EQ Rolling Off?

[djdarwin]

I use Reason to sequence. Protools to record real audio.

Lets say i got a bass sound, some drums and a mid freqency range guitar in my mix.

Should i roll of as much frequency as possible on each as long as it doesnt effect the general "sweet spot sound" of the instrument?

Clarifying:

Should i roll off all the highs from the bass as long as it still sounds good?
Should i roll off all the lows on the high hat as long as....
Should i roll off all the extreem lows and extreem highs from the guitar as long as...

You get my drift.

Roll off everything where ever possible that doesnt seem to be audible anyway?

Or...

Leave it alone because that inaudible stuff is "important" and i just dont know it?

 

[blueroommusic]

Should i roll of as much frequency as possible on each as long as it doesnt effect the general "sweet spot sound" of the instrument?

yes, this isn't a bad thing...but I wouldn't roll the highs of the bass or kick

 

[mixsit]

No. Do as little harm rather it be unneeded hardware or software in the chain, or certainly 'eq to remove what isn't there' (or to the point of diminishing returns) isn't doing as much harm as the process.

 

[Lt. Bob]

Ditto .....

 

[tarnationsauce2]

This can be a very dangerous thing to do.
You have to be sure you aren't removing some of the natural nuances and harmonics of the instrument.
But if you do have some subsonic garbage, or hiss that could be filtered without affecting the instrument, I say yes. Rarely would I see a need for more than 6-12dB/oct rolloffs.
Be careful, you could end up making the song sound boxy, or unnatural sounding. While you may have made the individual tracks sound good... what is of the most importance is that the entire mix sounds good.

 

[Hi_Flyer]

when people are talking about EQ and they say "roll off", are they referring to high pass/low pass or high shelf/low shelf?

is it common practice to low pass guitars? I know that its common to high pass all that low end rumble, but I would think that some high end content would be desirable, although I imagine it depends alot on the type of guitar sound...

 

[blueroommusic]

yeah..you wouldn't want to roll off the highs on a guitar; that's where you get a lot of that crunch and presence...but assuming your playing in standard tuning, you could probably get away with rolling off everything below 80 Hz...

and although I agree with the fact that you want to keep your chain as clean as possible, these days pretty much any modern top 40 type of stuff has at least a plug-in or two here and there.. I don't think a little EQ'ing will make that big of a difference in the integrity of the chain...

 

[Dogbreath]

I was under the assumption that you wanted to roll off the extreme lows on every track....like below 80? No?

 

[bigtoe]

i don't roll everything off...but i do tend to roll of stuff on bass and kick...i'm a wimp...it seems to help control mud though.

one of the coolest thing on a mixer is a variable roll off a couple neoteks ive worked on have em...oh and group mutes! drool...but i digress.

in mix hell on a 32 channel ghost with no patchbay yet,
Mike

 

[mixsit]

when people are talking about EQ and they say "roll off", are they referring to high pass/low pass or high shelf/low shelf?

The term roll off would to me imply high or low pass, but ..Sometimes a shelf might just a well target the specific shape of the problem at hand. Example; a bass track that does not have sub-octave problems but the whole area below 120 is to hot -a shelf.

I was under the assumption that you wanted to roll off the extreme lows on every track....like below 80? No?

Even if there's nothing there? Or you took care to not gather unwanted stuff at tracking?

 

[Dogbreath]

That's just it. I dunno...

I've read that you take out the extreme lows on everything cuz leaving it in there, even tho you can't hear it, will add mud to the overall mix.

Like I said...I dunno........still learning.

 

[dementedchord]

$ .02

hey dog i do it that way sometimes... it can help clear things up and give some solidity to the bass... especially if there are like tuning isssues and such... though if i suspect i'm gonna have problems i'ld rather do alittle bit in tracking

 

[djdarwin]

Thanks everybody for the responses...

By the poll results i gather it is better to leave as much of the natural instrument sound in as possible. Better to leave it in when tracking than take it out in the begining and realize you need it later.

Its potentially a good idea to remove some of the low end from instruments to clear up the bass and kick sounds according to this thread as well, but only when necessary.

Follow Up:

I got a parametric EQ unit with boost/cut up to +- 18db.

Is 18dbfs just way to much to cut or boost?

I had previously been yanking my nobs all over the place but as i continue to read up about EQ the more it seems like "less is more."

Any general guidelines out there for not "Over EQing?"

How much boost and cut do you guys typically use to "notch" a instrument in the mix?

 

[TFunkadelic]

It's kind of seemed to me that if I have to exceed 3 decibles up or down I probably didn't do the best job of recording it in the first place.

 

[BRIEFCASEMANX]

I roll off that stuff that's not immediately obvious after i've got my mix a lot of the way done. If the mix is starting to come to, but theres still too much crap down there sometimes it can help. If the mix is sounding good without rolling anything off then leave it be. Don't do it automatically though. Wait and listen in context.

 

[LIMiT]

When the mix calls for it..


Kick - 12db rolloff @ 40Hz

Bass guitar - 6db rolloff @ 60Hz

Guitars - 12 rolloff @ 120Hz

DrumBuss verb return - 12db rolloff @ 250Hz

1 long night of mixing - rolloff bed @ noon


-LIMiT