EQ Before or After Compression?

Is it better to use EQ before or after compression?

For me it can be either. In many cases it’s both.

It depends entirely on the situation. What am I trying to achieve with the EQ?

If there is something to clean up or the initial balance is off, that always comes first for me. Because any further processing will only make problems more difficult to fix.

But if I want to use an EQ for more subtle tonal balancing, I may do that after compression (or saturation perhaps). Because those things often change the tonal balance as well.

Sometimes I might want to use an EQ creatively before compression or saturation to push certain frequencies harder into the processing.

Most commonly I do some EQ to get the initial balance in the right ballpark, and cleanup if it’s needed. I will then use another EQ after compression and/or other processing to get the final tonal balance.

My favourite tools right now for each task:

• Sonnox Claro – for tonal balancing. Because Claro (unlike most of the other plugins I’ve tried) has an auto gain that actually works really well. With Claro, gain changes are simply not a factor when working and listening. I can trust what I’m hearing and make the correct judgements. It’s also a very enjoyable plugin to use overall.
• Kirchhoff EQ – for cleanup and surgical work. It’s clean, precise, nice to use and has many advanced features for dealing with different situations.