I’m starting to think more about the kinds of things that Bob Goyetche and I will present during our audio production workshop at Podcasters Across Borders. I thought that, as a bit of a teaser, I’d start posting some of my thoughts and start accepting questions and input from the community on things it would like to learn.

There is no limit to the amount of effect processing one can apply to an audio recording during both the recording and post-production phases. Software such as Cubase, GarageBand and Audacity include many effects processors, and the creators have made them incredibly easy to use by including pre-defined settings. With all of these incredibly useful and odd effects, which should you use? The answer is simple: LESS IS MORE.

Each effects processor serves a specific purpose. Select only the effects that you need to improve or embellish your audio recording and apply them only where needed (e.g. to a single audio track not the entire mix) and apply the minimum you need to achieve the desired result.

When cleaning up levels, I typically start with a limiter to prevent audio clipping before I play with compression. When using a compressor, I start light and dial things in a bit heavier to compare the results. Then, I roll things off until I get to a point that fixes the problem in the most subtle way possible. Note that if overused, a compressor will artificially achieve (for the listener’s ears) the same effect as attending a long and loud rock concert without earplugs.

If I find that there are problems with the overall sound quality of a particular track I am working on, I will play with the equalization. I always start by picking a very small frequency spread (Q), reduce the gain by -6db and move the frequency selection until I find the sweet spot for reduction. Then, I’ll play with the amount of gain I will roll off. If I find that something is missing, I will add a small amount of gain to a specific frequency range to add the missing quality.

Reverbs and digital delays offer very noticeable and interesting results and the tendency among amateur musicians (I’m speaking from experience here) is to oversaturate a vocal or guitar part, maybe even the entire song, with a prominent delay and/or a large reverb. If you listen carefully to any professionally produced song you will notice that — with very few exceptions — reverbs and delays are used to create depth and character, not to become an entire part of the song.

I do pretty much all of my effects processing in post-production. The only mainstay during the recording process is my limiter.