Chapter 7. Understand GarageBand Effects

Effects alter the sound of a track in a wide variety of ways. You can make a track fit better in the mix, separate two similar-sounding instruments, or give your song a certain quality—hard and edgy, dreamy and ambient, robotic and mechanical. Effects are like seasoning—you can’t turn meatloaf into lobster, but you can adjust its flavor, and in extreme cases, make it completely inedible.

Effects fall into a number of different categories: Dynamic Effects alter the volume of the notes or of a specific portion of those notes. Filter and Equalizer Effects adjust portions of a sound’s frequency spectrum. Time-Based Effects, such as echo and chorus, duplicate sounds and offset them to give the effect of space or of several instruments playing together. And Distortion Effects simulate overdriven amplifiers, speakers, or transistors. Many effects combine elements from two or more of these categories.