You’ve sat in front of your mastering bus for half an hour, dragging plugins up and down the slot list.
Does the EQ go before the compressor or after? Does the saturator belong near the front or near the limiter?
Was putting the stereo widener last a mistake? The chain feels like a stack of bricks where one wrong stack means the whole thing leans.
You’re not crazy. The order genuinely matters, and most mastering tutorials skip the “why” entirely.
What you’re trying to lock down is your mastering chain order.
This post gives you a default chain that works on 90% of material and a clear rule for which slots are optional.
It also flags the short list of moments when breaking the order is actually the right call.
TL;DR
- Default order: HPF → corrective EQ → compression → tonal EQ → stereo → saturation → clipper → limiter.
- The limiter is always last. Nothing goes after it except a loudness meter.
- Corrective tools go before compression. Fix problems first so the compressor reacts to a clean signal.
- Tonal/character tools go after compression. Shape the already-glued sound, not the raw one.
- “Optional” stages (HPF, stereo, saturation, clipper) are skipped on most masters. Default to fewer plugins, not more.
The rest of this post walks each slot in order, explains why it sits where it does, and shows the three moments when bending the order makes the master sound better.
What Mastering Chain Order Actually Is
Mastering chain order is the sequence of processors your stereo mix passes through on its way from “finished mix” to “ready for streaming.”
Each plugin only sees the signal that came out of the plugin before it. A compressor placed after an EQ reacts to the EQ’d signal, not the raw one.
Move a plugin, and every downstream plugin gets a different signal to chew on.
That’s why order matters. It’s not superstition. It’s signal flow. The same three plugins arranged in two orders produce two different masters.
Why the Order Matters More Than the Plugins
Here’s the part that surprises most producers: the brand of EQ or compressor matters less than where it sits in the chain.
A boutique mastering EQ placed after the limiter is doing nothing useful. A stock plugin in the right slot is doing the job correctly.
The reason is dependency. Every stage downstream inherits the choices upstream.
Compress before cutting a 250 Hz mud build-up, and the compressor overreacts to that mud and pumps.
Saturate before limiting, and the limiter has to catch the saturator’s added peaks. Boost 12 kHz after the limiter and those highs blow past the ceiling you just set.
The default order exists to minimize those interactions.
The Mastering Chain at a Glance
This is the part you bookmark.
The table below shows the default order, which slots are optional, and the single-sentence job each plugin is there to do.
Treat it as the starting point, not a hard law. Section 9 covers when to deviate.
| Slot | Plugin | Optional? | Its one job |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | High-Pass Filter | Optional | Cut sub-rumble below 20–30 Hz if the mix has any. |
| 2 | Corrective EQ | Usually | Surgical cuts to fix mud, harshness, or boxy resonances. |
| 3 | Compression | Almost always | Glue the mix and gently control 1–3 dB of macro dynamics. |
| 4 | Tonal EQ | Usually | Broad tonal shaping: warm the lows, open the highs, add air. |
| 5 | Stereo Widening | Optional | Add width to upper-mids and highs only. Mono-check after. |
| 6 | Saturation | Optional | Glue, character, and perceived loudness without raising peaks much. |
| 7 | Clipper | Optional | Shave 1–3 dB off peaks so the limiter doesn’t have to work as hard. |
| 8 | Limiter | Always | Set true-peak ceiling and final loudness target. Nothing comes after. |
Want to see where your mix actually needs help before you stack plugins? Drop your WAV or MP3 into the Compression Analyzer.
Stage by Stage: What Each Slot Is Actually Doing
The cheat sheet gives you the order; this section explains why each stage sits where it sits. Skim or read straight through.
Each subheading is one stage of the chain, in order.
1. High-Pass Filter (Optional)
If your mix has audible sub-rumble below 20–30 Hz, a gentle high-pass at the very start of the chain removes it before any downstream plugin reacts to it.
Sub-rumble eats compressor headroom and forces the limiter to clamp harder than it needs to. Use a 12 or 24 dB/octave slope at 20–25 Hz on most material.
On a clean mix, skip this slot.
2. Corrective EQ
Corrective EQ is surgical, not tonal.
You’re hunting specific problem frequencies that the mix engineer either didn’t catch or couldn’t fully fix: a 250 Hz mud build-up, a 3 kHz vocal harshness, a 7 kHz cymbal hotspot.
Narrow cuts, usually 1–3 dB, occasionally 4–5 dB on a stubborn resonance.
This goes before the compressor for one reason: if a resonant peak is triggering the compressor, you’re compressing the whole mix because one frequency band is sticking out.
Cut the resonance first; let the compressor react to the cleaner signal.
3. Compression
Mastering compression is gentle: 1.5:1 to 2:1 ratio, 1–3 dB of gain reduction on the loudest moments.
Use a slow attack (30 ms or more) so transients stay intact and a medium-to-slow release that lets the compressor breathe with the song.
The job is “glue,” not “control.” If you’re pulling 6 dB of gain reduction on the master, the mix needed work, not the master.
For deeper guidance on the ratio choice itself, the audio compressor ratio guide walks through why 1.5:1 and 2:1 dominate the mastering bus while higher ratios are reserved for mix-bus and individual-track work.
Compression sits between the two EQs because corrective EQ feeds it a clean signal and tonal EQ shapes the already-glued result.
4. Tonal EQ
Tonal EQ is the “make it sound bigger, warmer, brighter, more open” stage.
Broad bell or shelf moves, ±1–2 dB, with wide Q values (1.0 or lower) so the move feels musical, not surgical.
It goes after the compressor for the mirror reason corrective EQ goes before.
The compressor has already glued the signal, so tonal EQ now sculpts the glued result instead of feeding the compressor moves it would partially undo.
5. Stereo Widening (Optional)
If the mix already feels wide, skip this slot. If it needs help, use a mid/side widener that only affects upper mids and highs (above ~500 Hz).
Never widen the low end; bass needs to sit dead-center to stay punchy on mono playback.
Always mono-check after widening, because a widener that sounds amazing in stereo can collapse to a thin, phasey mess on phone and Bluetooth speakers.
6. Saturation (Optional)
Saturation adds harmonic content that the ear reads as “loudness” and “thickness” without adding much to the peak meter.
Tape, tube, and console-style plugins all work; drive subtly, just enough to hear a small change when bypassed.
It sits near the end so the added harmonics are the last creative tonal layer before peak control.
Saturate earlier, and the compressor reacts to those harmonics, diluting the effect.
7. Clipper (Optional)
A clipper is a transient-shaving tool that lives right before the limiter.
It chops off the sharpest 1–3 dB of peaks so the limiter has less work to do, which means less audible pumping at competitive loudness targets.
Modern loud genres (hip-hop, EDM, pop) lean on this slot; acoustic, jazz, and audiophile work usually skips it.
Clipper first, then limiter, always; reversing it defeats the purpose.
8. Limiter (Always Last)
The limiter is the only stage with a hard rule: nothing goes after it except a metering plugin.
Its job is to set the true-peak ceiling (typically −1.0 dBTP for streaming) and push the integrated loudness toward your target (LUFS values vary by platform; −14 LUFS integrated is the modern streaming-friendly default).
Turn on true-peak (ISP) limiting too.
As mastering engineer Ian Shepherd has covered, intersample peaks created by lossy encoders on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube can push your master above 0 dBFS even when sample peaks are clean.
That is what produces the audible distortion you hear on platform playback.
Where Multiband Compression Fits
Multiband compression is a specialty tool, not a default chain slot.
When you do use it on a master, it sits in the compression position (slot 3) and replaces or supplements the broadband compressor.
Use it when one frequency band needs different dynamic handling than the rest, for example, a bass region that needs tightening while the mids and highs stay untouched.
The trap is overuse.
If you’re reaching for multiband on every master, the mixes are probably arriving with a problem that wants a “fix in the mix, not the master” conversation.
How to Measure What Each Stage Is Doing
Order is one half of the picture; the other half is knowing whether each stage is helping or hurting.
A/B the bypass state of each plugin and listen for what changed. Better: measure crest factor, peak, and integrated LUFS at three checkpoints.
- Before the chain: note the dry-mix numbers.
- After compression: crest factor should drop by 2–4 dB. More than that means the compressor is doing mix-fixing work it shouldn’t.
- After the limiter: integrated loudness at target, crest factor still above ~7 dB. If crest is well below a reference track in the same genre, you overprocessed somewhere upstream.
Try it on anything: a vocal, a drum bus, a full mix. Launch the Compression Analyzer → It takes about 3 seconds per file. Free for 3 analyses per day, no sign-up.
When to Break the Default Mastering Chain Order
The default order is the right starting point on roughly 90% of material.
The other 10% genuinely calls for a deviation. Here are the three legitimate moments to break the rule.
- Saturator before compressor when you want the compressor to react to saturated transients (a thicker, more glued feel on rock and indie material).
- Tonal EQ before compressor when the mix has a clear tonal lean you want the compressor to lock in. The EQ moves then end up glued into the body of the mix instead of sitting on top.
- Two compressors in series (one before, one after the EQ pair) when the mix needs both broadband glue and a touch of bus-style movement. Each pulls 1 dB of gain reduction, never more.
Deviations are always small, always purposeful, and always followed by an A/B against the default. If the deviation does not clearly win, go back to the default.
3 Common Mistakes With Chain Order
These are the three errors that account for most “my master sounds worse than my mix” sessions.
All of them are order problems disguised as plugin problems.
1. Putting EQ after the limiter. Any EQ move you make after the limiter pushes peaks back above the ceiling the limiter just set, undoing the true-peak protection.
If you want to brighten the master, do it in tonal EQ (slot 4), then let the limiter catch the new peaks.
2. Compressing before fixing the mud. A 300 Hz resonance triggers the compressor on every kick and snare hit.
The whole mix ducks each time. The fix is to cut the 300 Hz problem in corrective EQ (slot 2) first, then let the compressor react to a clean signal.
3. Stacking too many “optional” stages. The default chain has four optional slots (HPF, stereo, saturation, clipper).
Filling all four on every master is a sign of fear, not craft. Most professional mastering chains use one or two of the optional slots and skip the rest. Default to fewer plugins.
Ready to stop guessing? The Compression Analyzer will tell you whether your mix needs corrective EQ before compression, how much gain reduction is appropriate on the master bus, and where your loudness sits relative to a streaming target.
Frequently Asked Questions
The six questions below are the ones that come up most often once producers start taking chain order seriously. Short answers, then back to mixing.
What is the correct order of plugins in a mastering chain?
The default order is high-pass filter, corrective EQ, compression, tonal EQ, stereo widening, saturation, clipper, limiter. The limiter is always last.
Corrective tools go before the compressor; tonal and character tools go after. Optional stages (HPF, stereo, saturation, clipper) are skipped on most masters.
Does EQ go before or after compression in mastering?
Both. Corrective EQ (surgical cuts to fix problems) goes before compression so the compressor reacts to a clean signal.
Tonal EQ (broad shaping for warmth or air) goes after compression so it sculpts the already-glued result.
Putting all your EQ on one side of the compressor is a common reason masters feel either flat or harsh.
Should the limiter always be last in the mastering chain?
Yes, with one exception: a loudness meter can sit after the limiter for monitoring, since meters do not alter the signal.
Any active processor placed after the limiter will push peaks back above the ceiling the limiter set, defeating the true-peak protection.
Streaming platforms penalize that with audible distortion on lossy playback.
Where does saturation go in a mastering chain?
Saturation sits near the end of the chain, after tonal EQ and stereo widening, just before the clipper (or limiter if no clipper is used).
Its job is to add harmonic content and perceived loudness as the final creative layer before peak control.
Placing it earlier means the compressor reacts to the added harmonics and dilutes the effect.
Do I need every stage in the chain on every master?
No. The only stages that fire on almost every master are compression, tonal EQ, and the limiter.
High-pass filter, corrective EQ, stereo widening, saturation, and clipping are all optional, and most masters skip three or four of them.
Filling every slot is a common over-processing trap. Default to fewer plugins, not more.
When should I break the default mastering chain order?
Three legitimate cases. Put the saturator before the compressor when you want a thicker, more glued feel on rock or indie material.
Put tonal EQ before the compressor when you want the compressor to lock in a tonal lean. Or run two compressors in series for broadband glue plus a touch of bus-style movement.
Always A/B against the default; if the deviation does not clearly win, go back to the default order.
The Bottom Line
Mastering chain order is a signal-flow problem, not a taste problem.
Corrective tools first, compression in the middle, tonal and character tools after, limiter last.
Skip the optional stages on most masters. Measure before and after each major stage so you know whether you helped or hurt.
And if you’d rather skip the meter reading altogether, the Compression Analyzer gives you the numbers and the settings in about 3 seconds.
Stop guessing your mastering chain. Let the signal tell you what it needs.
Chain order is only worth as much as your grip on each processor in it. The complete audio compression guide covers the mechanics behind the compressor that anchors this chain.