Ensuring correct effect order in Fairlight

I'm pretty new to audio editing and a total noob to DAWs, but I want to try to use Resolve more as a single solution for my video post production needs. Is there a best practice in audio editing with a DAW for getting the correct order of effects? For example, I want to first bring up the volume a bit from the raw signal, then apply noise reduction, then apply high pass, compression, EQ, then finally volume normalization (BTW, I am editing videos with just a single dialog track). From what I have read in the Resolve reference guide, EQ happens before effects in the signal chain, so I'm thinking I would initially push up the volume on the track and put the noise reduction effect on the track as well. Then I could apply high pass, compression, and EQ to the sub so that it happens after noise reduction, and finally apply volume normalization to the master so that it happens last. Is that "how it's done" or is there a different accepted best practice? I'm happy to be directed to any standard reading material on the topic as well.

A good source on this (and a good source in general for audio) is "Producing Great Sound for Film and Video" by Jay Rose, and his more in-depth book "Audio Postproduction," which has six chapters on effects processors. These are expensive textbooks but you can find them used (I got mine secondhand through secondbind.com

In the book, he notes that it's best to apply EQ before compression, because EQ affects how loud the signal will be at specific frequencies, which compression can then be used to control. If you apply compression first, you might be compressing frequencies that will never be in the final mix. He says noise gates should be applied before the compressor, although not everyone agrees with that: compression reduces dynamic range, so applying a noise gate before compression can sometimes result in dialog that sounds clipped (not clipped as in too-high levels, but clipped in the sense that it can sound like the opening and closing bits of a phrase are cut off; I've heard examples of this.

He says reverb can be applied before or after other effects. If you EQ after doing reverb, you affect the sound of the simulated room. Compressing after reverb affects the decay length of late reflections.

Hi,

To try to follow the steps as recommended.

I have a A1 Stereo name is 'NR'
We can create a Sub Stereo 'EQ'
Track reproduction NR on SUB 'EQ' (do not affect NR on M1)
Assign SUB 'EQ' to M1

Then:
Add NR (AFX BMD) to 'A1-NR',
Add an EQ on Sub 'EQ' (a VST MeldaProduction for example)
Add Compression, Limiter and Reverb (AFX BMD) to M1.

One by one insert the effects or not ('Insert' ON / OFF)
You can also move up or down the mixers one by one.

Mixer.jpg

Thank you both for the advice and resources. I will give that a try.