An 3-Band Equalizer is a special equalizer which can change volume level at band 100Hz, 900Hz and 2500Hz.
An echo is a repeat of the sound after a short time (usually 1 - 4000ms). It sounds a bit like the person speaking is in a large stadium or is shouting between two mountains.
This changes the pitch of the audio without changing the speed.
This does the same job as the normal pitch shifter except it keeps the vocal formants in tact creating a more realistic result.
Reverb is many small reflections of the sound that come after a set time. It usually occurs when someone is speaking in a room, hall, etc. More reverb is called wet, no reverb is called dry.
A low-pass filter (sometimes called a high cut filter) keeps frequencies in the audio below a certain value.
A high-pass filter (sometimes called a low cut filter) removes all low frequencies below a specified Hz. This is useful if you want to make your recording sound 'clearer' or less 'muddy'. It is very usual to use a high-pass filter of about 300Hz on all voice recordings to improve intelligibility.
The chorus sound effect is used to make one voice or one instrument sound like 3 voices or instruments by playing the original with variably delayed and slightly pitch changed copies of the original.
Note: Chorus is a very useful way to make a mono source sound more stereo.
While normally we do everything to reduce distortion, sometimes you want to add it. For instance, it is popular for use with guitars. Distortion is measured between 0.0 (off) and 1.0 (clipping). You also specify the level where it kicks in dB (default -8db).
A Dynamic Range Compressor limits the volume levels of a sound recording so that it stays within a certain loudness range.
An example of where it is used is in TV broadcasting, where it ensures that the volume levels of ads are perceived as being louder than the television program itself (without any change in the actual broadcast volume).
It also has a use for recording audio from one medium to another, where the two mediums are not capable of handling the same range of volume levels. e.g., A CD can handle a much greater range than a cassette tape.
The "Attack Time" setting is the time (between 0 and 1000 milliseconds) that it will take to apply the gain adjustment. The total gain adjustment required will be gradually introduced over this period.
The "Release Time" setting is the time (between 0 and 5000 milliseconds) that it will take to remove the gain adjustment once gain adjustment is no longer needed. This is the opposite of attack.
The "Threshold" setting works by detecting when the sound recording volume exceeds a defined decibel level. It then gradually attenuates the sound to bring it down below the dB level, and does it in such a way that the listener will not be aware the attenuation is occurring.
The "Ratio" setting limits the amount the volume level of the recording increases at any one time. If, for example, you wanted the volume levels of a recording to only increase by at most 1/4 of the amount they would normally increase, then this would correspond to a Ratio of 4:1. So if the recording volume level increased by 8dB, then you would only hear a 2dB volume increase.
The "Limit" setting defines at what maximum decibel level the sound recording will be allowed to rise up to. So if, for example, the Limit was set to 0dB, then you will never hear the volume level of the recording get louder than 0dB. The Limit setting has similarities to the Threshold setting, but the main difference is that the Threshold does allow sounds to go above the defined decibel level (for a short time), whereas the Limit does not.
You will find that the minimum Limit volume you can set is the same as the maximum Threshold value. This basically means that, in any situation, the sound will start to attenuate at the threshold level, but will never be heard louder than the limit.
A Flanger sound effect is created by mixing a slightly delayed signal with the original, with the delay being slowly modulated over time. You can specify the starting delay time (default 5ms), the frequency of modulation in times per second (default 5Hz which is 5 times per second), the depth of modulation (default 70%), and the wet dry gain (75% for wet, 0% for dry).
To 'amplify' is to increase the loudness or volume levels of the selected region. To make a part of the recording softer or louder, select it and then use the menu Effects -> Amplify. The volume is entered in percent (100 being no change, 50 being -6dB softer or 200 being +6dB louder).
The vibrato sound effect is a pulsating of the pitch at a depth and frequency specified by the user. The higher the Frequency (Hz) set, the more often the pulses will be heard, and the higher the Depth (semitones), the wider the fluctuation in pitch will be.
The tremolo sound effect is similar to the vibrato effect, except that the amplitude pulsates rather than the pitch. The higher the Frequency (Hz) set, the more often the pulsation will be heard, and the higher the Depth (%), the deeper the fluctuation in volume.
As the name suggests, the effect modulates a specified frequency band within the sample, which results in the characteristic "Wah wah" sound. The effect is a bandpass filter with its center frequency (not to be confused with the center frequency parameter, below) alternating between a min frequency and max frequency (specified by the center frequency and depth parameters) and from max frequency to min frequency. The frequency of alternating direction is represented as a triangular wave with a frequency specified by the wah frequency parameter.
Resonance: also known as Q or emphasis, this parameter controls the resonant peak of the bandpass filter. This value determines the sharpness of the wah-wah effect. Higher values produce more resonant/peaky tones.
Depth: this parameter determines the frequency range swept by the bandpass filter. Its range is specified as a percentage of the range (0 to center frequency). If the value of the percentage of the range (0, center frequency) is specified as X, the min and max frequencies are (center frequency - X) and (center frequency + X).
Center Frequency: This parameter is the center frequency of the bandpass filter sweep, and is used to determine the min and max frequencies as mentioned above.
Wah Frequency: This is the frequency of alternating the direction of the sweep, or the frequency of the wah-wah sound. It is the frequency of the triangular wave described above.