EQing before & after compression

slidey

slidey

New member
I never used it before or even thought of it untill I saw one of Mindset's posts (I think it was mindset anyway) about boosting your frequencies before the squasher & cutting frequencies after the squasher

it has made a world of difference to my mixing & sound production & I think that anybody who hasn't tried this out should as soon as possible

If it was Mindset that pointed this out I am eternally greatful

boing boing boing


slidey
 
There's no one single right way to do it, of course, but I take a bit of a different slant on it myself:

I look at it as performing "Fix EQ" before squashing, and "polishing EQ" after squashing. That is, correcting frequencies that the compressor would otherwise wind up improperly accentuating or masking, before they get to the compressor, and then just applying general nudges for curve shaping or polishing the sound after squashing. Put another way, the pre-comp EQ is prepping the signal for the compressor, and the post-comp EQ is for fine-tuning the result after compression.

As it happens, I certainly don't limit it to just cuts or boosts in either place; I do what's needed for the described pre-fix or post-polish job.

But I have heard a few different "systems" that different people like for pre- and post-EQ. Whatever works. Glad you find one that works for you :).

G.
 
funny you should word it like that Glen as I started EQing as you said on certain things last night whilst slaving over a hot mixer (what a great phrase "slaving over a hot mixer"). I did find that keeping to the rule of boost before comp & cut after worked wonders on some vocal tracks I had to deal with

I also for the 1st time used 2 compressors on a bass channel. the final chain was EQ, comp with a quick release, EQ & a comp with a long release to take out the notes that still stood proud. I could of in hindsight replaced the bass but I'M STUBBORN sometimes

nah feck it I'm stubborn all the time

oh well back to the grind. This album won't mix itself you know even with the advances in computer technology they havn't come up with the auto-mix-master-manufacture-and-sell plugin

haha here's a laugh. I decided to (don't ask me why) to try the "snare" preset on my chosen gate & LMAO it was really nasty so I tweakorated it untill it sounded good to me & the controls almost without exception had been moved to the opposite end of where they started. I'm in the middle of going through a snare track & raising the gain of the odd snare hit here & there to come through the gate & cutting out snare audio where I've hit the toms

all good fun

lateroids
 
steveintampa said:
SouthSIDE Glen,

That Interactive Frequency Chart is the best one I 've come across! Thanks for providing that!
Click to expand...
Thanks Steve. Always gratifying to hear that someone gets something out of my stuff. :)

I just yesteday finished another similar interactive app, this one having to do with levels metering and recording chain gain structure. I'm just finishing up another one that I've been working on simultaneously; a live audio recording industry news feeds display. Just a few more days ironong out the scripts behind that one and I'll be releasing both new apps simultaneously.

In the meantime, we now return you to "EQing before and after compression"...

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
In the meantime, we now return you to "EQing before and after compression"...

G.
Click to expand...

DOH what's an EQ???

I had some breakthroughs with compression the other night involving attack times. My crash cymbals kept on dissappearing & on ivestigation as to why??? I gave it a longer attack time which let the crashes through before being squashed & I then automated the attack time to come down in order to squash the initial hit of the ride cymbal. I do try & minimise the amount of compression I use & like to get things as right (sonically) as possible before I hit the recorderation button but alas it's a fine art getting things to a point where no EQ is required

& Ford we just bought a van, ford of course despite some of my previous comments about (Fix Or Repair Dailly) & it's awesome

the new ford van rocks:D:D:D:D
 
slidey said:
DOH what's an EQ???

I had some breakthroughs with compression the other night involving attack times. My crash cymbals kept on dissappearing & on ivestigation as to why??? I gave it a longer attack time which let the crashes through before being squashed & I then automated the attack time to come down in order to squash the initial hit of the ride cymbal. I do try & minimise the amount of compression I use & like to get things as right (sonically) as possible before I hit the recorderation button but alas it's a fine art getting things to a point where no EQ is required

& Ford we just bought a van, ford of course despite some of my previous comments about (Fix Or Repair Dailly) & it's awesome

the new ford van rocks:D:D:D:D
Click to expand...



Very cool stuff! Slidey! whats also cool for drums is a comp. w/ a non-linear transfer curve. High level stuff like attacks get through that way too. kjaerhus gco and otium beatpuncher have that feature.


:)
:):)
:):):)
 
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