Signal Processors

Paul White and Hugh Robjohns talk us through four essential studio effects that every music producer or mix engineer needs to know for creating an effective mix.

Is it ever appropriate to place a limiter on a routing folder for specific parts prior to them hitting the final mix bus?

Quite a few engineers who work with bands like driving their drum submix into fairly heavy compression, but whenever I try doing this it seems like I end up losing the low‑end weight from my kick drum...

At what point in the mixdown process do you think it’s best to engage the master‑bus compressor?

There were some strange pin assignments on Eventides in the old days — could that be the problem?

When doing parallel compression, are there advantages to using the compressor fully wet on another channel, and feeding it with an aux send from the first track?

Feedback and feed‑forward compressors can sound very different. Which type is right for which job?

Do your productions lack texture and movement? Your DAW’s modulation plug‑ins might offer a solution.

I’m seeing a lot of conflicting advice about using compression while recording. Some swear by it while others say it’s completely unnecessary with 24‑bit recording and modern converters. Where do you stand on this?

The right EQ settings can make a mix — and the wrong ones can make a mess. Our in‑depth guide will help you get more from this all‑important tool.

Have you ever wondered what lies behind the intriguing wobbles and lush swooshes of this classic effect?

Not all 500‑series racks are created equal. Here’s what you need to know to make your choice.

With so many modules on the market, how do you make the right choices?

I've got a Zoom MS-70CDR [multi-effects] pedal, and a few people are saying not to use it via an aux send and return, owing to a comb-filtering issue. Have you noticed this issue with digital pedals on aux returns?

I've always advised my students to set their high-pass filter slope at a steep setting of 48dB per octave to reduce boominess. Is this the best advice to give my students, who are very much at the beginner stage?

Plug‑in models of classic hardware can sound great if you feed them the right level. But what level is right?

Can I get good results on a Dobro that has a Shertler Basik on‑board mic, or will I need a piezo pickup?

How do you differentiate between the following terms: saturation, harmonics, distortion, overdrive? Are all of these just similar terms with different names?

I've recently bought a Klark Teknik KT-2A compressor to use with my Warm Audio TB12 preamp and noticed the TB12 has insert input and output sockets. What is the best practice when using outboard compressors with preamps when tracking?

I thought I had a handle on this, but seem to have a hard time understanding the difference between a compressor’s ‘Hold’ and its ‘Release’. Can you help explain?

In Ableton Live, I used to use a plug-in to split a channel so that I could do multiband processing. I’m now using Cubase Pro 8.5 and it doesn’t seem to work...