Multiple track Eq'ing/compressing?

[GrandMarkie]

So I have 7 seperate tracks for the drums, 1 for the bass, 4 guitar tracks (2 for each guitarist) and a vocal track.

Am I eq'ing and compressing each track individually first, then combining them (sorry, not very technical) into 1 master track...do I then do anything to this master track? (eq, compress, gain, etc)

 

[cusebassman]

S'all about what sounds good. Generally, a decent portion of the compression I use gets added to individual tracks as necessary. And only to taste - if the bass drum track's dynamics are all over the place and you want to flatten out that track a bit (or a lot), apply compression to that track alone.

Same with anything else - I think its easier to control when you are doing it at the individual-track level, since any major compression is going to make the overall mix sound a bit off if you are trying to tame messy dynamics (or use it as a specific effect) on a single or few instruments.

As far as I know people apply compression to the final stereo mix on occasion, but I don't think its used to control anything overly specific - I think it might just be to smooth things out a bit. I find once I compress any problem channels, adding it to the final stereo mix is overkill, so traditionally I haven't used it. But, to each his own

 

[mixsit]

So I have 7 seperate tracks for the drums, 1 for the bass, 4 guitar tracks (2 for each guitarist) and a vocal track.

Am I eq'ing and compressing each track individually first, then combining them (sorry, not very technical) into 1 master track...do I then do anything to this master track? (eq, compress, gain, etc)

Don't assume that everything needs compression (not saying you are). A good cross check is to a/b both ways but with the volumes compensated(how loud they sound, not by meter).
This is a way to highlight the qualities you are loosing or gaining either way, and sometimes points to more' being actually less.