How do you know which EQ and compressor to choose for audio post-production? Is It different to choosing plugins for music production? In this, article Ufuk Onen looks at answering these questions.

There are no clearly defined boundaries between most music and audio post for plugins. However, we can talk about different approaches to choosing plugins for a music or an audio post project. Although these approaches understandably change from one engineer to another, I don't think it would be unfair to generalise things a bit and talk about common tendencies.

Different Approaches Between Music And Audio Post

In music, for most engineers and producers, the character of a signal processor is essential. This is true for both EQs and compressors, the primary processors, and especially for compressors. In audio post-production, on the other hand, the tendency is to use more transparent-sounding plugins.

Another crucial point to consider in audio post-production is precision, which I will unpack more below.

But before we get going I just want to reiterate that in this article I'm talking about general tendencies. There are no hard rules, and from time to time, you will these choices get reversed.

EQ In Music

In music, you are often choosing to boost a frequency or a band of frequencies for taste. How an EQ sounds and how it colours and alters the signal in its own way when you make a boost is of great significance. Additionally, in music, colour is frequently considered more important than precision, the key is that the result sounds good.

The Pultec EQ Trick is a great example. When you boost and attenuate controls on a Pultec EQ. You can pick a pre-defined frequency (such as 20, 30, 60, or 100 Hz) and boost and attenuate it at the same time!

Normally, if you boost and attenuate the same frequency with the same amount, you expect it to cancel each other. That's how it would end up if it were a highly precise modern EQ.

However, with a Pultec, it doesn't happen that way because the filter responses of the boost and attenuate controls work differently. They don't cancel each other. Actually, in most circumstances, the result sounds better than when you use either one by itself. That's a long way from being precise, yet if you like the result you get, you don't need to worry about precision.

EQ In Post

In audio post-production, a crucial part of an engineer's job is to solve problems, like cleaning up, fixing things for intelligibility, and so forth. This is especially true for those who work on production sound with dialog tracks recorded on set.

In this case, precision in an EQ is highly desirable because engineers use them as surgical tools to fix, clean up, and correct things. This is not to say that you don't need precise, surgical, blade-like EQs in music. Of course, you do. I'm suggesting that you need them much more often in audio post than you do in music projects.

For this reason, today, in audio post, many engineers prefer a versatile and precise modern EQ over an analogue-style one: An EQ plugin that provides a variety of filter shapes (bell, notch, shelf, and so forth), with precisely defined bandwidths and slopes.

I have used the stock Pro Tools EQ happily for years in my audio post-production projects. I still do for quick EQ'ing. It's straightforward to use. It doesn't have a spectrum analyzer, but if you are used to EQ by ear, like me, in most situations you don't need one. It has a band solo function which comes in handy. To see how it works, check out this one-minute video. Actually, today, the stock EQ plugins in almost all modern DAWs are pretty competent.

That said, more recently I do see some engineers choosing the FabFilter Pro-Q 3 as their go-to EQ plugin. It is versatile, transparent, and ideally suited for surgical work. It has a spectrum analyzer and also a dynamic EQ mode.

Other EQ plugins, I suggest you might want to check out for audio post-production are PrimeEQ from Voxengo, SEQ-S from Nugen Audio) and EQuilibrium and EQuality both from DMG Audio.

Compression In Music

In music, the character of a compressor is of great value. Sometimes an engineer will run the signal through their favourite compressor, without even actually compressing it, just to put a little of the compressor's distinctive 'colour' onto it. To generalise again, in music, almost always, a compressor's character and tone are what matters the most - not how much and how precise controls it offers are.

For example, think of the controls on iconic compressors and their emulations, such as LA-2A, 1176 or Fairchild. They offer very few controls, and they don't have any exact values on them. That's fine. Engineers have used them on thousands of songs, and they sound great. As long as you like the sound of it, you don't need to worry about the precise controls.

Compression In Post

In audio post-production, as with EQs, most engineers prefer compressors that are more flexible, more transparent, and offer precise controls. Take the Pro Tools stock compressor plugin, Dynamics III, for instance. It provides precise controls for threshold and makeup gain in dB, attack and release times in milliseconds, and ratio in small increments. You can even dial in the numbers if you don't like twisting knobs.

Taking things further, FabFilter Pro-C 2, in addition to precise controls, offers different compression styles and also an interface with a multifaceted display, which extends to full screen.

Compressors such as FabFilter Pro-C 2 are tremendous both for music and audio post. Again, there are no hard rules or clear-cut boundaries. For example, in audio post-production, I prefer to use modern compressors with precise controls.

However, from time to time, I like to use an opto/tube compressor (such as an emulation of LA-2A) on the dialog stem and a VCA-based one (an SSL G-Master Bus emulation, for instance) on some of the sound effects stems, to add a bit of glue and a touch of character. One foot is in music and the other one in audio post, so maybe that's why I do it?

Conclusion

In conclusion, based on my professional observations and preferences, I can suggest that character of an EQ or a compressor is of great significance in music. However, this is not to say that transparent and more surgical tools are not used in music projects. Engineers use them all the time! On the other hand, when it comes to choosing plugins for audio post, the general tendency is to use EQs and compressors that are transparent, versatile, and offer precise controls. Character is of a lesser concern, if any. Often, I see and hear that engineers working in music projects discuss how good or bad a particular EQ or compressor plugin sounds, whereas those working in audio post talk about how an EQ or compressor plugin provides them more control and flexibility.