I thought a discussion would be in order, considering that most of us will often use both.

Accordingly, I thought it would be interesting to see what our members think, and how you approach the order of EQ and Compression in a mix...

The discussion doesn't need to be limited to just the track level, or just the bus level.

I am wondering about the order in which I should set up my devices. I am recording guitar direct (or bass) and wish to run it through a Lexicon MX200 effects processor, a preamp, a compressor, and then obviously the last connection will be my Firebox DI box.

In what order should I run the compressor, Lexicon (for a little reverb), and preamp?

hey big boys, how do you order your toys in an average session ?
I know there is no general rule, but do you place your eq first,> then compressor> compressor, etc.
What is your favourite gear, and how is it chained ?

I have a PreSonus Bluemax compressor, and just got an M-audio DMP3 preamp. This is my front-end (such as it is) for a home DAW setup. I would only be using the Bluemax on vocal tracks. My question is this...do I run the mic ( a Groove Tubes GT1) into the preamp first, then compression? This seems the logical method to me, but I'm not sure.

Where I should put the preamp when recording?

1. MPC>Preamp>Mixer>Computer
2. MPC>Mixer>Preamp>Computer
3. MPC>Preamp>Computer without Mixer

Thanks for all you help, my English is not very well, hope all you can understand what I talking about.
Thanks!

Hi there! I have a pretty dumb question, but I gotta ask it. What is proper path between a mic and a recorder (assuming you are working with a compressor, a pre-amp, and a mixer). In what order to you plug things in? If you use aux sends on the mixer, do the mixers preamps get bi-passed? Help!
Thanks all!
Beau.