The Bear has it right. While I can understand - to a degree - your plans to use those four processors on a particular track, unless you are
really good and
really expereinced, the chances are that those plans will (or at least should) change as you go through the process. For example, once you compress the track, you may decide that a maximizer is just too much. Or after getting more of the other tracks into the mix you may decide that the original reverb you put on this track does not sit right; i.e. you went to the reverb too early. Be prepared to be flexible in your choices, and add any given processor to the chain only if it is called for by the sound.
That said, there are some *general* rules of thumb (there are always exceptions, of course) for processing order. Bear's article will cover much of that, but just to quickly summarize the mai ones I see based upon your list:
- De-noise before you do anything else, Especially before you compress. It's almost always a good idea to do whatever "cleaning" you need to do to a signal before you apply anything else. It only makes sense that you want to process your desired signal, not a signal that you don't want...like a dirty one.
- Compress before you reverb. There are some exceptions to this, mostly for special effects that aren't intended to sound "natural", but if you want a natural sounding reverb and overall sound, compress before you add 'verb. This makes the same sense as the first general rule if you think about it the same way. Compression is meant to give you the resulting sound that you want from a track, regardless of what kind of room you want it in. Get that sound forst, then use the reverb afterwards to "put the sound in the room."
If you try it the opposite way - adding compression after reverb - the compressor will have an effect on the envelope of the reverb, completly changing the characteristics of the reverb. In otherwords the reverb will sound entirely different after compression.
The same often applies to EQ and reverb, as well as other processor/reverb combinations. For these reasons, ninetly percent of the time, reverb is the very last item in the chain.
As far as room treatments go, check out the studio building forum on this board for the best information there. But another *general* rule I'll start you off with here is that a dead room is not necessarily a good room. You chould be looking to get rid of bad reflections only, not all reflections altogether. Trapping for bass, diffusing direct side reflections, things like that are important. Making a room sound like the inside of a closed padded coffin is not.
HTH,
G.
