I record our band using a Tascam DR-05X. I’d like to add reverb and compression and maybe other effects to the final recording. I always need to increase the volume. Do you have favorite settings for these? I sometimes use Bathroom reverb and it gives a slight enhancement. Any recommendations? Thank you
It’s entirely up to you (if you wearing the “producer hat”). 
One trick the pros use is to use a known good reference recording (a CD that you like, etc.) to “keep your ears calibrated”. It’s easy to get carried away with too much reverb or EQ, etc.
Acoustic music in a good room may not need any effects.
The “big 3” are compression (including limiting), EQ, and reverb and they are used on most commercial recordings.
EQ can “corrective” or used as an “enhancement”. If you are multi-tracking it’s common to filter the bass out everything except the bass guitar and kick-drum. (I’d classify that as “filtering” rather than EQ.)
Sometimes just a touch of reverb is used to where you don’t notice it unless it’s removed. Or sometimes it’s clearly audible. The pros often say to use the same reverb on everything so the different vocals & instruments don’t sound like they were recorded at different times and in different rooms. The amount of natural reverb that sounds wonderful in a music hall usually sounds artificial coming from a pair of speakers or headphones.
Compression and limiting is often used on the vocals to help them stand-out. And on the full-mix to “win” The Loudness War. If you over-do it, everything comes-out the same volume and IMO the music gets boring! And most of us don’t have the skills to match what a professional mastering engineer can do, without excessive “damage”. So your recording may not be as “loud” as most popular music. (Limiting is a fast-kind of compression that’s easier to use and harder to foul-up than general compression.) In order to “get loud” you have to use make-up gain, or amplify or normalize after compressing/limiting.
That’s normal. Pros often record around -12 to -18dB. Low digital levels aren’t a problem. You don’t have to record that low but its important to leave SOME headroom. If you “try” to go over 0dBFS you’ll clip (distort) the analog-to-digital converter in your recorder/interface. Headroom is a funny thing… If you don’t use it you didn’t need it. If you use it it’s no longer headroom!
As the last step you can run the Amplify or Normalize effect to set your peaks at (or near) the 0dB “digital maximum”. Amplify defaults to 0dB peaks and Normalize to -12dB. Audacity can go over 0dB internally, which can happen with effects or mixing but you should bring the levels down, if necessary, before exporting. Both Amplify and Normalize can bring the levels up or down.
…Note that Loudness Normalize (which analyzes the perceived loudness) is different. It doesn’t check the peaks so you have to check for clipping “manually” after applying it.
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a free eye-calibration plug-in is available which works in Audacity …
https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-prism/
Thanks. That gives me a lot to try. A lot of recordings I make are at coffee house, library, or small club gigs, and at band practice. It would be nice if we had a sound man at the gigs, but we do a quick sound check and go. Our balance is usually decent, but drums can get loud.
I sit my recorder on a shelf somewhere in the room. I bring it home and load the songs into Audacity and work with each song there, adding volume and some reverb. I’ll try your recommendations and keep notes. Yes, a reference CD will help. I usually export each song as Mp3 so I can email songs to the band members or my family that are interested. Thanks again!
That’s a tough set-up. The recording won’t sound as good as what the audience (or band) is hearing.
With something like a choir or a singer with an acoustic guitar, a venue like that is easier.
The “pro solution” would be to close-mic everything and multitrack, maybe even with a mic on every drum. Basically like “live studio” recording where it’s multitracked but with the whole band playing together. A pro setup would also have a couple of tracks to pick-up room reverb and applause. I’m NOT suggesting that you do that but don’t kick yourself if your recordings don’t turn-out the way you’d like.
Or if you were playing a stadium , ha ha!.. where ALL of the sound goes through the PA system you can record the mix from the mixer.
P.S.
I DO like the idea of using a solid state recorder. Computers are the least reliable things we own and there are lots of settings to foul-up.
I started with that same field recorder. It has a mode that will set the highest gain level for you without clipping.
It’s not auto-level. Auto-level changes the gain on-the-fly, constantly going up and down and results in a very inconsistent recording.
They call it Peak Reduction. Basically you turn it on and start recording in that mode. Then do your performance, and it will set itself for the largest gain without clipping. Then you do the same performance again at that level and delete the previous performance from the recording after you transfer it to your computer.