Audio Effects

Here’s a fun one. Audio Effects. How audio effects work conceptually and what each individual knob does for an effect is not the purpose of this lesson. All you need to know here is that audio effects fundamentally change the way an audio cue sounds. It can be subtle. It can be overt. It can improve the quality of the sound. It can destroy the quality of the sound. Any end of the spectrum and anywhere in between might be right for your design.

For example. I might have a pristine sound piece of music that I want to make sound like it’s coming over an old timey radio. Here I would use a Highpass filter to remove the clarity of the music, replicating the lower quality microphone of the time.

Simply select the effect from the drop down and adjust the properties in the window that pops up.

Then I’ll add a little bit of distortion, replicating the lower quality speaker of the world on stage. I can now adjust the wet and dry mix to change how subtle or overt the effect is (Wet meaning fully effected. Dry meaning the original sound).

Effects can be temporarily disabled by checking this box here.

The properties can be edited by pressing the Edit button. Obviously.

And effects can be deleted by pressing the X at the right side.

Your Mac will come with a whole slew of effects called Audio Units. But you can purchase, download, and install your own as well. Check out the support documentation on Figure53.com or visit their Google Groups page online to learn more.