello, even though english is not my native language I will try to explain this lesson the best I can for you. I love

electric guitar and I play it for fun and Im very interested to know the best way to make my own recordings. The purpose of this lesson is to explain and relate some of the digital effects we could see in the video lectures and which

DYNAMIC EFFECTS

belong to the DAW domain, with the effects you can find in
the 3-D world in individual little stompboxes, when you play the electric guitar So I hope you enjoy the lesson . Have a good time !!

DELAY EFFECTS

FILTER EFFECTS

Regards
Andrs F. Regalado Bucheli

DYNAMIC EFFECTS (RELATED TO AMPLITUDE)

COMPRESSION (1)
(or more technically Dynamic Range Compression) is a subtle effect primarily for electric guitar where the highest and lowest points of the sound wave are "limited". This boosts the volume of softer picked notes, while capping the louder ones, giving a more even level of volume. This is frequently used in country music, where fast clean passages can sound uneven unless artificially "squashed". Compression reduces the height of the signal to a preset level. This level can change over time. Known as 'attack', a greater attack level will give a more aggressive sound. Another effect of compression is that it expands the length of a held note, or its sustain. The compressor tries to keep the output level approximately the same, even if the input level is decreasing. As a result, the sustain will seem to hold at its original level longer. Compression has a side effect of raising the background noise of a signal. This can sometimes be circumvented with a properlyconfigured noise gate patched in before the compressor.

DYNAMIC EFFECTS (RELATED TO AMPLITUDE)

NOISE GATES (2)
Noise gates are used to electronically turn the volume down when you're not playing, so you don't hear the noise produced by other effects. Those with high gain, such as overdrive and

compression can be especially noisy. So to work at all, noise gates MUST be placed after the
effects producing the noise. They work by detecting the signal level, and then slowly fading down the volume while your playing level fades away. This prevents notes that are fading naturally being cut off dead. All

noise gates need to respond as quickly as possible to a new note after they have turned
down, so there is rarely a control to set how fast you want the turn-on time to be. With very noisy effects, it can be hard for the unit to separate the signal from the noise. It is usually better for the level detector to have its own input, which you would feed direct from the start of the effects chain. This feature is more common on rack multi-effects units. There are more sophisticated noise gate units that offer additional noise reduction techniques, such as treating the bass and treble components of the signal separately, offering minimum volume and tone settings, etc.

DYNAMIC EFFECTS (RELATED TO AMPLITUDE)

LIMITERS (2)
These devices are used to limit the maximum volume. They

have no effect on signals below the threshold level sets, but

hold signals above that level at a fixed level. This effect is similar to a compressor reducing high volumes, but a limiter

does not boost low level signals.

These are commonly used in PA systems to prevent overloading the power amps and/or speakers. They can be

useful in guitar systems for simulating valve power amp

dynamics in a solid state system, but they really are not as good as "the real thing".

DYNAMIC EFFECTS (RELATED TO AMPLITUDE)

SOME GRAPHIC EXPLANATION (2)
This diagram shows all dynamic effects: Compressors reduce gain above the threshold A limiter is a compressor with a very high gain ratio: anything above the threshold is limited to that level

Expanders reduces gain below the threshold - they are rarely used
because the effect is reduced sustain A gate is an extreme expander ratio where anything below the threshold is turned off - commonly used for noise gates

FILTER EFFECTS (RELATED TO TIMBRE)

EQUALIZERS (2)
These effects are designed to give more tone control than is possible with the basic amplifier bass, middle and treble controls. There are 2 common varieties; graphic and parametric. Graphic equalizers use sliders to control the level at fixed frequencies, called bands. These provide a graphic representation

of the overall frequency response. The bands are usually

logarithmically related, meaning that each frequency is always a fixed multiple of the next lowest frequency. This corresponds to the way our ears perceive frequencies, including notes in the scales we use.

FILTER EFFECTS (RELATED TO TIMBRE)

EQUALIZERS (2)
This diagaram shows 10 bands, each of which can be boost

or cut between the extremes shown:

The total frequency range can be limited to suit particular instruments, such as bass or guitar, or it can cover the

entire audible range from 20Hz to 20khz. Additional bands

give you finer control, but require more adjustments to make broad changes.

FILTER EFFECTS (RELATED TO TIMBRE)

WAH (2)
The wah effect moves a peak in the frequency response up and down the frequency spectrum. This movement is usually controlled by rocking a foot pedal, but there are also stomp-box effects which allow the peak to be triggered up or down by your playing intensity.

The resonant (peak) frequency is usually be moved from

around 400Hz to 2Khz. One factor that makes different pedals sound special is how the resonance changes as the frequency is moved. Typical wah pedals have increasing

resonance as the frequency is lowered.

DELAY EFFECTS (RELATED TO PROPAGATION)

REVERB (2)
Reverb is the sound you hear in a room with hard surfaces (such as your bathroom) where sound bounces around the room for a while after the initial sound stops. This effect takes a lot of computing power to reproduce well. Reverb is actually made up of a very large number of repeats, with

varying levels and tones over time. Reverbs usually offer

you a choice of different algorithm to simulate different environments such as different sized rooms and halls, studio effects such as plate, chamber and reverse* reverbs,

and sometimes emulations of guitar spring reverbs.

DELAY EFFECTS (RELATED TO PROPAGATION)

DELAY (2)
Delay is an echo effect that replays what you have played one or

more times after a period of time. It's something like the echoes
you might hear shouting against a canyon wall. The original delays, like the legendary Watkins Copy Cat, were tape machines running a loop of tape that recorded your playing. The sound was replayed through one or more replay heads positioned further around the loop, then ultimately erased, ready for the next recording. By varying the mix from different replay heads and the speed of the tape, you could get a wide variety of delay effects. You could even set up different rhythm patterns in the delays! These units suffered some problems, mechanical ones with broken tapes, head alignment was important, and they were quite noisy as well.

DELAY EFFECTS (RELATED TO PROPAGATION)

PHASER (2)
Phasers use an internal low frequency oscillator to automatically sweep notches in the frequency response up and down the frequency spectrum. An important difference between phasing and flanging is that phasers space these notches evenly across the frequency spectrum, while the notches in flanging and chorus are harmonically (musically) related. You don't hear the notches as such (because they are the frequencies that are removed); what you hear is the resulting frequency peaks between these notches. Early phasers did not provide any feedback, so the original effect was quite subtle; ideal

for textural rhythm playing.

DELAY EFFECTS (RELATED TO PROPAGATION)

PHASER (2)
Phasing works by mixing the original signal with one that is phase shifted over the frequency spectrum. For example, a four stage phaser signal could be from 0 degrees at 100Hz, shifted to 720 degrees at 5Khz (these extremes are not quite possible practically, but are near enough to explain the effect). This is how the term phase shifter comes about. Where the signal is in phase (at 0 degrees, 360 degrees and 720 degrees) the signals reinforce, providing normal output. Where the signals are out of phase (180 degrees and 540 degrees), they cancel each other, giving no output at these frequencies. Constantly

varying the frequencies where these cancellations occur, gives the movement associated with phasing.
Adding resonance enhances the frequency peaks where the signals are in phase. A 4 stage phaser has 2 notches with bass response, a central peak, and treble response. By using resonance to enhance the central peak, you can get a sound similar to an automatic wah. Each phaser stage shifts the phase by 180 degrees, so a 6 stage phaser gives a shift of 1080 degrees, providing 3 out-of-phase frequency notches along the way. Designs with 4, 6, 8 and 10 stages were common, although each stage adds noise to the final output. Using a phaser with lots of stages and setting the resonance high can give a sound similar to flanging, although they are really quite different.

DELAY EFFECTS (RELATED TO PROPAGATION)

FLANGER (2)
Flangers mix a varying delayed signal (usually from less than 1 millisecond to a few milliseconds) with the original to produce a series of notches in the frequency response. The important difference between flanging and phasing is that a flanger produces a large number of notches, and the peaks between those notches are harmonically (musically) related. A phaser produces a small

number of notches that are evenly spread across the frequency

spectrum. The short delay used for flanging is usually set too short for the extra signal to be perceived as an echo. Flangers, Phasers and Choruses each produce a series of notches

in the frequency response that are modulated across the frequency

spectrum. The notches correspond to no sound, so except for a little tremolo (pulsating volume), we don't really hear the notches; we hear what's left which is a series of peaks.

DELAY EFFECTS (RELATED TO PROPAGATION)

CHORUS (2)
True vintage chorus works the same way as flanging. It mixes a

varying delayed signal with the original to produce a large

number of harmonically related notches in the frequency response. Chorus uses a longer delay than flanging, so there is a perception of "spaciousness". The delay is usually on the verge of a perceived echo: with some settings echo won't be noticeable while longer delay settings can make give a distinct slap-echo effect as well.

There is also little or no feedback, so the effect is more

subtle.

WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THIS LESSON?

After studying the video lectures corresponding to lesson 3 and after analyzing the different features of the mixing board and the DAW I made this work thinking about how expand the inputs and outputs of a mixing board and how improve some characteristics, processing sound externally before the signal enter to the mixture board.

REFLECTION
Im just trying to learn about music production and music recording but the purpose of this work is that the people think about some experimental facts and ask some questions about if its better doing a sound processing for instruments like guitars in external stompboxes connected to the mixing board through external inputs or if its better use the digital effects included in the mixing board or the DAW. I have a lot of questions about this fact and I will really appreciate a honest

feedback if somebody can see this presentation. I hope you had fun with this lesson.
Sincerely

Andrs F. Regalado Bucheli

REFERENCES
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org (2) http://www.gmarts.org