Where do you put EQ?

[AndyClarke]

Hi all, question mostly out of curiosity. I'm wondering where you tend to put your EQ in your FX chains?

I always use my DAW's (Logic) channel EQ as my go to, and in the past I've always had it first in the chain. I'm working on my first project after a few years away, and I'm now rethinking this and started putting the EQ last.

[Matt Houghton]

Depends what you want to do with it! That's not a joke but a genuine case of 'it depends'. There's nothing to say you even have to use EQ — you put it where you need to change the balance of a sound. So, for example, you might want to use a high-pass (low-cut) filter to remove rumble or compensate for a mic's proximity effect bass boost, or to use a narrow cut to address some ugly resonances. It makes sense to do that early in the chain, and particularly before a compressor. But there are other things you might want to do early in the chain too — de-essing, de-noising, etc. You might find that you want an EQ to change the balance going into or coming out of a compressor, or to tame any 'fizz' or brittleness after a distortion/saturation effect... Etc.

[sonics]

Hi all, question mostly out of curiosity. I'm wondering where you tend to put your EQ in your FX chains?

Er, everywhere!
It's a tool. It has no "fixed" place. It can go anywhere. Do try not to think of it as going in any one place.

Use multiple EQs on a channel, before or after other processors to change their behaviour, on aux sends and returns, in sidechains, on busses, on masters, simply everywhere you need them!

Or have I misunderstood your question?

[RichardT]

Here’s one perspective…

https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-adv ... ress-first

[Drew Stephenson]

Because I tend to use a channel strip plugin on every track my default is low cut filter > compressor > EQ. That way I know any EQ tweaks aren't also going to trigger any compressor shenanigans. But the plugin gives the option of swapping that order and it's interesting to toggle between the two and hear the difference.

[James Perrett]

I don't have a fixed location in the chain but I tend to use it before compression so that the compressor doesn't go compressing something that you aren't going to hear.

[RichardT]

I usually put EQs before compression for the same reason as James - also I tend to add EQ earlier in the mixing process than compression so it feels natural to add the compression afterwards.

[Hugh Robjohns]

All of the above.

The question is much the same as asking which way do you drive to work? The answer is, it depends on time of day, traffic, road works, other things you might need to do before or after work, etc. There is no single right answer.

EQ is just a tool that you use where ever you need to use it to achieve your goal. The important thing is to understand how its use affects other processes and processing — before and after compression is probably the important one.

I think it's a good idea to EQ early in the signal path to remove unwanted parts of the spectrum — most notably unwanted low frequencies, but maybe also tame the HF and remove any unwanted honks or other room affects.

But other processes can alter the tonal balance — again, compression/limiting being an obvious one — so you might want to add another EQ after the compressor to restore the tonal balance (although that might be done in a group mix rather than in the channel itself, depending on what you're doing.

And you might want to EQ aux sends or FX inputs (such as removing LF going into a reverb, for example)...

[Martin Walker]

The question is much the same as asking which way do you drive to work? The answer is, it depends on time of day, traffic, road works, other things you might need to do before or after work, etc. There is no single right answer.

What a great analogy from Hugh! (not that we would expect anything less )

[Wonks]

But what if you walk to work or go to work by bus or train or tube or egg?

The nation awaits!

[Zukan]

But what if you walk to work or go to work by bus or train or tube or egg?

The nation awaits!

There's also working from home. Does this mean we use the Zoom Linear Phase Dynamic EQ?

[Wonks]

There's no denying that Hugh's opened up a huge can of worms here.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Doh!

[AndyClarke]

Thanks for all the comments everyone, lots to think about.