Which Effects Should Come FIRST in Mixing?

Should your EQ come before your compressor or after? Should your compressor go after your saturator or before?
There are so many different orders you could put your effects in. Which are best and why? And how are you supposed to remember them all?
Justin Colletti gives you the principles and concepts you need to get this right every time.
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[@LohPro]

if I could add my 2 cents... i like to used exaggerated amounts of additive EQ BEFORE compression, in order to "fill-out" a portion of the frequency spectrum. so when the compressor kicks in & attenuates those loudest, exaggerated parts, it will bring them all down closer to the rest of the signal, thus "filling out" the sound. this is especially useful when trying to fill out the low-end with a steady & consistent amount of low-end material. you add an exaggerated amount of say 100Hz, then compress that & you're left with like a "box" of low-end. you could do this as well to the upper mids that are pushed hard into saturation/distortion/fuzz, etc. throw a compressor afterwards & you're left with a consistent amount of a dirt & mid/upper-mid range. this could be added "from underneath" via a send or parallel.

[@MrKyle9f]

Thank you for sharing what must be 7-12 years of experience (guessing) in a 30 minute video. It really brings quite a few concepts together.

[@paulsaunders193]

Thanks for clarifying all this stuff. I knew a lot of it already but you added lots of crucial details that I'd missed. I now have a very clear idea of the optimum order to do things, depending on the results I want. 👍

[@davidasher22]

I don’t know if you mentioned it but it’s good practice to gain stage properly (level match) from processor to processor so if you do want to swap out or reorder the chain it’s a smooth transition.

[@rome8180]

Yeah, especially if you're going to do something like move an additive EQ that was before a compressor to after a compressor, you're going to get a huge jump in level. You'll have to adjust the EQ's output. You also may have to adjust the compressor's threshold because it won't be having as much signal fed into it.

[@davidasher22]

@@rome8180 exactly! Wasn’t sure if I worded that clearly enough for everyone to understand. But that’s exactly why. I always do this with my mastering chain and if I’m feeling organized and thinking about it I’ll do when I can with mixing. Mixing is a bit different though because I do like the nonlinear effects I get from driving certain things and will just use the gain staging for level adjustment too. A lot of the time I’ll end up printing the track and the processing when I’m happy with it. Kind of a old school habit too. But with the mastering chain it’s so nice to have that RMS constant right up until the final limiter. It adds beneficial precision imo.

[@timsteindl8887]

P

[@davebops2478]

Thanks Justin, another superb video! You are so gifted at explaining concepts, always a pleasure to watch.

[@SonicScoop]

Thanks for the kind words Dave! Glad it is useful for you :-) -Justin

[@Fewleroids]

amazing stuff man

[@khelmeri]

Excellent video! I always eq out the excessive low end rumble that saturation and distortion creates.

[@Freedomintertainment]

Great job👍🏾; by the way, I have study compression breakthrough about a million time. I learn something new each time ✌🏾

[@SonicScoop]

So awesome to hear Deric!! Glad it's been useful. -Justin

[@stripedelicstudios]

I'm really excited to try a de-esser after a compressor now! Been doing it the other way around and always struggling with sibilances

[@peterhorvath8153]

Have you tried putting one before AND putting another one after? This can actually tame that harshness pretty well if you set the first de-esser to a lighter setting.

[@EdwinDekker71]

The best way is to go through the whole vocal track and clip-gaining all the s's, t's, ch's etc

[@cornoc]

you can also EQ the signal to emphasize sibilances going into the compressor (even though the sidechain EQ of the de-esser should already be doing that...) and then put a de-emphasis EQ (equal and opposite cut of the boost) to normalize the tone again. or just use a dynamic EQ, they work pretty damn well for this type of task and TDR Nova is a really good free one.

[@luanprins]

Thanks for the vid, definitely taking to heart about cutting out lows before reverb or saturation if they overreact. I like trimming sibilance before compression: mics distort and (especially in the case of some mics) emphasise sibilants so I get something closer to real life speech and still one effects layer away from dry if I trim those first. It just makes sense to me that what is being compressed sounded natural to the ear before it happened, otherwise you're compressing based on what a lot of listeners might perceive as a harsh noise; not a problem in daily conversation. You do get softer esses being lifted again after compression, and if you don't want those, you probably de-ess after, but I find the effect desirable in some cases. I generally find you can get a good vocal signal with manageable esses, where any excessive highs in, for example, reverb added thereafter can be trimmed on those effects individually (i.e. through sending the track to a separate track that consists of a 100% wet reverb effect via routing, and then doing EQ on that effect track individually, in case having that additional eq affect plugins earlier in the chain isn't desirable).

[@samuelrisenhoover409]

Awesome advice!

[@SonicScoop]

Glad it was helpful! -Justin

[@IamMonvi]

When composing electronic music, I'll often put a tube compressor emulation at the beginning of the signal chain, and use that one to create the sidechain with my kick drum, or vocals, and follow it with saturation, to get tons of harmonic variation when the synth swells in volume

[@MIxstarsOnline]

Really cool vid 👍

[@rome8180]

I've heard people -- good mixers, actually -- say they do EQ boosts before the compressor because the compressor will tame any big boost they do and make it more gentle/musical. What do you think of that logic? Anyway, I've always gone back and forth pretty randomly. But your video reminded me to try switching it around on the master bus of a mix I'm working on. I had a console emulation with a pretty massive 10k boost feeding into a compressor. I moved the console emulation after the compressor, and suddenly the mix opened up. The only drawback was it was now too hot, level wise, because the compressor wasn't clamping down on my boost. But I level matched and it still sounded better. So thanks for this. Just thought you might like to hear that your advice has had immediate real-life benefits.

[@lastdaysguitar]

The more I mix (and its been 4 decades now) the more I realize that there is no one combination, its all about what is best at the end of the chain - I've had brilliant sounds where the plug ins were exactly opposite of the standard configs.

[@jordangressman5164]

(repeat comment) future podcast question here! i also emailed you lol, but here’s my question.. i feel i really got a REAL perspective and grasp on mixing, where i can not only HEAR the gap between my mixes and professional mixes, as well as how a professional master affects that gap.. and it really started coming together because i read “the art of mixing,” by david gibson. the visual imagery, the technicalities, and the way the equipment interfaces with the music to create seemless dynamics, finally became pretty damn apparent to me. but after that became apparent, it also hit me that things have changed so much since the book was written. these tried and true techniques and values, i assume, have not only changed, but have evolved. so my question is, what is the history of mixing?? how has it changed, evolved, maybe even regressed or also progressed?? i’m really curious to hear your take on this…

[@SonicScoop]

Thanks for the question! It's a good one. Have definitely been thinking about doing one on "trends" in mixing, past and present. Maybe some day. It's just such a big topic though! There are so many cross currents in addition to the prevailing tide of any era. And it is so dependent on genre too. Hard to narrow things down, but will definitely stew on it some more! -Justin

[@ssmmuzik2908]

So basically what Justin is saying, it's what the sound need you give to it.....listen to the sound.....👍🏾

[@crisnla1]

some of your best work right here sir. thank you.

[@LeakBanga]

If this was a Quiz I would’ve scored 100

[@ramonf.9217]

Awesome info as usual. Thank you.🙏🏽

[@thomasyoung5680]

always love your teaching

[@franky29739]

Always great advices particularly for beginners! Thanks!

[@friendlyfish]

Thank you for your guidance 🙏 😊

[@johnnyk4551]

Your insight on how subtle differences is so often times what many of us are dealing with - is spot on. Sometimes I try not to go so deep but it’s hard not to. Thanks. Great video!

[@aronforis]

I can tell you lift by your palms :)

[@SonicScoop]

Good eyes! Fortunately, you can’t yet tell I grapple by my ears 😅 -Justin

[@iampedrorafael]

Great advice! From my trials, removing mid and high-mid resonances on a vocal before hard compression can make the cuts less effective. I think it's similar to de-essing, the compressor ends up bringing back those frequencies if it isn't being triggered by them 😅

[@franky29739]

Any tricks to know when to stop mixing in the perspective that we refer to mastered songs in general, e. g air in vocals, shining hihats, deep bottom end, I am in the ending process of some mixes and puzzle by that question?

[@aemythjensen]

Q: EQ before or after Compression? A: Yes

[@carlos-ni4hn]

Uuuu this video clarified some doubts . the mixing master class is near ? please the jason goldberg engineer . On god

[@crisnla1]

yeah maybe a pod on mixbus/master compression with something like the BRAINWORX V3 - 09 SSL G BUS - NEVE 33609 - AMPEX 102 - STUDER etc. etc. I notice that tape saturation tends to narrow my mix some. I think. lol.

[@arturomartin8101]

Hi Justin. Please teach us, if u please, about VCA masters in PRO tools...Why, When, How to use them (or not), automatization, etc

[@GroberWeisenstein]

You don't want to work with junk too far into the signal chain. Best to filter out all unwanted noise as soon as possible. Different if noise is what you are after.

[@michaeljordan750]

Hate to be that guy but this was explained in a very poor and misleading manner, the information is falsely articulated. The purpose of the FX/Plug-in chain, especially EQ or Compression order which is responsible for A) Tight and Punchy or B)Loose and Boomy. Compression and how it is implemented is so important; it is borderline irresponsible to have added to the confusion or misunderstanding of those trying to learn.

[@SonicScoop]

What is “misleading” or “false”? Do go on! 😃 -Justin

[@michaeljordan750]

Well I Must have been in one of my 48 hour sessions and highly emotional 🤣 because I don't even remember this. after watching again, I wouldn't say there is any "wrong doing 😂" and I think I must have been referring to low end from Subs to 808s and how compression is handled depending on the desired results depending on compression being in front or behind the EQ and it only pertains to the low end; I think I might have misunderstood when you mentioned low end in a corrective manner. Anyways I apologize for being a weirdo about it and I'm usually a pretty cool guy and I subscribe to your channel because I like the content you put out and respect your knowledge. I can delete it or if it doesn't bother you I'll just leave it for comic relief as someone might need a good laugh.

[@michaeljordan750]

How do you feel about taking say 3 instances of compression (not multiband but 3 single compressors) and using them consecutively so the signal runs through all three of them which balances and handles the load with a bit more accuracy and less is placed on any single compressor. I haven't tried it myself yet and wanted to know your take on it and if it's worth putting time into of if it's overkill. Thank you.