To low cut or not to low cut ?

maartenl945

maartenl945

Member
Hi,

I made a video about this but wonder where you all stand ?

Regards,
Maarten
 
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I high pass fairly frequently but not by default.

Except live, where I high pass everything but bass, kick drum, piano (sometimes), Hammond organ etc.
 
Yes, my thoughts too - for live it really helps, but for recording where people listen properly, robbing voices of their fundamentals is wrong in most cases, and while kick and bass can overlap, one is wide band and one isn't so if you get clashes and that is if not a certainty. then I'd probably scoop a little of the kick fundamental or 1st harmonic out of the bass, but I certainly would not remove anything. Little point in a low B string, if you filter it off! Even if we talk PA - then bass guitar and kick drum always co-exist.

There will be cases where the bass content of some sources is less important - I can live with thinning these out, but to do it to piano, organs, bass and other low instruments is taking quite a bit of the source away. My experience is that musicians will soon spot this. Bass is a bit thin, or where's my left hand gone? Those sorts of comments.

In fact - I just hate rules and rarely have any that I implement before engaging my ears. Use high pass if there is a problem by all means, but to lose all the bottom end from many sources is a strange rule to have. I have also never heard a voice made better by filtering off the bottom end - apart from on bass baritones when the sounds isn't really singing but almost an effect.
 
If I do high pass a vocal on a studio mix, it's generally pretty low. I might high pass a male vocal at 50Hz or a female at 100Hz, but it's important to do an each check of the results, not just do it by default.
 
rob aylestone said:
Yes, my thoughts too - for live it really helps, but for recording where people listen properly, robbing voices of their fundamentals is wrong in most cases, and while kick and bass can overlap, one is wide band and one isn't so if you get clashes and that is if not a certainty. then I'd probably scoop a little of the kick fundamental or 1st harmonic out of the bass, but I certainly would not remove anything. Little point in a low B string, if you filter it off! Even if we talk PA - then bass guitar and kick drum always co-exist.

There will be cases where the bass content of some sources is less important - I can live with thinning these out, but to do it to piano, organs, bass and other low instruments is taking quite a bit of the source away. My experience is that musicians will soon spot this. Bass is a bit thin, or where's my left hand gone? Those sorts of comments.

In fact - I just hate rules and rarely have any that I implement before engaging my ears. Use high pass if there is a problem by all means, but to lose all the bottom end from many sources is a strange rule to have. I have also never heard a voice made better by filtering off the bottom end - apart from on bass baritones when the sounds isn't really singing but almost an effect.
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Yes it's contentious and was wondering about how other do it. Thanks for your input.
 
IIRC there are MANY opinions on this posted elsewhere in this and other forums available for you to read.
 
I almost never high pass anything. The only reason I would is if I perceive a problem, like useless rumble or the singer tapping his foot on the leg of the mix stand.
I have never run into the problem of kick and bass fighting, but my bass sounds tend to be very compressed and have a decent amount of midrange for clarity.
 
Farview said:
I almost never high pass anything. The only reason I would is if I perceive a problem, like useless rumble or the singer tapping his foot on the leg of the mix stand.
I have never run into the problem of kick and bass fighting, but my bass sounds tend to be very compressed and have a decent amount of midrange for clarity.
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Thanks for that. So far, the majority over here seems to be more cautious with low cuts. Quite interesting how this differs from some other forums where I’ve asked the same question. I guess we all have our own way to achieve what we want in a mix. Many ways to Rome .... 😉.
 
I do tend to build my mixes from the bottom up, so there might be something I'm doing in the recording process that keeps me from having that problem.
 
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