What do your auxiliary effects really sound like?

Adding effects via auxiliary channels is a great way to create atmosphere and drama in a mix but, just as you’d ensure the tone of any individual track in your mix is exactly what you’d like it to be by using EQ, you’d benefit from thinking the same way about auxiliary effects.

If you’re sending a number of separate tracks to the same auxiliary, it’s easy to lose track of exactly which frequency groups are triggering reverb (or other effects). Equally, some effects are likely to be prioritising certain frequency bands over others due to the nature of the sounds they produce, so the ‘audible’ frequency content being generated by an auxiliary effect is likely to also contain other frequencies which are being masked by the richness of the other sounds in your mix. Once your production is taking shape, solo each auxiliary band in turn and, if needed, place an EQ after it, to control and further shape the tone of each one. In particular, it’s common for longer reverbs to feel as though they’re providing an inflation or build-up of frequencies in the low mid-range and even bass areas and scooping this out often gives a mix more ‘room’.

If atmosphere and texture are particular priorities for the track you’re working on here, once you’ve EQ’d tone in the way you want, you can, of course, go further, adding ‘special effects’ such as exciters or stereo width controls to further push those auxiliary effects into new and unexpected places. The rule is simply not to ‘assume’ that auxiliaries are providing the optimum sound; check and tweak as necessary and you’ll find the impact of your mixes will be much better.