Collection: Effects & Signal Processors 98 98 products

What outboard processing is for

A signal processor changes a sound after it has been captured or generated. In a studio that usually means controlling dynamics, shaping tone or adding space and movement. Plugins can do all of this inside a computer, but hardware gives you real knobs, no extra load on your CPU and, in many designs, a character that comes from transformers, valves or analog circuits. Most studios end up using a mix of both.

Dynamics, tone and effects

• Compressors and limiters control level: they even out a vocal, add punch to drums or stop peaks from clipping.
• Studio equalisers boost or cut frequency ranges to make room for each instrument.
• Filter processors sweep and resonate, which makes them as much a creative tool for synths and drums as a corrective one.
• Multi-effects processors add reverb, delay, modulation and pitch effects, usually on an aux send.

Where processors sit in the chain

Compressors and EQs are usually patched in line on a single channel, either while tracking after the preamp or on an insert while mixing. Time-based effects such as reverb and delay normally sit on a send, so several channels can share one unit and you blend the wet signal back in. Most studio processors work at line level, so a microphone needs a preamp first and a guitar or bass needs a DI or instrument input.

Formats

Processors come as full 19-inch rack units, half-rack and desktop boxes, and 500-series modules that slot into a shared powered chassis. A patchbay makes it far quicker to move hardware between channels.