Eqing and Compressing while recording in front of the interface?

[barters81]

My question is this.....

Who out there eqs, compresses or does something else before the track is recorded to your DAW?

I'm asking as recently I was forced to do a single drum track into a mates computer (it could only take one track), so I mixed 7 tracks down into a one stereo track. As I couldn't mix this as I usually would I placed some eq and compression where appropriate and got the drum stereo track as good as I could before recording. funnily enough this ended up sounding quite good compared to my previous efforst of recording all individual drum tracks and mixing them later.

Then I read an article recently about how many pro engineers (whilst still recording each drum track seperately) are eqing and compressing in front of their interfaces. Or effectively recording each seperate drum track with eq and compression already on it. The theory being that placing eq early can highlight some obvious errors in mic placement etc which can be sorted out now rather than later. Whereas my previous efforts would see me sitting down to mix later the raw tracks and wish I had moved something ro done it differently....even though I've got more freedom, usually that freedom is used fixing something.

Currently I'm running 2 x profire 2626's and pluging my mics straight into them, but am wondering if maybe I should go through an eq first, maybe some compression.....or maybe get a nice desk and go through that before my interface?

Please add your experiences, and comment on how they went.

[albee1952]

Both methods are 100 % valid. Think about how you like to work, and what the future of a project is. If you may come back in 2,3 or 6 months, matching EQ is tough. Recording with none is very easy to replicate at a later date. Of course, committing on the way in can work just great(as you discovered). And your situation of needing to make the mix before hand(on the way in) as you only had a single stereo track does tend to keep you from going crazy(sometimes less really IS more). EQ on the way in can be undone to a certain degree(depending on the EQ and how much phase shift it induces). Too much compression going in is all but impossible to undo. Going thru a nice console might add a nice analog flavor(I'm thinking Toft ATB for those on a budget).

[barters81]

Thanks albee....your advice here is much appreciated. I'm certain that when I record a flat raw audio track I sometimes get carried away and get too far removed from what it is suppsoed to sound like. The point you make about the eq phase shift is something I've been looking at very closely recently too....too much to understand with too little capacity in my brain. :)

I'm currently saving my pennies for a nice desk to do some more work through of which will hopefully add some nice colour to the sound. My issue with this now is, how limited I may be with m-powered with higher track counts. I'm feverishly looking through the net to try and find what the max output count for m-powered is. Ideally I'd love to be able to utilize a 32 channel desk for mix down. Albeit, I'd rarely use that many tracks, but sometimes I will.

[albee1952]

One thing you could do is use 16-18 channels of the desk as your mic preamps(with EQ) and them use several channels to sum stems from PT thru the desk(analog summing.....yummy) and feed that back into the box to your final mix stereo track.. The faders may never move, but analog summing might give you something really cool

[barters81]

True...this is kind of what I'm thinking. Anything for that edge.....

Now its back to saving for that SSL desk I'm dreaming of. :)

[Keybeeetsss]

Thatz a nicse 1 to save for; I eq & compress going in...

[barters81]

So how do you go about doing it Keybeeetsss? Do you go through a desk and use its eq or do you route to a dedicated eq rack?

[Keybeeetsss]

No, although I monitor thru a Mackie D8B(if u want to call that a desk) I have a bit of outboard gear so I just run all thru patchbays of course & choose accordingly; @my Memphis spot I have a 002r modded by Black Lion as well as a RME ADI-8 DS so conversion is nicse...

[barters81]

So now you're just rubbing it in..... :)

As I have limited rack space in my portable recording setup I'm looking for an eq that takes up minimal space but I can eq multiple tracks.