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How to use audio effects

Audio effects are sound-shaping tools that can take your songs from sounding dry, muffled, and lifeless, to sounding atmospheric, clear, and exciting. Soundation comes with Reverb, Delay, Compressor, EQ, and many more effects you can use for sound design and mixing.

Add effects

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  1. 1
    Double-click on a channel to open the bottom panel
  2. 2
    Click Add effect
  3. 3
    Select an effect from the drop-down menu

You can add multiple effects the same way or by placing the cursor between two effects and clicking +.

Adjust effects

To change the sound of the effects, you simply click/drag the buttons/sliders/knobs. Some effects also have presets that you can choose from in the top-right corner of the effect. Go to Audio effects to learn about the individual effects and how they work.

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Move effects

The signal flow goes from the left to the right. This means that the sound will go through the leftmost effect first, and then all other effects in order to the right. The order in which you place the effects can make an immense difference to the sound.

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To move an effect, just drag it to the left or right. You can also select multiple effects by holding shift and moving them in bulk.

Copy/paste

Select one or multiple effects and press Ctrl/Cmd + C to copy them with their settings. Then choose a channel and press Ctrl/Cmd + V to paste the effects to that channel.

Duplicate

Duplicate one or multiple effects by selecting them and pressing Ctrl/Cmd + D. The duplicate effects will then appear after the rightmost selected effect.

Bypass

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Click on the Bypass button to disable the effect and click it again to enable it.

Delete

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If you want to remove one or more effects, select them, right-click and choose remove, or simply press backspace/delete.

Automation

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You can easily automate the effects by right-clicking on a parameter and selecting add automation You can then add automation on the channel in the arrangement area. This means the sound can change and evolve over time. Go to Automation to learn more.

When a parameter has automation, you will see a square next to it. If you then right-click on the parameter, you can either choose to edit the automation or remove the automation.

Open/close the bottom panel

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You can collapse the panel by clicking on the arrow icon on the right. To reopen the panel, just click on the arrow again or double-click on any channel.

Start using audio effects

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