so after I route the wet(compressed) signal and the dry signal to a bus

Do I add the effects (like eq,distortion, subtle compression, etc) to the bus or to the dry signal?

 

It depends. Think of it like a reverb. In reverbs, you have the Original Audio and the Fx Reverb. Do you want the reverb to be compressed or the original signal to be compressed?

 

If you add EQ (low shelving boost and high shelving boost) to the compressed/squashed signal, you will get New York compression when you mix it in with the dry/uncompressed/unaltered source.

you can do whatever you want to either/or the dry or the compressed signal. It's your creative/artistic freedom. But "parallel compression" is mixing a totally dry signal (with transients) with a squashed/overly compressed version. This way you get upward compression - maintaining transients while upping the softer parts inbetween hits. It's great on a drum bus (especially NY compression).

 

Last edited: Jul 10, 2017

So adding effects to the bus where the dry and wet signal are routed too defeat the purpose of parallel compression?

 

Not really. But the benefit of parallel compression is that you keep the transients and add/boost the yummy stuff inbetween. See it as HDR photography.
What you do with the dry+wet bus (finished HDR composition) is up to you. There is no right or wrong, or "finished".

 

Let's set if I got your question right with an example:

1. You have a stereo drum bus with a mix of your individual drums.
2. Use a send to route your drums to an auxiliary channel. Compress the hell out of it.
3. Blend the dry/wet signal to your heart's content. You want transent quality with beefy sound.
4. Route the output of both dry and wet signals to another bus, the final drum bus.

If along the mix you realize you want to add some top end, or cut some nasty sounding frequencies, you can add an EQ to the whole, final drum bus. Since your drums are already happening (due to your parallell compression), and you just want to change the overall tone of the drums, your EQ will affect both busses, or you could add EQ to just one of the dry or wet signals before the final drum bus if you feel like it.