EE2F2 - Music Technology

4. Effects
Effects (FX)
 Effects are applied to modify sounds in many ways –
we will look at some of the more common
 Effects processes can be broadly categorised as:
 Filtering/equalisation effects
 Altering the frequency content of a sound
 Dynamic effects
 Altering the amplitude of a sound
 Delay effects
 Modifying a sound using time delays or phase shifts
Equalisation Effects
 Equalisation is probably the most widely used effect,
so much so that it is usually provided as standard on
most mixing desks
 We looked at equalisation in some detail during
lecture 2 on mixers. As a reminder, however, it is
used for many purposes including:
 Correcting a non-uniform microphone response
 Suppressing resonant modes
 Enhancing vocal clarity
 Suppressing high-frequency noise (hiss)
 Suppressing low-frequency rumble (e.g. traffic)
 Modifying wide-band sounds (e.g. cymbals) to avoid
masking other parts
Dynamic Effects
 The ‘dynamics’ of a musical signal refer to how loud
or soft it sounds
 Dynamic effects can be thought of as automatic
volume controls
 They mostly work by turning the volume down for
loud signals and back up again for soft ones
 Differences between dynamic effects are:
 How quickly they respond
 Length of the window over which the input volume is
estimated
 How much the gain is altered in response to volume changes
Limiting

 If the sound from the TV is below a threshold,

everyone’s happy
 If it goes above that threshold, the volume needs
turning down.
 Limiting Example
Input Signal

Threshold
Output
Level No effect
Time

Threshold
Limited Output Signal

Threshold

Input
Level Time
Compression
 Compression is a less severe form of limiting.
Output
Level No effect

Compression

Threshold
Limiting

Input Level

 Note that ‘compression’ in this context is not the

same as data compression
Application
 Compression and limiting are used to reduce the
dynamic range of a signal
 They “smooth-off” the peaks
 Compressed sounds can be made louder on average
without overpowering a mix.
 Compression is very commonly used for vocals and
bass guitars
 Usually, compression is a subtle effect – you
shouldn’t really notice it
Overdrive & Distortion
 Compression and limiting work by monitoring the
average level, or the envelope, of the input
 If the input voltage is monitored directly, with no
averaging, a different effect is produced
 A non-averaged version of compression is known as
overdrive, and the equivalent of limiting is known as
distortion
 Overdrive and distortion don’t just affect the signal
level, they also change the shape of the waveform
and, thereby, alter its timbre (how it sounds)
 Very popular effects with electric guitarists and on
electric organs
 Dynamic Effects Summary
Input

Compression Limiting

Overdrive Distortion
Delay Effects
 This group of effects all work by combining two or
more time-delayed versions of the input signal
 Delay effects are particularly useful as they model
many ‘real-world’ environments
 The differences between them are mostly concerned
with the length of the delay:
 Very short delays: Chorus, flanger, phaser
 Medium delays (>100 ms): Echo
 Long delays (several seconds): Reverberation
Echo
Delay

Attenuation
+

In Out
+

 Simplest possible delay effect models a single, fixed

echo
 The input signal is attenuated and time delayed
 The output is the sum of the delayed signal and the
original
 This creates a very crude echo
Chorus, Flanger and Phaser
 Using much the same single delay structure
are:
 Chorus
 Very short modulated time delay
 Sounds like more than one instrument
 Flanger
 Like chorus but slower modulation
 Creates a ‘swirling’ effect
 Phaser
 Like flanger but uses phase shift rather than time delay
Reverberation
 Real echoes are the result of multiple reflections from
several surfaces
 This is reverberation
 Modelling Reverberation
 Most realistic way to model a reverberant
environment is to:
 Go there
 Measure the impulse response of the room
 Convolve that with the input
 Example: The basilica at Foligno, Italy.
Impulse
Impulse Response

response

Synthetic
Organ
Time
(1.5 seconds) Organ *
reverb
 Comb Filter
 Processing-wise, a more economical method is to
simulate the multiple reflections using comb filters
 A comb filter can simulate the multiple back-and-
forth reflections between a pair of parallel surfaces
In

In Delay Out
+ Time
+ Out

Attenuation
Time
An Economical Reverberation Model
 To model a typical room, several comb filters are
used in parallel to simulate different pairs of surfaces
 The delay and feedback attenuation of each filter is
different in order to mix up the reflections
Comb Filter

Comb Filter +
Out
Comb Filter +
Attenuation

Comb Filter

In
Summary
 Effects are applied for many reasons, e.g.
 EQ
 Corrective treatment
 Creative control of tonal colour
 Dynamic effects
 Aid to mixing vocals (compression)
 Modifying sounds (overdrive and distortion)
 Delay effects
 Special effects (chorus, flanging etc.)
 Adding realism to synthetic sounds (reverberation)