HW 2 Bus EQ or 2 Bus Comp

I’d vote for comp probably...I feel like there are some plugin EQs that I can get closer with.

I think compressor as well. I'm content with doing eq in the box. When tracking, it's a lot easier for me to commit to some light compression on the way in than to commit to eq.

Compressor or saturation processor like an Overstayer MAS or a Silverbullet.

It's very likely that everybody will say COMP! This has been indoctrinated by our economy ..
I will say EQ !

I would go with a Comp simply because I have heard way to many mixes that just sound unbalanced because the bus was EQ’d in a far from perfect monitoring system.

Buss comp for sure...

After I custom built my SSL/RED3 hybrid'ish the differences in my mixes totally speak for themselves. But, I would also say too that there could be another hat thrown in here, and that's the combo of both the buss eq and comp together, working as a team. The DIYRE Pultecs, even though they have that little $199 price tag, they are truly incredible EQ's for that money. I built mine with the Capi Xformers, SL1731's and a few other little mods in the input chip.

Honestly I think there are so many little things that are extremely important when it comes to the 2buss. My Antelope Satori, the summing mixer built into it, it's sounds is super clean, detailed and it allows me to do one of the most important things I've found since I've been chasing getting a hybrid rig to feel like a console; and that's gain staging. It took me a long time to get my 2buss chain in the sweet spot of the gain staging and that's all the way down to the A/D. Since my Lavry allows me to juice it's input with +13db of gain, I get ultimately 4 layers of gain stages. 16a>Satori>Pultecs>buss comp>Lavry. It took me hours upon hours of finding the sweet spot of each of those units, I did it in a way that lets me view my DAW output meters, and depending on about 6db of headroom with those meters I know how much heat I'm putting on each mix. The beauty there is that every piece in my buss stays static on it's input/output level, there by allowing me to keep it consistent.

If you want your mixes to have that dynamic movement and open/wide/console sound, pick out multiple layers/stages of gain in analog buss pieces, make sure they're either transparent or not going to saturate too heavily and you'll be hearing that big dynamic sound.

Honestly, I love the RED3, but it clamps too fast, but it no doubt makes the mix sound large. The SSL can be transparent, maybe too transparent, and what I found was making the signal path of the comp RED3 and the transparent compression of the SSL is perfect to my ears. So I'd say the comp is the most important or critical one piece of gear, but if you're going after that console sound and trying to get there with a hybrid setup, increase the number of gain stages and figure out the sweet spot of each one, then figure out how to keep them static and rely on your DAW output level.

The best candidate out there to start with is the Audioscape buss comp, the mods you can lay over the top of that clone are inexpensive but highly worth it. Eliminating near all but 2 of the coupling/bypass caps and transformers on the inputs gives it the RED3 large sound. I know that's way more potatoes for the sack than the original question asked, but hopefully what took me damn near 3 years to figure out, that knowledge might help some get there quicker, making a plan and budget.

I saw a thread somewhere that suggested putting the whole mix into the sidechain when printing stems .... sounds like it might work in theory but I have not tried in practice.

I'd tell the artist: a mix is a mix, stems are stems. If they pay to have stems, fine, but stems won't represent your 2-mix.

EDIT: I just read Bills's reply: I speaketh in his shadow.

Thanks for that. I guess I need more practice, I just remember all the negatives he brings up lol. I'll do next few mixes with 2bus comp and see how I like it. He mentions you can slam the 2bus instead, which has worked for me and gives me easy stem print options. It's depressing, but sooo many friends of band members think they can do better mix haha. That's fine, I honestly just want them to be happy, whatever I can do help them hit the finish line.

Don't work for free man. And don't under sell yourself. 

If "John Doe" thinks his cousin "Eddie" can do a better mix. You have NO obligation to give them a head start. Id just give them raw audio at that point not even stems. Not worth your time and effort to dial in a mix and then print stems only to have some dude get way to liberal with EQ plugins and compress the shit out of it. You should let them hear your version, them give them the RAW stuff. With any luck it'll click that, wow it sounds better at Chris's places...maybe we should go back..

Same here, if the mix is right I'll just do a 1-2dB tickle with a transparent comp..  I've had good luck with EQ on the 2, but also wrecked the track a few times, so it's case dependant for me.

YES YES YES!! You can do extra work (like printing stems) for clients for a little while, but you'll end up feeling disgruntled, disrespected, and devalued over time. You're worth more than that. Sometimes a client prefers someone else's mix. No big deal. It happens. But as Blackdawg said, if they want someone else to mix, then let THEM mix. Don't do the work for them.