Newb question regarding EQ?

Hey all....this is going to sound like a really stupid question but here goes....
When I've recorded in a larger pro studio, they are working with a large board and every channel has EQ etc... They tweak bass, mids and treble on the board when getting sounds for vocal, guitars, drums etc...so now when I'm recording at home with my computer and Sonar, I don't have the "Board" with EQ on it so should I be putting an EQ plugin on every track and if I'm doing a guitar track with an amp sim like S-Gear, where should the EQ go in the chain? I typically am running a plugin OD-Sgear-reverb-delay as my basic chain. Also, any advice where I might put a compressor/limiter in that chain? Thanks in advance. I know these are really basic things but I appreciate your wisdom here.
 
 

I agree with your statement but if I was in a commercial studio, the producer would be adjusting bass, mids, treble on the board before it goes into the DAW. So what I'm trying to figure out is how does one replicate that without a board so to speak? It seems like a missing pc of the chain.

Thanks Rob. I appreciate the reply. When you say Sonar has a 4 band Eq per channel, is that a plugin or is there an EQ strip I'm not seeing. I have this issue of older projects that look completely different from when I open a new project in Sonar. Thanks in advance.

Sonar Platinum.

mojazzmo69
I agree with your statement but if I was in a commercial studio, the producer would be adjusting bass, mids, treble on the board before it goes into the DAW. So what I'm trying to figure out is how does one replicate that without a board so to speak? It seems like a missing pc of the chain.

You're right, that bit isn't there in Sonar itself. It also isn't there in whatever DAW your commercial producer is using in the studio. As you said, the producer tweeks EQ on the board on the way into the DAW. If you feel strongly that you should be replicating that at home, then its time to go board shopping. Or if you're generally only recording on instrument at a time, perhaps its time to go shopping for a rack channel strip/pre-amp/eq.

But here's the important thing to remember. There is not going to be much difference between applying eq to your signal on the way in to be recorded vs applying that same eq to the signal during mixing. I'm not foolish enough to say there would be no difference (although I personally feel this is the case) because someone will surely cite some esoteric example of how the Beatles or Zappa or Hendrix got some amazing sound that could only happen by using eq on the way in. But I ain't no Hendrix and I'm perfectly ok with that.
 
The bottom line is I've done it both ways and I've never felt the end result suffered by not using EQ on the way in to the DAW. I mean if my source sounds so awful on the way in that I really need to eq it before recording, I'm probably going to solve the issue more organically, i.e. different mic or placement, different instrument or amp settings etc. 

 
 
I record straight into Sonar. I have the "essentials" version so my EQ is limited in the channel strip. There is a basic EQ in there but I never use it.
 
You should be attempting to get a very clean and natural sound from your sources..... microphone, guitar processor, etc.... The goal is to get a natural sound into the track.   Regardless of whether you have channel EQ or not, your aim should be to use as little EQ as possible on the tracks to get the job done.  Some of the tracks, in some of the song projects I write and produce, have ZERO EQ on them. They are raw,  just like they came into the DAW. That's because, in my humble opinion, listening to them on my studio speakers, they don't need any sonic shaping. Midi with good samples tends to fall into this category.
 
The engineer you described, setting at the board twirling knobs and moving faders is doing the job of evening out the sound as he/she hears it.  Again.... the goal is to do as little to the sound at the board as needed to get that natural sound. The engineer is often having to deal with a variety of experience levels and gear quality on the other side of the glass.  As home studio folks, we can often get things set up for consistent results without a bunch of board wizardry.

Recording raw, non-EQ'd tracks may not be your idea way to record. But if you don't have a board with EQ or an external EQ module, you have to record the tracks raw.  So in those cases, popping some EQ into the track as an FX on playback is perfectly fine. It's exactly how I work.  I have set up a number of my Cakewalk EQ's as presets to use for vocal, acoustic guitar, piano brighteners, drum and bass enhancers..... just so I don't have to start from scratch every time. Most EQ's use very little processing power on the modern computers so there's no problem with using them. I also use them on busses rather than always in the individual tracks.

So, all of my tracks go straight into Sonar directly from the mic with no pre processing to that point.  That's not to say you can't do that, or shouldn't do that.... the important thing to know and understand is if you're going to use EQ pre or post..... know why you're using it and what it's doing to the sound.

A thought has just occurred to me.

Is it possible that the engineer with the big desk wasn't eqing the feed to the DAW/tape at all, but setting up the foldback/monitor mix? Splitting the recording and foldback lines pre-eq, either using a splitter or hooking the recorder up to lines taken put of the desk's channel inserts, is pretty common practice, or certainly used to be.

As for eqing at the recording stage, personally I might use a high pass filter at that point, but other than that all compression, gating and eqing is for foldback only with the DAW getting the "raw" signal. That way there's nothing that can't be undone.

gswitz, that is a good method and safer.  My band's guitarist is always crabbing about too much compression, but we know each other's taste now.

I use s-gear - a lot as well..  when I do  my input signal chain for guitar is this:  Stompbox (occasionally a fuzz or compressor that I like) - focusrite isa pre-amp routed to channel 1 of my interface to record the direct signal - I take the direct instrument out of the isa 1 preamp and send it to a tech 21 vt bass pedal routed to another channel of my interface.  My logic is - if you put a stomp in front of an amp - it should also go in front of s-gear.  Im not afraid to record a good stomp box instead of a plug in - although Ive done both.  
 
The thing I really like about s-gear is that it often responds very well to processing just like a guitar amp.  Many other ones dont exhibit as much raw information as s-gear.Im still waiting for them to come out with something that covers the heavy genres as well as their current selection.
 
all that said - you should treat s-gear like your amp... and show it a good clean signal with nice headroom.  
 
I rarely use the stereo options in s-gear and often opt for a mono out with none of their verbs, as I use other ones, such as psp's spring reverb.
 
If I want the verb to sound like its coming from the amp, I will put the verb before any eq, or compression.   If I want to create the feel that the amp is in the same space as other instruments, I will eq and compress a little (or alot) and send a post fader send to a "Room" verb buss (or aux track)
 
 
 
As far as your original question - I wouldn't worry about eq on the way in - unless you have a nice channel strip made for that.  I occassionally use an focusrite isa session pack, which has some nice analog features, ( a nice pre-amp, eq, and compression/de-esser section. ) Its helpful of I am working with someone else for example.  However when recording myself, its often a little laborious to go through all those steps.