EQ before or after compressor?

[Trevoire520]

If there's going to be major eq'ing going on, I'll do it before the comp. After all if I'm gonna take shit loads of 400hz out of my kick drum, why would I want the compressor to act on the energy there?

If its more subtle eq'ing, then I'll eq after the comp so that the comp and eq don't fuck with each other.

 

[Splat88]

there was some huge argument on a forum somewhere where some guy was claiming he could add dynamics back in with an EQ
which is sorta
incorrect

or maybe youre implying something totally different and im just a dope haha

No, this is different. Read Skeksis's post about an EQ adding dynamic range to a concert flute in A and adding a boost at 440HZ. If you had a compressor clamping down on the flute then added the boost, the the signal will no longer be "clamped down".

The guy that was making the point about adding dynamic range to a mix was doing it with a highpass filter only, if I recall correctly. The added transients he saw in the wave form were probably due to phase shift.

 

[DestroyTheColossus]

Subtractive EQ > Comp > Boosting EQ

You don't want the frequencies your going to subtract to control how your comp reacts, so get rid of them in the beginning. Then after the compressor, eq in the boosts. When boosting, you shouldn't have to add much, since its not being slammed down by the compressor, and it sounds more natural.

This works best when the sound coming in is good, because if your going to need to do some very drastic EQ, then comp after may be the key.

 

[John_C]

Subtractive EQ > Comp > Boosting EQ

You don't want the frequencies your going to subtract to control how your comp reacts, so get rid of them in the beginning. Then after the compressor, eq in the boosts. When boosting, you shouldn't have to add much, since its not being slammed down by the compressor, and it sounds more natural.

This works best when the sound coming in is good, because if your going to need to do some very drastic EQ, then comp after may be the key.

+1

 

[Eduardo Apolonia]

It depends on the situation but I most of the time use EQ before compression
I like to use compression after because I can tailor the dynamic range better.

 

[FIXXXER]

i always use a "surgical" eq first. sweeping, locating and killing bad frequencies.
after compressing i use a second eq for "fine tuning".

cheers
S.