Fading in/fading out an effect

[allen_the_music_man]

I was wondering how you make an effect fade in/fade out of a track? example: let's say i have an acoustic guitar track that i would like to have reverb slowly being added to it as the song plays. or even if i have a slight distortion that i'd like to add right at the very beginning that will slowly fade into the clean, crisp sound of the guitar. do you know what i'm talking about? if so, what must i do to acheive such an effect?

many thanks =)

[bgravato]

Some effects might have options available to do that... other might not...

One thing you can try to do is to duplicate the track and apply the effect to one of the tracks. Then fade out one of the tracks while you fade in the other. I haven't tried this so not sure if it will produce the result you expect but give it a try...

[steve]

One thing you can try to do is to duplicate the track and apply the effect to one of the tracks. Then fade out one of the tracks while you fade in the other.

That's the way to do it.I use this technique regularly and it can be very effective.
As an alternative to "fading" the tracks you can use the envelope tool for precise control of the fade http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Envelope_Tool

Personally I find the envelope tool cumbersome and prefer to use my own "fancy fade" plug-in, but with a bit of effort the envelope tool works very well.