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Hey guys. I do all my recording through a crappy little M-Audio mobile-pre. Well, my mom bought me a 4 channel mixer for christmas. This is nice, but I'm wondering if I really need it since I basically do all my EQing on my DAW with Adobe Audition. Right now, the only benefit I can see to having it is that it has 4 mic inputs, which would be nice to have when I need to record some drums. Other than that, it just kinda looks nice sitting on my desk. :oops:

So what do you think? Does it matter if I EQ before or after I record? I never really record more than 2 tracks at a time, except that I can forsee needing to do more when I get around to the drums. Confusion.

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KurtFoster Tue, 12/28/2004 - 14:51

Different things work for different people ...

I like to eq and compress on the way into the DAW .. others prefer to wait and do it in the box ... and there are good arguments for doing it both ways ...

If you eq and or compress when recording you are stuck with what you have. Often, you will be unable to undo anything if you later decide you don't like the results.

On the other hand there can be a lot said for making decisions and going with them ... and I feel I can get tones that I can't get any other way by eq'ing and compressing on the way to the recorder.

The best advice I can offer is to not exclude either approach ... mess around with eq'ing on the way in and recording flat ... Learn the gear you have and what and how the different eq bands in both the DAW and mixer will affect different elements in the mix... The eq in your mixer will likely have a different sound than the eq in your DAW and may or may not work better on some things ... Learn how the different eq's affect different things. ... Use that knowledge base to help you make the correct decisions when you record. Experiment ... don't be afraid to try things ...