EQ roll-off?

C

clubzero

New member
Heya

Ok, so I'm mastering my final mix. I usually add a roll-off from 40Hz and another one starting from 16 Khz(ish). When I look at the similar commercial tracks I've noticed that almost all of them have the high-end roll-off starting from around 15 700 Hz. Is this like a "standard" or have I just been incredible lucky to find many CD's that have been mastered this way?

About the low-end.. I know each track is unique, but there has to be some kind of "standards" where to it's good to start cutting the low-end. I used to do it from 20Hz but recently I've been going higher and higher (at the moment at 40 Hz). Would you consider a 50 Hz cut too high?

Examples, advices, info much appreciated on this topic. Please :)

Thanks,

Club Zero
 
There are different standards for different genres. Most dance and hip-hop would not benefit from such a high roll-off.

What matters is the intended audience. If it will be played on mostly dance club sound systems or systems with subwoofers, cutting too much low end will produce a very thin mix compared to other commercial product.

If it's to be played on a boom box, roll off the lows and maybe boost a couple harmonics.
-kent
 
40 Hz is in the vicinity of the lowest fundamental on a four-string bass, so I suppose it's a pretty safe place for a high-pass filter.

I don't know that I'd ever put in a low-pass filter (i.e. roll the highs off from a whole recording).

AD converters will roll off highs at some point, because they have to in order to avoid aliasing with frequencies higher than half the sampling frequency. Theoretically, a brickwall at 22.05 kHz would work, but the absence of perfect brickwall filter means they generally start rolling-off lower than that. But I wouldn't add to the filtering.

Lossy compression schemes (like MP3) also cut high frequencies: they've got to dump some information that's in the original signal, so they go for the stuff that makes less of a difference. But I wouldn't make my recordings worse just because MP3 encoding does.
 
Thanks for the replies.. but I don't mean filters here sjjohnston. I mean the final EQ. Everyone knows we hear things from 20Hz-20000Hz, so cutting everything from those points can't hurt since we couldn't hear the frequencies anyway. Especially cutting the lowe-end will help sometime to add more punch to the beat cause the speaker won't have to pump the element so hard. Right? :) But when I look at the commercial dance CD's they almost always have the high-end roll-off starting from 15 700 Hz which I found a little weird, so I thought it must be a standard of some kind? Reveal your secrets engineers.. :D So basically, the field gets cut narrower than we'd actually hear, but I think this explains why commercial tracks sound so smooth and can be played with high volume without killing your ears on too sharp sounds.

The thing is, I can't see where they've added the low-end roll-off cause the spectrum analyzer starts from the 20Hz and I can't see what's happening below that... I hope this all makes some sense someone.. bluebear..? :rolleyes:
 
Every EQ is a filter in that they apply cut or boost to a range of frequencies while filtering (not affecting) the remainder of the spectrum. So much for semantics.

Shackrock, I'm not sure I would roll off any low end from a hip hop mix. Maybe from 15Hz down. I was using hip hop as an example of a genre which needs more low end and is generally played on systems with subwoofers, or speakers capable of reproducing more bass.

Clubzero, don't get too distracted by spectrum analysis graphs. The decline you see starting in the 15kHz area is in part a result of the way musical instruments are designed to reflect the sensitivity of human hearing. Healthy newborns reportedly can hear 20kHz. Most adults, especially males, have declining sensitivity above 16kHz. That decline progresses with aging.

The elements which dominate pop mixes, guitars, keyboards, vocals etc., are dominant in the upper midrange where human hearing is most sensitive. There aren't a lot of instruments producing strong fundamentals in the 15kHz and up region. Hence, your graph reading.

I defer to the Bear if he shows up.
-kent
 
ahh yes.

and agreed - i think it just LOOKS like they are rolling off at about 15.7 because they are so awesome at mixing and mastering to be that way.
 
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