7. Using Effects and Instruments

Effects can profoundly change the impact of your music. They can be used in a variety of ways: to remove unwanted frequencies from an audio track (EQ), to create the sound of a room for a vocalist (Reverb), or to completely destroy and mangle a sound into something totally new (Distortion). Effects put a lot of power at your fingertips. Those people who are new to these toys will more than likely run hog-wild the first few times they get their hands on them. Hey, effects are fun—we all know that. As with all things, practice will help you determine which type of effects will help your mix the most. Don’t forget that sometimes having no effect on a sound is the best decision. In this chapter, we’ll look at how to use plug-in audio and MIDI effects in your Live Sets. We’ll also have a brief peek at how to use virtual instruments in Live as well, since they are also plug-ins. We will discuss how to work with Live’s built-in instruments in much greater detail in the following chapter.