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Place guitar amp simulator plugs at the start of a mix channel to take advantage of their full-on, expressive character.

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No matter how well you know your effects, it's equally important to understand which ones work best together and in what order. Hence this collection of tips, which contains both practical and creative effects chaining advice.

For a comprehensive selection of effects tutorials and techniques, check out Computer Music Special: Effects (issue 47) which is on sale now.

Amp first

Guitar amp simulator plug-ins are usually best placed at the start of a mix channel, as they are designed to be unruly and expressive rather than nicely crafted in a mix.

Of course, if you find yourself loving the sound of it, there are no hard and fast rules, but this tip is definitely more than your average guideline, so take note!

Stereo selection

It's important to be careful whereabouts in the signal path you place a stereo enhancing plug-in. If you place the plug-in after an inserted reverb or panned delay and the original sound is stereo too, you'll end up losing some of the stereo identity of the original signal.

If, on the other hand, you place the plug-in right at the start of the signal path, the effect will be a stereo signal that retains the stereo identity of the dry signal.

Creative thinking

When applying creative effects like filters, reverb and delay to the master output channel, you should be sure to place them before your master output compressor, if you're using one.

This is because you need to avoid the peaks and boosting effects you can get by overdriving an already compressed signal path. Of course, this is also another reason to leave plenty of headroom in your mix.

Master bus effects should come before any master compression to prevent unruly peaks and clipping.

Parallel thinking

We probably all know that stereo bass is usually best avoided for a number of reasons, so how can you add stereo width to a full sound without making the bass element 'too stereo'?

Simple - with parallel processing and some judicious use of EQ. Send your sound to a bus, add stereo width and use a filter to remove the troublesome bass end, then balance the levels.

Squash last

It's not just gates that should go first. Any dynamically sensitive plug-in, like a de-esser, de-breather or even auto-tune device will usually work best placed before any effect that squashes the dynamic range (including overdrive and saturation plug-ins), as this makes it far easier for the device to differentiate the sounds you don't want from the ones you do.

Automation action

Once you have your plug-ins in the right order, automation is one tool that can help make the most of this. For example, in parts of your track where you might want the reverb or delays to come out more, increase the amount of compression placed after them - whether on an insert or a bus - and they will become a louder and more robust part of the signal.

Smooth the effects of a glitch plug-in by placing it before a tempo delay, or place it after for maximum effect.

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