Audacity Forum

I have been using Audacity for a bit, and have a question on the quality of the including effects. I record single track steel string guitar instrumentals, and my needs are fairly simple. So far, I have not had great success with GVERB or the built in compressor, or the EQ. These and normalize are really all I need to use. (any suggestions for other devices/affects to improve my sound gladly taken.)

Are folks using gverb and the built in compressor/eq successfully? I'm not terribly experienced, and let's just say my ear needs some work. Or are you getting other VST effects, either freeware, or paid for, to do a better job?

The only other issue I have is the destructive editing. Can always get around it by saving multiple copies, but it's a PITA. Any other strategies on that? And is the new version of Audacity going to go to non-destructive editing?

<<<or the EQ. >>

The equalizer can be a little annoying because you need too apply it multiple times to get the result that you need, but it does work.

Chris's Compressor is the top dog of volume management.

Chris's Compressor
http://pdf23ds.net/software/dynamic-compressor/

He designed it to be musical instead of an exercise in arithmetic.

<<<Are folks using gverb ... successfully? I'm not terribly experienced, and let's just say my ear needs some work. Or are you getting other VST effects, either freeware, or paid for, to do a better job?>>>

No. We're not. gverb is OK, but you can do better. Search the forum for gverb. Someone posted a good alternative and I can't find right off.

<<<The only other issue I have is the destructive editing. Can always get around it by saving multiple copies, but it's a PITA. Any other strategies on that? And is the new version of Audacity going to go to non-destructive editing?>>>

We recommend saving multiple copies. You know you can crank backwards with UNDO, right? The effects aren't really changing the original sound files. We recommend multiple copies for when your machine starts blowing spit bubbles.

Koz

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... erb#p77830
Koz

G-Verb can produce pretty reasonable results, though I'd agree it is not top dog.
I'd definitely recommend using the "duplicate and mix" method with G-Verb as described here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/GVerb ... x_together
The default reverb length is way over the top for most applications, so try dropping it down from 7.5 seconds to about 2 seconds or less.


As Koz said, "DX Reverb Light" from AnwidaSoft is well regarded as a good free reverb for Windows.

Thanks, guys. Have downloaded and note the above, and I'm ready to rock and roll. The reverb sounds great.

I can not get the effects drop down to function. It is always grayed out and will not allow me to speed up the tempo. Any suggestions? Thanks

You need to select some auduio for the effects to work - click and drag with your cursor to select a portion or use CTRL+A to select the whole project.

WC

Hi, thanks I will try it now. I appreciate it. Joe