What comes first?

[Sarnadle_Vector]

When dealing with a "final" mix....what should come first...EQ or compression?

I have a hunch that any EQ'ing should be applied first, but I wanted to hear what others have to say on the matter.

Thanks,

-sV

 

[Son of Mixerman]

Most often EQ precedes compression, but not always.

SoMm

 

[masteringhouse]

EQ and filtering should come before compression and limiting to avoid compressing elements of a mix that you are going to EQ out (for example big boomy sub-frequencies).

Hopefully in some cases the EQ will allow you to use less compression in the end result. For example a "lumpy" bass guitar that stands out at certain freqs.

My usual chain is EQ(s)->Multi-Band Compressors (if neeeded, since these are also frequency dependent) ->averaging compressors-> limiters

If you have a hybrid analog/digital system however there may be 2 chains of the above.