Basic use of common instruments to add effects to

This is the second part of a semi in-depth look at using the mixing board with FL Studio.....

I will not go into detail on how to get your instruments to the mixing board, as I already did that in the first part.....


OK....So first let me say this is not an exact science, and there is no REAL way to determine exactly what instruments you should EQ and which ones get effects and how much....If you have your own ways on doing this, thats fine....this is just the way i do things.....



OK, So when I make a Beat, I usually start with my melody, then add my drums around that.....

So lets start with the melody.....

pick your instrument, whatever it is gonna be....and put it in the mixer.....

lets say it was a piano....

If you are looking to just have a nice clean sounding piano, there really isn't much to do to it....

you can just leave it in the mixer, and adjust the levels as necessary....

if you are looking for a more hall type sound, add a reverb effect to it in the mixer...

I use the fruity reverb, as it is really easy to use and quite decent for a stock effect.....

the main knobs on the reverb to worry about are dry, which the the lower the value the wetter (muffled) it sounds...

and reverb (echo)

I also put color on warmer...not exactly sure what it does, but i think it softens it a bit.....

the decay will make it ring out longer, and room size makes it sound like you are in different sized rooms (I know, self explanatory)

so, back to the piano....play with the knobs until you get the sound you are looking for....

for a starter, i drop the reverb to about 15, and the dry to about 80 and work from there....

you can basically take that info and apply it to any instrument you want...

like a synth, a clap, a kick, a snare, etc. etc. etc.........



now for drums..... I usually choose a nice sounding drum (one that i like at least)

something that you really shouldn't have to add too many effects on to get the desired sound you are looking for....

For my kick, i usually do not add any reverb, but if i do its really light.....

something like 90 % dry and 6 % reverb, if that...whatever you do just make sure it sounds good to YOU.....

but I usually do compress the shit out of my kicks....

for a compressor i usually use fruity compressor...again its easy and for a stock effect its pretty decent.... (you can get your own if you want, waves mercury bundle has some good stuff)

compression makes the instruments have a smooth feel to them, kinda hard to explain, but if you want more info go here....


Music And Technology.com - Resources for the Recording Musician


the numbers i usually use are

-30db on threshold....2.2:1 ratio.....and +15db on gain.....

now you can play with the numbers to get your desired sound, but i find that that works pretty well for me.....

now your kick may be a little too loud, so if it is just lower the slider on the mixer....

for hats, i usually add some of reverb.......

dry i put at like 80 and i leave the reverb at 20, again i put color on warmer...

now your hats may need a bit of volume adjustment in the mixer....

for snares, i usually do the same as the kick, except maybe some reverb (sometimes)

not much, but about the same as I did on kicks.....

crashes I reverb the hell out of....usually.....about the same as the hats....but maybe put the decay to like 3 seconds instead of the 1.5....

sometimes i also compress them....same as the kick, maybe a bit less....

for bass, theres not much too it, just put it in the mixer and play with the volume.....but do that as one of your final adjustments in the mix, because bass can confuse you as to how loud it really is....

now for the master track there are 3 effects i ALWAYS use for EVERY beat i make....

The first 2 come stock with FL 8 XXL......

They are Soundgoodizer, which basically brings everything up to as loud as it can go without clipping.....

when you add that effect to the mixer, it is gonna be almost turned all the way up....

its on a BIG circle knob...I make it so its like a quarter of the circle filled.....

the second effect is the fruity stereo enhancer....

I just put it on the track and leave it as is....

this makes sure that both Left and Right channels are equal....

the final effect I put on is not a necessity, but I like it and use it....

Its called Steinberg Magneto....

Download it here....
http://www.crazypellas.net/plugins-1...56/#post287092

this adds a nice effect to it, its like it was recorded to a regular old school cassette tape.....

mess with the numbers on that, you'll get a real nice sound....


that concludes my tutorial on adding effects to instruments

i may add more to this after i think about it a bit more....

thanx 4 da help g..da only fing im a bit confused on is da fruity parameter..itz gt 7 band..remove the last 1??? and change the first 3 to 60. 90 and 110 and adjust da rest????

Originally Posted by wgizzle

thanx 4 da help g..da only fing im a bit confused on is da fruity parameter..itz gt 7 band..remove the last 1??? and change the first 3 to 60. 90 and 110 and adjust da rest????

na go like 60 70 and 80.....but really this is just a guidelin...play with the frequencies to your liking...make it sound how you want it to sound, but remember...other instruments may have the same frequency, which will make things sound muddy, so try and have different frequency ranges for your instruments...

thanks bro! it's a really good tutorial.