Reaper effects, vox, bass, guitar?

Hey guys, did a search and did find some good links on effects in general. But not what I was looking for on reaper effects.

With all your assistance I've got my vox, bass and git. trax going into reaper no problem. Thanks!

However, they are super dry. Open to all suggetions and have a couple of questions.

Is there a base line you folks start off with for effects? reverb, chorus, delay? I'm doing all country originals. Don't need any heavy effects.

My guit/bass are going through an art tube preamp into reaper. Any way to get any modeling on that so it's not so "dry"?

Thanks,

kc

Well, of course, the "right" way is to capture the sound you want before it gets into the DAW, but that's not always an option. I can't do that at home either.

I'd say create a new track as an FX buss (so that the other tracks are sending to it, post-fader). Stick a decent reverb on there, 100% wet. I really like the convolution reverb that's built into Reaper, even though it's somewhat resource intensive. I use impulses I've downloaded from the 'net. You can use any other reverb though. Then start mixing the reverb in just a little.

This does two things for you: First, it keeps down the processor usage, because the effect is only being applied to a single buss, instead of individual tracks. Second, it applies exactly the same reverb to each track - as if they were in the same room.

Now, to keep everything from sounding like it's in exactly the same spot in the room, you can pan the tracks in stereo.

Try is with delay too. Try it with reverb applied to a 100% wet delay with a single repeat (often you'll get an "attacK" knob on reverbs for this). Try that with multiple repeats. Try everything.

The settings are up to you. Try everything. See what you like. I do recommend you keep it subtle, but plenty of great recordings have been made in unsubtle ways.

One thing I will recommend with reverb is that you roll of some of the highs of the effect. That can keep things sounding warm - unless you want them to sound like they're in a tiled room, which is also fine.

EDIT: Also, double track. It's fun, sounds great, and I think it makes you a better player too.

Thanks BH. I've been double tracking vocals and "playing with all the knobs" I found the best teacher is trying it!

kc