Chicken And Egg - Chicken And Egg, Best stage to choose effects? Options

[Bonzo3]

After messing around in Garageband, I've just put together the first song I'm pleased with and and in the process of mastering it. When laying down each track, I had set effects to give each instrument the right feel. Now I'm setting the master volume and have a choice of different effects and settings for the song as a whole. Some of these make the song sound great in places, but throw certain instruments out (particularly those I already set effects for).

I'm just wondering when is the most logical stage to employ effects – at the recording stage, or the mastering stage, or both? Something's telling me I was a bit too specific early on, and I should have waited till I had the broader picture. Any advice from more seasoned Garageband users?

Thanks...

[hahaworld]

Hi friend!

I think the general consensus is to employ effects at the mixing stage, but I'm not sure how flexible GarageBand is in that respect. If you use Logic, you can use effects buses in your mix that you can tinker with, and they won't be permanently attached to your tracks.

If you like GarageBand, you'll love Logic. GarageBand is great as a notepad, and you can make some really professional stuff happen with it. But for the finesse stuff, you'll probably want to move on up to Logic.

If I may interject another opinion here, I'm on a crusade against Pro Tools because of their malicious delays in providing timely software upgrades. Also, their software only works with their hardware, which just makes me mad. If they're going to force us entry-level recording engineers to use their hardware, they should make quality hardware instead of a plastic toy joke like the MBox. What I'm trying to say is that I'm advising you to not go the Digidesign route if you're planning on upgrading. It's not worth the headache.

Logic rocks, though. I use the pro version, but I hear the express version is sweet, too.

Hope this helps.
hahaworld