2 Questions for the House/Tech House/ Prog House Producers

[Chauvin]

These questions are regarding the mixing stage, not mastering.


1. Do you "EQ then Compress" or do you "Compress then EQ"???

2. Which ever way you do it, why do you do it this way?

[Radiance]

prog house = EQ > comp
Tech house = comp > EQ

sorry, could not resist....

[msl]

I usually put my EQ after the compressor, because sometimes compressors can dull the sound a bit. But you can also eq before you hit the compressor to make it react differently.




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[Simonator]

I don't think there's necessarily any right or wrong... it depends on the situation.

In general terms, you should where possible normally be making cuts rather than boosts with EQ; if you want a boost, just attenuate everything else.
With this in mind, I wouldn't really want things I'm cutting out to be having an affect on my compressor.
As an extreme example, imagine you'd recorded an acoustic instrument, centered at 3000 Hz, but got lots of unwanted low frequencies in the recording... you don't want those to be triggering your compressor.

As for your specific example... I'd say you should not really be compressing your Master Buss AT ALL... leave this for the mastering engineer. Arguably the same could be said for the EQ too.

Personally, I like to filter in and out my bass end, so I'll have an automated HPF on my master channel. Because of this, any bass EQ emphasis I'm wanting needs to be before my filter, so I'll commonly have an EQ as the first plug on my Master Buss.

When creating a DIY 'pseudo-master', I'll then do my EQ before it hits my compressor/limiter.

[Chauvin]

At the moment my chain is the following :-

EQ - Cut any unwanted frequencies > EQ - Shape the sound how I want > Compress the dynamics and raise the volume.


Also I get my tracks mastered at a professional mastering house.

[networkacid]

The inserts on my mixer are post EQ so I go EQ -> Compressor every time. Feels good man.

[Derp]

Originally Posted by networkacid

Feels good man.

[Tarkovsky]

The answer: whatever works.

The only time it matters is when you're working with a bass heavy sound that your eqing to a higher one whereby the bass presence on non presence of the bass will affect the compression (as compressors tend to respond more to bass especially if they aren't RMS).

Why would this be genre specific?

[phase_ghost]

Generally, I'd say eq->compressor. But, as others have stated, don't compress if you don't need to. Or eq! Most of the time, I'm just using a high pass filter and a limiter to squash any wild transients.

Honestly, using the best sounds possible from the get go is the way to go. Remember that the more you process a sound the more your dulling it down, generally. If you're struggling with a mixdown, remove every eq, compressor, limiter and start over. Less is more man.

[Tarkovsky]

Originally Posted by phase_ghost

Generally, I'd say eq->compressor. But, as others have stated, don't compress if you don't need to. Or eq! Most of the time, I'm just using a high pass filter and a limiter to squash any wild transients.

Honestly, using the best sounds possible from the get go is the way to go. Remember that the more you process a sound the more your dulling it down, generally. If you're struggling with a mixdown, remove every eq, compressor, limiter and start over. Less is more man.

I think the biggest secret in EDM is that you should pick and choose the best sounds every time. Never work from something at a point you think, might need some eq etc...

Good sounds at the source...

Which fortunately for us is achievable as theirs no winging bass player/guitar players!

So start at the sample and synth itself.

Zak

[fussylizard]

It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you have a bunch of frequencies in your source sound that you don't want, you should probably EQ them first so they don't influence the compressor...unless of course they influence the compressor in a way you like, then you can EQ them out after compression.

But generally speaking I EQ first, then compress, and EQ again if necessary.

[XAXAU]

Depends. How does it sound?

[Karloff70]

Think like this:

- comp before eq used for cutting = you end up triggering the comp with stuff you don't actually want in the signal = maybe not so good

- boost eq anywhere in the spectrum before the comp = make the comp react = might be cool, might not, good for specific pumping with narrow q boosts

- boosting eq after comp = you're boosting the already grabbed signal = might be a good idea....but boost high end after comp = boost noise from comp

and so on.......depending on what you want, you'll do different things.

A standard chain could be: EQ (for cutting and boosting a little top perhaps) - comp - EQ (for boosting lower stuff)