How Processing Order Affects Your Sound In A DAW

The order in which you add plugins can make a significant difference to the effect they have on your sound. Joe Albano explains why, and how to avoid getting it wrong.  

Even the best producers learn new things on every project they do. Making mistakes is part of life, but what if you could shortcut past some of them to save time? This video from the course Audio Mistakes 107: 10 Common Signal Flow Mistakes has Joe Albano explain the importance of signal flow in your recording and studio setups. More precisely, the importance of understanding the processing order your sound goes through. 

You'll learn how the order in which you apply plugins and other processing makes a big difference to the way sound behaves. If it passes through a compressor then an EQ for example, the result can be different to if those stages were reversed, since an effect can only process the signal that is passed to it, and that may already have been altered by a previous stage. Find out why this is important and get on top of other common audio mistakes by checking out the other videos in the course.  

Watch the full course Audio Mistakes 107: 10 Common Signal Flow Mistakes in the Ask.Audio Academy | AskVideo | macProVideo

Audio Mistakes 107: 10 Common Signal Flow Mistakes

Signal flow is the journey that your sound takes from microphone (or instrument) to the final mix. Along the way, all kinds of awful things can happen that’ll degrade and sometimes destroy the quality of the audio. In this course, by our Audio Mistakes expert, Joe Albano, you learn how NOT to make those signal flow missteps that create distortion or overloads and wreak havoc on an otherwise great-sounding production.

For instance, do you know the best way to order your processors in a channel strip? Or how to best deploy audio sends and returns? What about gain-staging, like I/O and FX chain gain, where all kinds of things can go awry? Then there’s those dreaded digital overloads. These, and other things, are real signal flow issues that are explained and explored in this course.

So join Joe Albano now and learn what NOT to do when making those critical signal flow decisions. We know that, in less than an hour of study, you will master all kinds of audio optimization techniques that are sure to give clarity to all your productions.

Watch the full course Audio Mistakes 107: 10 Common Signal Flow Mistakes in the Ask.Audio Academy | AskVideo | macProVideo

Hollin Jones was classically trained as a piano player but found the lure of blues and jazz too much to resist. Graduating from bands to composition then production, he relishes the chance to play anything with keys. A sometime lecturer in videographics, music production and photography post production, Hollin has been a freelance w... Read More

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