Part 12 of 31 – It seems to be the age old question: should you EQ before you compress? Or the other way around? Well there is no right or wrong way to do this. But here’s a suggestion.
Fix The Sound, Then Enhance
My preference, generally speaking, is to place my EQ before my compressor. I like to think of EQ as a way to clean up or fix a track. You can remove offending frequencies and accentuate the better ones. Then you can use compression to enhance or reveal more intentionally what’s left.
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Makes sense of course!
What I learned as well and tend to do more and more is putting a somewhat transparent EQ before compression to cut unwanted frequencies, then compress, but then sometimes boost using a ‘coloring EQ’.
I’m not talking about a linear phase EQ (that would be overkill), but I would use an Oxford or Cambridge EQ first, then compress and ‘color’ using an SSL or a Neve channel strip, or even put a Pultec-like EQ after a compressor.
Because these EQ have a more ‘analog’ feel and tend to give color to the compressed signal, which is what I’m looking for once the bad frequencies and dynamics are tamed.
So final chain that works well for me IMHO is:
1/ transparent EQ to cut
2/ compress
3/ add color with another EQ
Of course all of this is optional and step 3 in particular is not always necessary nor wanted.
I second this approach! I was always taught to compress FIRST because it will alter the sound, and if you EQ first you’ll mess up your settings once you add a compressor afterwards.
Of course you can change the EQ curve after the fact, but subtractive EQ before the compressor saves you enhancing the “nasty” stuff, and you can then colour the “nice” stuff after you’ve done your dynamic processing.
Also another tip I’ve recently picked up is to gate at the end of everything, so you’re not distorting, filtering, phasing etc. anything that should be “silent” …
Another great video series, Graham. Keep ’em coming.
I’d third this approach mentioned by Patrick and Elliott above. I tend to do subtractive EQ and/or filtering (High-Pass, de-essing, etc) first in the chain to remove/lessen unwanted or offending frequencies. In addition to cleaning up or “repairing” the signal it will also prevent the the compressor (2nd in the chain) from looking at or being triggered by unwanted frequencies (ex. – sub-low end/possibly unheard stuff, transient sibilance, etc.) that don’t have much to do with the core frequency range of your particular track.
After the compressor, I, more often than not, will insert a second EQ (3rd in the chain) on the track to “polish/finish up” the signal simply because I find that generally, every compressor (hardware or plug) tends to color the sound in their own unique way and that specific way doesn’t always suit the track I’m working on, so final tweaks, inevitably, need to be made. Same may sometimes be said of the effects (delays, reverbs) that come next in my chain.
I also use EQ before compression because that works for me, but you cannot compare the two methods by just flipping the order, as each one method requires different settings of both compression and EQ.
If you want to compare the speed of a land animal to that of a fish, it wouldn’t be fair to do so with the fish on land or the land animal in the water. You’d have to clock each one in its own element.
I can understand the principles of this method and even though I do this myself, something still bothers me…
I tend to think of compression as two lines (top line being the peak and the bottom being the quietest audible sound). Compressiin brings the top closer to the bottom one, simple stuff. With that in mind though I can’t help this feeling that no matter how subtractive EQ I do I’m always bringing the nice stuff closer to the ugly stuff when I drop a compressor in the chain.
However I can see it from a different POV as well. bringing the ugly stuff down first does increase the gap between the the nice and ugly even with compression. And the less dB’s we have to add or subtract using eq in order to achieve our goal, the better. That is true in any circumstance. So after some thought I can see why this is a more gentle method to achieve the desired result.
Luke, it’s the first time that is see someone describing compression as “bringing the ugly stuff closer to the nice stuff”. For many years i have been experimenting with, listening to, and reading about compression. The vocabulary is always the same: peaks, transients, tame loud, raise quiet… For too long i have been wishing that a compressor could make up for a bad mix, or that it could do miracle stuff when used in the mastering process. The way you describe what a compressor really does makes me realize that the ultimate way to use a comp is…. turning it off !!! It’s all about getting the mix right. I understand now that compressors are necessary when recording live instruments and voices that go beyond the dynamic range of the gear (microphones) that is used for recording. Putting audio between two lines: top and bottom. It’s a pity to see that the space between top and bottom is becoming very narrow (loudness!). In parallel, the same thing is happening to life in general: very little space between top and bottom, good or bad, left or right. What if one day those two lines become one???
Flatline.
Regards from Belgium.
Glad I could be of help Tommy!
Got it!!
Im a hobby guy, so take this with a grain of salt. I’d love some feedback on my busy process. (I’m using all UA plug ins)
take a comped vocal track; tune with Melodyn. ( tune bass and guitars also with polyphonic setting)
add subtractive EQ, (low cut, mud and piercing mids).
add some leveling compression, the de-ess, then a slight amount of Ampex tape. ( all of these moves are VERY conservative!!!
I then bounce and now have a take as clean as its going to get while taking a lot of processing out. I’ll do this for everything recorded )except midi. I can then mix with minimal moves. I know it sounds busy (and it is). This is similar to using front end processing??
Mitch (Tampa)
Hey mitch. Does this take you a long time to do?
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