In all honesty, I use effects as an ENHANCEMENT, and I don’t use them much at all.
Part of the reason is most of the tracks have been FXed all out there by the artists, so at times when I’m tempted to “do something”, the tune itself will do stuff. I notice many times now when I make mixes that I don’t do a whole lot to the tracks simply because they play well on their own accord.
Too many DJs now think they’re not doing well if they let a track play. They think they’re supposed to be “constantly doing stuff”, so I’ll see them overdo it all and literally destroy the original sound of the tune. I think Ean Golden is a very talented person, but I also notice he and his followers tend to do the same thing over and over again on many tunes. Yes, they can go nuts telling of how they chained together effects and such, but from the listener’s viewpoint, it sounds like the same thing over and over. Less talented guys will literally do the same thing over and over…thus overdoing it with “glitch”/stutter effects.
I mainly use DELAY, FLANGE, and REPEAT. Usually I’ll toss Delay or Repeat on more “blank” spots that could use an added kick. Flange I like as an enhancement over some points…especially things people have heard to death.
The best thing to learn is to make a set where there isn’t much “downtime”. Where you don’t mix things short between intros/outros and thus you don’t have this “dead time” of waiting for one tune to die down or another to start up. Try to really match beats, rhythms, and phrases so you aren’t just blending over breakdowns like I see many do.
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