I was definitely guilty of using too many effects in my early productions. When I open old projects, everything has a long effects chain and doesn't sound very good.

I've since learned that a simple patch on a quality synth recorded through my MOTU interface rarely needs more than subtle EQ, light compression, and a touch of reverb and/or delay, and maybe some saturation (saturation is my secret weapon, usually from SoundToys plugins). If I need anything more drastic to make something sound nice, I should probably just delete it and re-record.

Cheers
Kent
PG Music