Studiomaster Inserts

[James K]

Hi,
I've got a Studiomaster 20/16/2 desk. I'm getting on well with it so far apart from one thing, the inserts are post-EQ. This is proving to be quite a pain as I want to compress before EQ. When I change the EQ it messes up the compressed sound and of course the compressor tries to counteract the change. Is there any way round this? I thought of wiring the outputs of my 16 track and the inputs on the desk into a normalised patch bay (thereby creating an insert point) and then patching in there instead of into the insert points. This seems like a complicated option though and I would lose the ability to alter the gain before the compressor.

Can anyone think of any other ways to get around this problem?

Cheers
James

 

[Massive Master]

You could pop it open and find out if there are jumpers or something, but it's so amazingly rare that someone would want to compress before EQ'ing, I can't even imagine there being a way around it on the board.

If you do find a set of jumpers, they're probably for pre/post to the bridge. If there's more than one set, it's s'perimenting time.

 

[miroslav]

You could pop it open and find out if there are jumpers or something, but it's so amazingly rare that someone would want to compress before EQ'ing, I can't even imagine there being a way around it on the board.

I agree with John...for mixing, it's the norm to compress AFTER you EQ, which is why most boards have their channels wired with inserts on post-EQ.
Why?
For the exact reason you mentioned, but the key is to think about the underlying implication. If you have a ton of low-end that will need to be fixed...when you compress first, that low-end is going to be doing the majority of the "driving" of the comp, which also affects everything else.
I'm not saying you couldn't arrive at some balance point doing it your way....but you are working twice as hard.
By first getting the tone shaped...the compressor then has no need to deal with overly hyped low-end, which you don't want anyway.

The time where I might put EQ after a compressor, is on the mix bus, but it's there only to "touch-up" the overall mix, and the action on the stereo bus Comp has already been shaped by the individual track's EQ-Comp processing.

 

[witzendoz]

I always compress after EQ unless there is a special reason not to. I agree with you guys ^^^^^^^^^^ on the reasons.

Alan

 

[bouldersoundguy]

EQ -> Compression

In a sense the compression does "undo" the eq, but only measured over a longer time span than is relevant to how people hear. At any one moment the effect on the spectral balance is nil.