Effects change a sound after it is made. Some suggest a room, some add movement or roughness, and some help parts fit together. Start with a clear musical purpose and compare with the original sound at a similar loudness.
Start dry#
Dry means the sound without the added effect. Wet is the effect's output. The reverb’s wet value blends them: 0 is dry and 1 is fully wet. Other effects have their own blend laws and argument names.
Listen for: the front edge of each pluck and the empty space after it.
tempo = 120bpm
timingVersion = 2
play "pluck" "c4 ~ g4 ~" |> cutoff 2200Hz |> release 80msMake it yours: keep the notes and instrument fixed while trying the next two examples. This makes the difference easier to hear.
Reverb creates a sense of space#
Reverberation is the dense tail of reflections after a sound. A longer decay suggests a larger or more resonant space, but a louder wet mix also moves a sound farther into that space. They are separate controls.
Listen for: a diffuse tail filling the gaps between the same plucks.
tempo = 120bpm
timingVersion = 2
play "pluck" "c4 ~ g4 ~" |> cutoff 2200Hz |> release 80ms
|> reverb 0.47 0.3The first value, 0.47, controls tail length on a 0–1 scale; the second, 0.3, is the wet blend. The tail setting maps to about 0.3–3.5 seconds.
Make it yours: change 0.47 to 0.06 for a short space, then restore it and change 0.3 to 0.12. If the melody becomes blurred, reduce the wet mix or shorten the decay. Explore The effects reference for plate, spring and other reverb colors; Convolution uses a recording of a space or system's response.
Delay makes the gaps rhythmic#
A delay repeats the original sound. Time sets the spacing; feedback sets how much of each repeat feeds back for another repeat. A ping-pong delay spreads its repeats across the stereo field.
Listen for: distinct left/right echoes between the original notes. At this tempo, 250ms is half a beat.
tempo = 120bpm
timingVersion = 2
play "pluck" "c4 ~ g4 ~" |> cutoff 2200Hz |> release 80ms
|> pingpong 250ms 0.35Make it yours: try 375ms for a dotted-eighth-note echo at 120 BPM. Fixed milliseconds stay fixed when tempo changes; (1c/8) is an eighth of a cycle when you want the echo to follow tempo. Its optional third argument is high-frequency damping, not wet mix. Tape echo adds a softer, changing color to the repeats, while Bucket-brigade effects offer another family of darker delays and choruses.
Distortion changes the waveform#
Distortion reshapes a waveform and changes its overtones. It can make a bass more audible on small speakers or turn a simple tone into a rough lead. It can also change loudness, so judge the color after adjusting the output level.
Listen for: a rounded oscillator becoming a more textured, buzzing bass.
tempo = 120bpm
timingVersion = 2
roughbass = patch {
source = triangle (freq pitch) |> drive 0.45,
cutoff = 1800Hz,
ampEnv = adsr 5ms 160ms 0.4 100ms,
gain = vel * 0.2
}
play roughbass "c3 ~ [c3 g3] ~"Make it yours: reduce drive to 0.1, then try 0.7. Keep enough space in the level to hear the change without turning the entire mix louder.
Decide where the effect belongs#
| Location | What gets processed | Good use |
|---|---|---|
Inside a patch's source chain | Each voice separately | Distortion or movement that belongs to the instrument |
After play or sound | The combined track | Delay, reverb, EQ or compression on that part |
| A mixer bus | Several routed parts together | Shared space or group processing |
| The master | The complete mix | Final balance and delivery processing |
Effect order matters. Distortion before reverb feeds an already rough sound into a space; distortion after reverb reshapes the reflections as well. Some effects support only certain locations. If a track pipe is rejected, check the effect's entry instead of moving it blindly.
Next: From loop to finished track puts effects in a mix. Use EQ for frequency balance, Mastering and export for dynamics and delivery, and The effects reference for the complete catalogue.