- Volume and panning-Panning is the distribution of a sound signal (either monaural or stereophonic pairs) into a new stereo or multi-channel sound field determined by a pan control setting. A typical physical recording console has a pan control for each incoming source channel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panning_(audio)
- EQ and frequency ranges of particular instruments- Most of the pitches your ears really focus on fall between 60Hz and 4kHz — that’s the meat of the sound. A piano’s highest note, for instance, lives at 4,186 Hz (around 4.2kHz). There are also sounds called overtones, and an EQ will affect them, too.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/eq-explainer/
- Compression (ratios, threshold, attack, and release) and gate-
Attack & Release
When a sound overshoots the volume threshold, the compressor does not instantly apply the full compression to the overshooting signal. … Instead, it gradually reduces the compression ratio until it reaches 1:1 again. This time is called the release time.
https://www.surfacedstudio.com/blog/music-production/compression-part-2-attack-and-release
These compression ratios are expressed in decibels so that a ratio of 2:1 indicates that a signal exceeding the threshold by 2 dB will be attenuated down to 1 dB above the threshold, or a signal exceeding the threshold by 8 dB will be attenuated down to 4 dB above it
https://www.uaudio.com/blog/audio-compression-basics/
- Reverb and Delay-Both are time-based sound effects but delay is the repetition of the signal after a breve period of time and the number of repetitions depends on the feedback. Reverb is the natural result of sound waves bouncing off every surface, hard, soft, tall, short, etc. that we then hear and perceive as the room’s acoustics.
https://thehomerecordings.com/reverb-vs-delay/
- Using plug-ins on the main mix bus- mix buss processing is the application of one or more signal-changing processes (such as compression or EQ) to the stereo bus or master fader.
https://www.waves.com/8-mix-buss-compression-eq-saturation-tips