Does your drum sample player offer individual outputs? You could add effects to each output. That's the best way to do this, if it doesn't have its own on-board effects.

If you're not sure whether it has individual outputs, let me know exactly what "fpc" is, and I'll check for you. Or, you can insert it into a new, empty project, and when SONAR asks, tell it to use all the available outputs.

Yes, we are talking about audio tracks, not midi.  You can even just bounce the elements you want to treat differently.  My example above would be to mute the kick and snare and bounce the rest.  Then do the same for the kick and the snare so you have 4 tracks (kit is stereo).  Then you could apply different effects to the different elements.  Compress the bejeebers out of the "kit", leaving the kick alone and adding reverb to the snare.  That would be something to try and see if it makes the sound more modern.  There are endless possibilites once you break the sound into different audio tracks.

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I have yet to work with audio tracks. Whats wrong with doing the effects on midi channels?

Nothing wrong w/ adding audio effects to midi sounds as long as you can break out audio stem tracks to effect them differently, which is what we were talking about.  To add reverb, compression etc. we are talking about effecting audio, not midi.  However you do it, you are still working on audio.

It just keeps things straight in my mind to freeze or bounce tracks to audio (tho w/ freeze you can't add more effects and have to copy and drag it to a new channel).  If you need to change the midi playing it is easy to unfreeze the track, edit, and then redrag the audio file.  I'm talking about working with a DAW, and I learned in the age of tape.  Certainly you can come up with your own methodology.

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What needs eq and compression besides drums?

Keyborg,

ah, that is the art part of the science, ain't it?  Everything, nothing.  It depends upon how you hear your music.  Vocals almost always need compression to make them "sit" at an even volume in a mix - bringing up the lower (volume, not bass) parts while the louder ones don't overwhelm the music.  Compression narrows the dynamic range of a track by keeping the volume from jumping over the threshold (maxium volume) too quickly.

A lot of lead instruments need it too.  and anything that is overly bouncy in volume if you want to hear it in a mix, such as bass.

EQ is used to carve out a sonic space for an instrument in relation to the rest of the instruments.  Normally, you would cut the low end of higher registered instruments to leave the low frequency range to the bass and kick.  Vocals often are cut in the lower registers, since you often don't get anything down below 100 kHz except for noise and rumble.  Even Barry White doesn't have much good info down low.  I've used a high pass filter up to 250 kHz on female voices.  It is usually better to cut out frequencies than boost them, since boosting can more easily cause problems w/ phase etc.  You want to find the frequencies in a sound or instrument that define the sound, and either boost it or, better, cut out those frequencies in other instruments to give it space to be distinguished. 

Of course, if you have to wonder whether an instrument needs comp or eq it probably doesn't.  It is easy to overdue effects just because you can.  Until you learn what works for you, play w/ comp and eq, just be aware you can cause more problems than you solve.  Generally (again! and like reverb), one should augement the effect until you can hear it plainly, then back off a bit.  If you can, disable the effect while listening to see how it works both in and out.

Finally, many audio loops (and midi for volume) are already "pre-processed" w/ eq and compression.

Though there are many standard practices for mixing, tho aren't a religion.  As you find those "tricks" which work for you, you are developing your "sound."

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You guys words are almost poetic.

What other effects should I look into that are worth using and on what instruments. Chorus? flanger? phaser? Anything else?

I love experimenting, but would like to hear your take.

That again is a matter of taste.  You'd probably find the chorus/flanger/phaser helpful, since they are time dependent movement effects.  On the song I'm currently working on (an electronic piece) I used a flanger on the last few bars of the main drum loop.  There was space and I was just messing around, trying to get it to sound different.  Didn't change the groove, just the sounds in the loop.  A little ear candy.

You left out delay, which is really useful on vocals instead of reverb.  I find most ITB reverb to be a bit much - too thick.  Tthe hardware built into my TC interface is better, but I still turn it down.  Delay on the vox leaves more openings and doesn't clutter up the soundstange like reverb, but still gives a sense of space.  A fading delay (echo) before a break is a good way to build up tension as you go into a break between sections.  Since they are tempo based these days (for ITB, anyway), they provide a count in to the next part.

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Question, is the included eq on dimension sufficient?

Question, is the included eq on dimension sufficient?

The EQ that comes with Dimension is a start, but it doesn't give you the control you'll need. You'd be better off either using SONAR's EQ on Dimension's outputs or grabbing a good plug-in EQ. There are many free, low-cost and professional ones listed on KVR. Antress and BlueCat make very good free ones.

One problem with Dimension's EQ is that it's applied only to the sound you have loaded at the time. If you decide to change patches, the EQ will be reset. It's also not as easy to use as SONAR's, or as a good, basic parametric or graphic EQ. If you have an EQ applied to the output of Dimension, you can quickly change it if you don't like it. If it's in Dimension, you have to open Dimension to get to it--and you still won't have the control you need.

Another benefit of a VST or DXi EQ is that you can use it on your other instruments, your vocals--even the returns on your effects. You can even use it on the outputs of a bus, say, for your drums.