Hi
 
Last saturday i bought from Groove 3 this tutorial about Mixing http://www.groove3.com/str/mixing-with-sonar.html which is very good, learned A LOT, worth the 30.00$ to me....but it clearly made me realize (i knew it but thought i could getaway with it) that the fondation is still not there and i'm talking about the understanding of eq, compressor etc... I always hated turning knobs but over the years had to force myself into that mainly learning stuff  from u-tube.... Now i'm a hobbyist trying to be pro as much as possible, i've been playing guitar for 35 years, i do all my midi (drum & bass). I do have a good music foundation but there are lacks here and there so i found these one http://www.groove3.com/str/EQ-Explained.html  (EQ) and http://www.groove3.com/str/compression-explained.html (compression).
 
So the questions are;
1-Learning Eq before comp  or comp before eq  does it matter?
2-Should i start with something else that i can't think of...
3-Other suggestions of tutorials other than Groove 3
 
Thanks again
 

1. I don't think it matters for your understanding, but probably EQ is more widely applicable and useful than compression so I would go with that. It's also probably a little easier to understand.
2. That depends heavily on your setup and what you want to do. I would still say EQ is (apart from actual level setting) the most important part of mixing so not a bad place to start.
3. Practice practice practice. Groove 3 will show you the basics. Regularly compare your own sound to that of commercial cd's and try to hear why they sound different. Zoom in on the various instruments - what's going on with the guitar, with the snare drum, etc.
This is probably a never ending thing.

Sanderxpander
1. I don't think it matters for your understanding, but probably EQ is more widely applicable and useful than compression so I would go with that. It's also probably a little easier to understand.
2. That depends heavily on your setup and what you want to do. I would still say EQ is (apart from actual level setting) the most important part of mixing so not a bad place to start.
3. Practice practice practice. Groove 3 will show you the basics. Regularly compare your own sound to that of commercial cd's and try to hear why they sound different. Zoom in on the various instruments - what's going on with the guitar, with the snare drum, etc.
This is probably a never ending thing.

Sage advice above...........and yes............a constant learning curve.................

I got a year pass on groove3 as I noticed it has pretty much everything. On groove3 there are EQs and compressor tutorials for instance that spend 3 hours or so dedicated to the subject. There's even a tutorial dedicated to panning, delay and reverb. Oh and another 5 Sonar tutorials , z3ta2, melodyne, mashine 2 tutorial coming soon. Anyway ...

There are some excellent books out there too. Those were essential to me and are still great as references. Concentrate a lot of your time on learning how to listen critically and identify the locations of sounds in good and bad mixes. This will make eq and compression far more relevant and easier to understand and apply.

HELLYA
2-Should i start with something else that i can't think of...

Listening environment.  It's the foundation that your ability to mix sits on.  If this isn't good then you'll struggle to become proficient at using the tools (EQ, compression, etc.) as you won't be able to accurately hear how the changes you make affect the sound.

ston

HELLYA
2-Should i start with something else that i can't think of...

Listening environment.  It's the foundation that your ability to mix sits on.  If this isn't good then you'll struggle to become proficient at using the tools (EQ, compression, etc.) as you won't be able to accurately hear how the changes you make affect the sound.

 I'll second this, but back up one step.
 
Get Mike Senior's "Mixing Secrets", and read it cover to cover. He starts with listening environment concerns and setup, then explains all you ask for, in order, clearly and in context, and not near as dry as some other books when compared to video.

If you don't mind paying for video tutorials then get yourself a month's subscription to Lynda.com and watch Brian Lee White's mixing tutorials. There's one for mixing in Pro Tools which can be applied to any DAW, as well as courses on EQ and compression. I watched them when I was first starting out and consider them to be some of the best tutorials I've ever watched. Honestly man between him and Eli Krantzberg you can have a real solid foundation of the basics.

+100 for Mixing Secrets as well. Every page is a gold mine.

To give some perspective...for people who think DAWs are hard to learn, well, they are.
 
Imagine if all of a sudden you walked into a million dollar SSL mixer-based facility, with walls of rack-mount gear and a couple Sony DASH recorders. You'd find that hard to learn too, and rightfully so! The point I'm making is that "back in the day," you kind of worked your way up and learned one thing at a time. With a DAW like Sonar, you're walking into a complete, fully realized studio. It's a lot.