Once course that I think would be really cool would be one that goes over some of the basic effects used when mixing a track and common controls that each one has/techniques to use them. For me personally, I do not really understand the difference between Phasers and Flangers (and choruses), and often avoid using them altogether.br
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My recommendations would be a course that has videos explaining the basic, common controls (and showing some applications) of the following:br
Delay (discussing feedback, dry/wet, delay time, etc.)br
Reverb (discussing decay/size, dry/wet, predelay, damping, plate vs. room, algorithmic vs. convolution, etc.)br
EQ (differences between parametric and graphic; techniques such as sweeping to find offending frequencies and cutting, using EQ to boost/cut parts of layered sounds so they fit well such as a kick/bass)br
Phaserbr
Flanger (inc. delay, depth, rate, etc.)br
Chorusbr
Distortion (Hopefully covering different types, including bitcrushing)br
Compression (I know there’s a video series on this, but perhaps a brief mention on it’s interplay with other plugins)br
And lastly, a video describing signal chain (such as the importance of the order of these effects; like tips for placing reverb before delay, etc.)br
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I think a thing that is difficult about a course like this however is that there are no standard plugins for it. For synthesis, a lot of courses use ANA, which is great because its standardized, but for effects, things are different because different DAWs come with different versions of these effects, so it may be difficult to find ones that have common controls/features. There are a lot of free plugins online (such as the TAL ones), and maybe Sonic Academy would want to have their own plugin suite eventually for the purposes of tutorials so everybody is on the same page (be it developed in-house like ANA or just a collection of free plugins like CM magazine).
There’s a video series on EQ’ing. It’s pretty good.br
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Understanding EQ - Beginners Guide To EQbr
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I know you’re requesting a tutorial, but I saw you mention that you didn’t understand phasers flangers and chorus. br
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The important thing to know about phasers, flangers, and choruses is that they are all the same principle that’s executed differently. They all make two copies of your sound, then play them both at the same time while altering one of the copies. A phaser shifts the phase of one of the copies of your sound, a flanger changes the time sync of one of the copies of your sound, and a chorus is basically just a flanger with different time shifting properties, and usually stereo.br
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As far as which to use where; if it sounds good, it is good. Chorus will give you the most mileage for instruments like synths as it is generally smoother and tends to widen your sound. Phasers can give you a lot of harmonic movement, which can be desirable especially if you’re using distortion after it. Flangers are the strongest of the three, and the least used, but it’s still a great effect if its used in the right place with the right intensity. A little modulation here and there is great, but don’t toss them on any mix busses.
Ahhh I see, thanks for that; I always knew that they all were time based, but I wasn’t aware of the nuances between them. Its strange to me that the flanger is the only one that sounds distinctively like a “comb,” since I would think that all of them would exhibit “comb-like” behavior when phase-shifting an audio signal with harmonics of differing frequencies (I guess they all do).