Im using EQ's and compressors on almost every channel, and delays, reverbs and other additional plugins on many. is there a specific order in which my plugins should be instead of randomly applying them?
EQ before compression? does it matter?
would love an explamnation as ive heard discussion about this before and was wondering the correct approach! cheers!

 

@ Torontoleech,

Not really, mainly because 'Experiment' is the Key ! And in some way, most of the new findings in the Audio/Processing/Recording/Mastering Areas have been done either by experiments, or by pure hazard, thus in unconventional ways !!! *yes*
Nevertheless, you should be aware (but maybe you already know it ?) that each of your used Effect(s) will affect the followings with its own effect ! *yes*
As an example, if you use a 'Delay' before, say, a 'Chorus', you guess that the 'Chorus' Effect will be 'delayed' by the proper settings done within your 'Delay' Module/Plugin.
As another example, and even if you're not a Guitarist yourself, you can now understand why most of the Guitar Players are rather using their 'Distortion/Overdrive' Modules/Stompboxes first, before to eventually use any other Effect(s) (e.g. 'Delay', 'Chorus', 'Phaser',... ).
Because if you make the opposite, that for instance, you use several Effects first, then that you use a 'Distortion/Overdrive' Effect at the end of your 'Effect Chain', you can easily guess the result... all your 'Effect Chain' will be distorted/saturated !!! Nothing better to get a 'Lethal Feedback' and 'NOISE' !!!


About the position of 'Compressors' and 'EQs'. Some prefer to use one first, then the other in the second position. In fact, it depends greatly on the result obtained when using one of these Effects first in your 'Effect Chain'. I mean, if you 'compress' your Audio Material first with, say a 'regular' Compressor (not a 'Multiband' one), and that the result suppress/attenuate some Frequencies that you want to hear (or that must to be more audible), you can then use an 'EQ' just after to correct/increase (make more audible) these Frequencies... *yes*

 

As far as compressor/eq order, my basic approach is stock eq first only to cut, basically only getting rid of the stuff I know for sure I don't want as part of the sound, then I compress to get it sounding the way I want, then put another, possibly unique character eq after to boost/tailor the sound the way I want it in the mix. So the first EQ is only cutting out "bad" frequencies that I'll never want, then the 2nd one is more to make the "good" sounds fit right into the particular mix. Then I would consider adding "dirt" (distortion, saturation, etc.). Then send to an aux track for reverb, delay, etc. Then finally maybe some widening or narrowing, depending on where I want it to sit. After that, it's all panning, volume, automation decisions for whatever your mix needs.

 

you can also look at the common layout of most mixing consoles: filter, comp, eq, aux (path can be altered for exceptions though). Another common thing is to route a delay into a reverb...makes it sound more 'realistic' / natural.

 

There's a great video on EQ before compression vs. compression before EQ in AudioSex Academy. When that page loads just check number 5 under Mixing and click the link and you're off. It's the third video down in that comment. Also this is an interesting article entitled Effects Chain Order from tutsplus which was a website in a From The Vault post in the Academy. Those kinds of posts basically highlight external resources beyond our site. The article is written with a guitarist in mind but it can perhaps be of use to you as well, giving you a peek into the rationale behind the placement of an effect in the signal chain.

 

Like Studio 555 say's there is no SPECIFIC rule but there are general guidelines.

For example as a general of rule of thumb if you a guitarist it is important as each effect will affect the next in your chain depending how your chain is set up.

Say a guitarist with an amp a general rule is that Wah>compression>Overdrive>distortion> into the amp. These effects normal run in a serial chain in front of the amplifier.

However your time dependent effects i.e chorus, phaser, tremelo, delay, reverb should generally be placed in the FX loop of the amp which can be run in serial or parallel. The reason is that you don't want to amplify your whole signal & run the full output thru a load of time modulated fx as the result like studio 555 said is often a horrendous messed up noise noise *yes*

However that might be what u want.

If u don't then one solution is preamp your signal send it out to your time dependant fx and return it to be amplified in the power section. This is not a must do & different people like different setups.

This would be similar to using say delay & Reverb on a send and return i.e the amp sends the processed signal to the effect which is then returned to the amp via the FX loop. As a general rule this would apply to other setups with your delay & reverb being last in the chain.

In a serial loop the whole signal is sent out after the preamp B4 the power amp & then sent thru the serial loop & returned to the amp. A parallel loop is different in that it splits the signal.

The same basic principles can be applied to other FX chains.

So the general guidelines are there but there is no MUST DO rule but it would help if you delved deeper into learning about how to set up your signal chain, split it if you want & where to send & return it to the get the effect you desire if that makes any sense

 

As already chanted - there are no rules/specifics, but I know how I usually want my chain (after many years and countless hours of trial and error). My setup might not be the "correct one" to the previous/post guy in this thread, but it works for me.

 

You can compare it with Iz O5's chain here:



New in O5, they added a post EQ, which was an important feature they said from users or something (since DRC changes the character dramatically, people needed a post EQ)

I'm not saiyan either is right or wrong, but here's how O5 does it.

 

As the others explained there's no right or wrong answer. The only thing i always have in the same order is delay and reverb.

You usually want the delay BEFORE the reverb. Because the reverb gives you a more muddy sound and less transients, so if you put the delay afterwards, it won't sound that good. If you put the delay on the dry signal it will be clear as day, then you can apply reverb and you'll get better results.

But then again, I can imagine there are some less "standard" situations where you might not want to do it in that order.

 

Do what you like, but having said that keep in mind that if your after natural sounds follow the rules that would occur in real world to some extent, for example if you put a cab before a amp and its got reverbs or delay before either of those, its not going to sound the same as a real world approach (gtr amp reverbs excepted of course, but room mic would still add some space after that). so leaving your spaces till last in an example of how it would be conventionally approached. Bottom lines is, if it sounds good, by golly it is good.
A perfect musician would play all the dynamics correctly so that is why comps are generally first, and then eq's to balanced the response of the room they were recorded in. Have fun ignoring these rules if you find you like things to sound different with another approach. but it's always worth understanding what is going with real physics and the effect they have on air molocules