I came across a tutorial highlighting the effects used (see the link) and, most importantly, ranking them from most useful to least interesting.
To be honest, I’m still learning Cubase and, as of today, Halion 7, and although—like many here—I have a library of effects, some of which I’m familiar with (since I’m also a guitarist who uses my Zoom G7.1ut),
But when it comes to finalizing a recording, I’m often flying blind, not really knowing which elements are best suited to ensure the sound doesn’t end up sounding like a pot and pan.
Given the sheer number of effects in Cubase—with similar products in Arturia’s FX Collection 6, Native Instruments, and many others—I end up getting completely lost.
So I’ve put together an Excel spreadsheet to help me navigate this jungle of effects, so I don’t spend my time fiddling around without really knowing where I’m going.
And for those of you reading this—depending on your style and expectations—what are your preferences among the effects offered in Cubase Pro?
Hi,
I can totally understand that you feel overwhelmed by the multitude of options. However, I don’t think that videos like the one you posted are of any help to you. I managed two minutes and gave up… And it wouldn’t be of much help if I listed and rated stock plugins here. You still wouldn’t know why, how and when to use them.
My advice:
Chris Selim’s Youtube channel Mixdown Online offers well-structured tutorials on specific topics like kick & bass treatment, compression, specific Cubase plugins and much more. Almost all of his tutorials feature Cubase plugins only.
I would start with tutorials that you are most interested in and go through them one by one. Don’t forget to apply this knowledge and maybe you want to create a memo to keep track. Make sure to understand the basic principles of each parameter. It’s gonna be fun to watch these tutorials and you will gradually become better and better.
I like the tutorial videos of Dom Sigalas as well. He is a Cubase fan and a professional producer.
There are man other recording and mixing tutorials as well but not that much focussed on Cubase. Therefore Chris and Dom are my favorite goto tutorials
Oh, and I forgot to mention they are all free of charge.
Yes, both channels are solid.
Dom is a bit more into showmanship and he might take a few detours until he finally arrives at one of his famous “BOOM” moments.
Chris is more focussed on the goal and provides a well-structured step by step guide.
Thanks, Reco29 and Nikkin, for your messages. And of course, it’s just a matter of taking advantage of the experience—which some of you already have—that motivates me to narrow down this list of effects plugins for a specific purpose.
I’m already following Chris Selim’s and Dom Sigalas’ profiles; in fact, there’s another tutorial on selecting effects based on their preferences that I’m going to watch closely.
But of course, I won’t hesitate to take that step once one of these elements is needed to get the best possible result, so I can delve deeper into the subject based on your advice, Reco29.
Using a reference track of how you want to sound gives you a goal to aim for ,if you mix without reference tracks you can keep stacking and stacking noise and your ears easily accept it all and become numb ,I know ,it happens to me ,it’s not untill you return to your mix later after your hearing has returned to normal and discover that you’ve just created a monster ,.learning how to use the control room is ideal for setting up reference tracks in the ideal way , don’t try setting up reference tracks in the normal Cubase window because your master bus effects will colour the reference track.
I don’t understand this spreadsheet. The columns don’t appear to contain any unifying theme. It seems like each column is just a random list of plugins.
You got far too many FX in that list.
This would be my beginner’s list. When you’re confident using these you can move on to the more specialised FX.
As well as the built-in track FX that’s on every, er, track:
Vintage Compressor (1176?)
Black Valve (LA-2A?)
Tube Compressor
Freq 2
Studio Delay
Reverance or Revelation
Get a 3rd party gate, the Cubase one is useless (at least for me). It only goes down to -60dB - that cuts off the tails of my fading notes and reverb tails.
Get a 3rd party limiter for the stereo out.
A typical project of mine has maybe 18-20 different fx. About 8 of those are on the stereo out (not all activated, just in case!)
This includes guitar amp emulations and guitar fx.
If your a sound designer whos does a lot of experimenting and bouncing audio throughout the mix:
Clipper
Transient Designer/Envelope Shaper
Modulators, LFO’s etc
FX tools to skew, slice and stutter
Heavy distortion units
Bit-Crushers (retrograding sounds)
Filters
Massive shimmer reverbs
Some tools are there to make sounds better, some make sounds worse and this is the intended goal for some.
The tools are endless the options more so, dream away, mess around without a plan, just have fun and stumble upon something, dont get OCD about everything on the shelf, if theres 150 tools and you only need 3, use 3.
You go into a woodsmiths workshop he may have hammers and saws on the wall untouched for a decade, but they are there if needed.
One thing though, spend a lot of time in 1 eq, get to know it inside out.
Hello, regarding the meaning of the columns, this is the final result I compiled in this tutorial. The “S” represents the best option to select based on the effects offered by Cubase.
“A” should be what interests him most, then “B” (less so), ‘C’ (certainly important at some point for him), and “D” (obsolete).
In short, since I’ve invested in Cubase Pro, I feel I owe it to myself to form my own opinion—not only by listening but also by learning from others—because I’m more of a musician than a technician.
My passion isn’t productive, and at 67, my only pleasure is finalizing my compositions for a great listening experience—one that doesn’t require hiring a professional.
I’ve transcribed this table in the chronological order of the tutorial; it’s not really functional, but it was just to support my line of questioning.
I would keep it simple and just start with a few basics like I said earlier before. Special FX are the icing on the cake, I would keep that for later.
Compression is a tough one because it takes a lot of time until you really hear the nuances that everyone gets so excited about. In case you wonder what the heck they are talking about when you can’t really tell a difference between compressor A and B no matter how much you turn the volume up…It’s also one of the most rewarding and effective tools in the box with regard to colour, texture and saturation. Just to give you a heads up
