Now that I’m taking my first real stab at mixing a few songs, I have a question about the order plugins should go on a track. For example, I am planning to put EQ, reverb, and compression on a vocal track. Does the order of the plugins matter? If so, what order should they be and why? (How’s that for a newbie question?)
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You opened the gates of hell !
Well you can:
- eq before you compress (eq>compression)…eq before to help compressor react smoother
- eq after you compress (compression>eq)…compress after to raise some freqs. that may have been reduced too much
- eq before and after you compress (eq>compression>eq) …a combonation of the first two.
- You can put the 'verb right on the track and automate the wet/dry knob to fit the track
- (eq>compress>'verb)
- (compress>eq>'verb)
- (eq>compress>eq>,verb)
- You can send the the track to a bus and place your 'verb plug there.
- (eq>compress>bus send> 'verb)
- (compress>eq>bus send>'verb)
- Sending the 'verb to a bus allows you:
- easier level automation (plug at 100% wet), automate fader for flavor
- you can add eq (before or after)… to flaver the 'verb
- you compress the 'verb… to bring out the room sound in a big way
- you can distort the 'verb (warning intense !) Reserved for the daring few
There is no right or wrong way to do it. Experiment !
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I think you just gave me a headache. Haha! Thanks.
cpt is correct. I have a few guide lines. 1. Plug in order does effect the behavior of plugins. 2. If I am repairing a track I work differently then if I am making a track work within a mix. Generally speaking for repair you go with what you hear as the major problem first. If you are getting a nasty resonance frequency as your biggest issue put on an eq and notch it out, then access your next problem etc. etc. etc. The order of the plugins will go from biggest problem to smallest problem. Once the track is repaired then you are in the “making the track fit the mix stage” From here I generally eq first and then compress. Sometimes I eq, compress and then eq again. Sometimes I compress, eq, and compress again.
The golden rule is that if you get to your desired outcome it doesn’t matter what order your plugins are.
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@cptfiasco and @Paul999 both said most of what I was going to say!
All I can really suggest beyond that is to experiment, and try to get a handle on how your processing is changing the way the subsequent effects in the chain react.
One good reason to EQ before compression is that you can decide what the compressor reacts most consistently to - like, say you boost the high end of a vocal track then compress it; you can make the compressor react more strongly to the high end and end up with a more consistent sheen on the top. Likewise, you might not want your eq choices to affect what the compressor does. An example might be you want the bass drum to have more low end punch, and you don’t want to compress the low end any more than it is already. So you put the EQ after the compression.
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Great responses! Al, definitely do the experiment, get a track in some kind of decent shape using the eq/compression etc, and then just randomly change the order of the plugs in your chain and listen to the result. Depending on the material, the difference can be astounding! So yeah, plugin order is crucial, and one should have some idea why one is doing them in a particular sequence.
Paul, Josh, and the Capn have given some great examples. One that I would add is for guitars: some guitars have some serious resonances that you don’t want, like the “boxiness” of an acoustic or the low end on a semihollow. I almost always eq my guitars as the first step in the chain so that I provide a signal to the next plug that has been scrubbed of that issue-- I don’t want to compress signal that I don’t even want in the sound in the first place. I will very often have another eq later in the chain, after compressors or other treatment, as a final check.
And another issue to keep in mind when it comes to plugin order is gain staging within the individual track, as well as the tracks that are going to subs/aux/master out. If you’re using a delicate effect late in your chain you don’t want to blast it out with an overcooked input from the previous plugs in the chain. I know only the rudiments when it comes to gain staging, there are plenty of our members who could write reams on that subject!
One last tangential remark: There is something to be said for using integrated suites of plugs, i.e. channel strip type things, as a way of avoiding some common problems. About a year ago I picked up the Izotope suite of tools: Alloy for individual tracks, Nectar for vox, and Ozone for the master bus. Alloy, for example, has components that include eq, compression and other dynamics, limiting, stereo widening, etc. Because they’re designed to work together, issues of gain staging and so on are pretty much eliminated, you just have the one plug that takes care of all that internally (and yes you can alter the order of components within Alloy, you are not locked in to them always being in any particular order). Not trying to plug Izotope or anything (see what I did there?), just a satisfied customer.
Good luck!
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I would add to that. One way to tell how something works is to take it to more of an ‘extreme’ setting. Take an EQ plug and exaggerate some upper mids or something and then add a pumping comp before and have a listen. Now place it after. Repeat as needed 
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Try to listen to the song what it needs. I prefer Eq->Comp->Reverb
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depend on the performance… somtimes I Compress>EQ>Reverb
for example uneven dynamics vocal track/acoustic, sometimes compresor first comes very handy to control the dynamic, than EQ
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Or ^. If your track is well balanced in frequencies, then it does not matter. Otherwise it would be wise to lower the compressor’s work by EQing first.
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These are the two methods I though I would try before I posted my question. 
OR: it would be better to compress first so that the compressor after and eq doesn’t overstress the eq you’ve p[ut in.
My rule is EQ cuts before the compressor, and EQ boosts after the compressor.
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since where on about compression a poster in boz fb group laid out a nice little piece on the different type of compressors .
quoted from Scott Rennie
I would like to talk about a subject that that is rarely spoken about. We all buy this compressor and that compressor because people say they are amazing. What we may miss is if used for the wrong purpose they will always fail to get the right results. I’m not pretending to be an authority on this subject so would love to hear from anyone with more insight on this. Feel free to correct me. For instance if you use a Fet compressor you will never get the smoothing results like you would get from say an opto compressor. If you want clean results for say voice over you don’t want to slap on your favourite LA-2A compressor as it will add a flavour of distortion. It leads me to realise that perhaps more important than getting the correct attack or response we need to take time to understand what each type of compressor does. So from what I have found so far there is the four main ones VCA, Opto, Fet and Tube. Also there is some hybrids out there but they are mainly based on these types.
VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier) like SSL, Neve and API mix bus compressors, Focusrite Red, DBX 160 work based on the peaks and have very fast attacks and release tending to sound very transparent. Very good on percussive tracks and especially well on drum busses. Basically very good on instantaneous and drastic changes and peaks, but not much good for anything else.
OPTO compressors like the LA-2A, LA-3A, TubeTech CL1B tend to deal with the average signal and act very slowly giving a much more smooth result. They tend not to be very sensitive to transients, peaks and sudden spikes. For this reason, much higher ratios can be used. Good when you want to tighten up a mix without killing the transient and drain the life out of it. Be careful with bass heavy tracks as it can cause them to pump. Use a high pass to stop it from reacting to the low end. It also employs tubes at the end to give it some warmth and flavour. I realise that is why a lot of people like to put on a FET compressor, the 1176 then put a Opto compressor like the LA-2A to smooth it out and add some warmth and flavour.
The Tube design, (which is the oldest types of compression (Vari-MU)). Like we see in the world famous Fair-child or Manly-MU is unlike the Opto as it uses tubes to actually achieve the compression. It has both a slower attack and release than other forms of compression. This as you would expect makes it exhibit a distinct coloration like we see in vintage equipment. A unique sound that is nearly impossible to achieve with other compressor types. Good for tightening up and smoothing out a mix giving the mix more cohesion (Glue). Good on entire mixes prior to limiting or say on a thin and aggressive sounding guitar. It will bring warmth and thicken the sound. It’s no good for bringing punch or dealing with aggressive or intense dynamics. Not sure a plugin could capture the warmth, depth, texture and definition?
FET (Field effect Transistor) is all about the punch like we see in the brilliant 1176 and it’s clones. It has a extremely fast attack and release times but unlike the VCA it is far from transparent. It tends to adds a distortion that is thick and warm. Very sought after to bring bite and punch to a track. A lot of people use it on the mix bus with the compression off as it brings a well sought after saturation and colour that few saturation plugins can bring. Great on drums, vocals, bass, and everything else that needs bite and punch. Very known for it’s snap on drums. Brilliant for side chaining. Not recommended on the mix bus unless it has the ability to sidechain/mix like we see on good ol Slates version as he put a mix dial on his.
Anyway hope this helps and would love to hear anything you can add to this. Good to learn together.
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What’s the link to the Boz FB group?
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Thanks!
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Thanks for posting that Danny! Very useful info.
And does anybody else think that Opto Fet would make a great name for a Star Wars character?? 
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yw AL and David , it is a very unique name for sure maybe you should send it to mr lucas…lol
Hi BigAIRocks, I am also very new in the mixing world. Still mixing some songs as hobby to learn and had the same doubts your are having.
Watched to countless videos and tutorials and the conclusion is:
First. Yes, the order does matter a lot.
Before going to the second point, I am not sure if you are or are not doing it, but what is adviseble is to have your vocal track separate of the effects track in which you can put your reverb. I’ve read something about using the dry/wet knob of your reverb, what works also, but if you keep the efx in a defferent aux track, you will gain a lot of flexibility to blend the way you want.
Second. I liked cpt and Paull answers and would complement with that first of all you should think of “fixing” your track. By fixing you can correct the gain staging lowering or rising the level of it to get the sweet spot for the plugins that come next (There are some good videos on that and tell you that this does do a big difference). By fixing you may also want to remove some frequencies or boxyness or harshness of the track. After that you start shaping it and could be by compressing to give some more clarity (this is also fixing lol), reducing a little the dinamics of the track than aplling the reverb.
Consider that sometimes it is interesting to eq after the reverb to remove some high and low frequencies giving a more clear reverb. Saw some people also compressing after reverb to bring more the tail of the reverb, but these last two movements are valid if you have a separate track as I mentioned before.
Hope this helps a litle.
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The way I mix I don’t do the eq/comp/eq or comp/eq/comp thing on a individual track. I work much like Paul does, repairing the big issues first. But once I get one comp and one eq on the track and I feel really close to the right sound I will move them. So if I had eq/comp, I will switch them to comp/eq without changing the settings and see if the change helps or hurts. I have also set up a comp/eq and then an eq/comp under that and tried mixing both by turning off the top set. I can then go back and forth to see the difference. In that case the eq/comp settings may not be identical.
the only caveat is that I will use a eq/comp and a distortion plugin in the same strip. I guess technically that is an eq of a type. I have worked really hard to limit the number of plugins on any mix.
I also like the channel strip approach, in my case, the “Console” plugin from Plugin Alliance.
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