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Keyboard effects, one by one

How to recognise each effect in a song, which values it usually takes and what Piano Effect measures when it detects it.

• TremoloIt moves the volume up and down periodically. It is the effect that defines the seventies Rhodes and Wurlitzer.
• VibratoIt wobbles the pitch, not the volume. It is the one everybody confuses with tremolo.
• ChorusIt doubles the sound with a slightly detuned, moving copy. It is the "wide" shimmer of ballad electric pianos and of the JUNO.
• FlangerA very short sweeping delay that creates a "jet plane" whoosh. More metallic and more obvious than chorus.
• PhaserNotches that travel through the spectrum and create a soft swirl. The seventies rock and funk Rhodes.
• LeslieThe rotating speaker of the Hammond organ: tremolo, vibrato and Doppler at once. Slow (chorale) or fast (tremolo).
• Delay (echo)It repeats the sound after a set time. In synthwave and cumbia sonidera it is usually synced to the tempo.
• ReverbThe tail of the space: room, hall or plate. It decides whether a piano sounds intimate or huge.
• Drive (saturation)It adds harmonics by pushing an amplifier: the "growl" of the Wurlitzer and of rock organ.
• CompressionIt flattens peaks so the keyboard sounds even. Key to salsa montunos and pop piano.
• DetuneTwo slightly separated oscillators that "beat" against each other: the thickness of saw and supersaw synths.