Time-based Effect

In the grand scheme of things there are basically three fundamentally different types of effects or signal processing that can be applied to an audio signal: dynamic (compressors, limiters, gates, etc.), spectral (EQ‘s, some enhancers, etc.), and time-based. Each has some effect on the others, but those are the basic categories. Time-based effects include all processes where some form of manipulation of time occurs to the signal. This includes things like delays and echos (obvious time manipulation), chorusing and flanging (short delays with modulation), phasing (shifting signals by very small amounts of time), reverbs (essentially numerous delays and echos), pitch transposers and Harmonizers (slowing or speeding the signal while adding or removing slices to keep it in time with the music), etc. These effects all change the signal’s timing in one way or another to produce the desired result, thus they are time-based effects.