On Jan 31, 2007, at 11:14 AM, Eric Oehler wrote: > I've been working this around in my head, and I can't really come up > with a solid answer... > > If I have 3 audio tracks with identical compression, EQ and misc > effects insert settings mixed together...is the output of that the > same as mixing those tracks together first on a bus or an aux, and > then adding those effects as inserts on the bus/aux instead? Some > effects seem more straightforward than others for this sort of thing. > > Okay, obviously there are a few effects like a gate (or a > pitchcorrector) that won't work right at all...but something like > compression has always baffled me Is compressing a few mixed raw > tracks the same as compressing the tracks then mixing them together? > I would assume not, because dynamics effects often feel like spooky > black magic, but I've been surprised by this sort of thing before. Well, if you feed different signals into a compressor you get different results, right? So If you have 3 signals being mixed together, then compressed, its different than compressing the three tracks separately. So the resulting effect will be different. Not better or worse, just different. In the first case, the compressor might react to just one of the three signals being fed into it, but affect the other two signals as well. If all signals are being compressed separately, this would not be the case. -Evan Benjamin