No EQ on the master bus = #goals

I don’t template out a lot of things, because I like to invent new combinations of processes for each thing I work on. But I do always start with a particular master bus template:

• Slate VCC master bus channel (analog summing emulation)

• bx_townhouse (bus compressor)

• Millennia NSEQ-2 (EQ)

• FabFilter Pro-L 2 (limiter)

I’ll occasionally add other things in there as called for, but that’s where I start.

Three of these things it’s kind of impossible not to use — the summing, the compressor, and the limiter all react to loudness in their various ways. But the EQ is different! It doesn’t really do anything unless you move a gain knob off of 0.

(The NSEQs have famously high headroom, which Plugin Alliance clearly modeled; I’ve never heard the mix crunch up or compress in there even a little, no matter how loud a signal I’ve fed it, and I’ve fed it some unreasonably loud signals.)

Here’s how I know I’ve done as good a job with my channel and bus EQs as I can do: I finish the mix without having touched the NSEQ-2.

I’m not precious about it? If I get to the end of a mix and realize that it’s super cohesive but also a little shy in the low end, I might just do a little overall boost on the NSEQ-2. That way the relationship between the bass and the kick stays the same, I’m not pushing more lows into the bx_townhouse and altering how the buss compression reacts, etc.

But if my mix is really solid, that EQ is just sitting there adding a little box tone.

Goals — jamie