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When mastering, is it best to roll-off the lowest frequencies or not?!

Hi,

When mastering, is it best that you roloff the lowest frequencies.. if so, to which Hz should you cut off.

I am asking cause I heard this was done to avoid rumble on most people's speakers and also when you're song is played on radio or TV etc.. so especially for radio edits what should you cut away?!

Also, it's hard to hear those frequencies in a small room (subs need a large room to be heard), so you could easily monitor them wrong, so I believe it's common practice to cut away the lowest frequencies to avoid any trouble.

PS: also, can anybody tell me what is considered the "sub-bass" frequency range, ie. what you can't hear?

I think under 40 hz can be removed completly, but 60-150 but be powerful enough if played on large speakers

When your track is good enough to make a dedicated radio edit, people will have it mastered for you. Really n/o but imo you care to much about things that point out themselves. Just roll off at 30 hz and 20 khz and don't care about the rest.

This could get long and messy.

Speaking from experience rather than learning (so I stand open to correction), sub-bass is once you start to drift below 60hz, ish. It's definitely audible though. Anything below around 25-30Hz I can't hear, myself, but you can feel it.

Generally speaking, unless you have a true full-range monitoring environment and a well-balanced room (e.g. a mastering studio) you don't have a hope of doing anything remotely useful below 35hz, ish. And that's with some relatively big (say 8" - big for a home project studio) nearfield cones. So it's good practice to roll it off, on the grounds that most people will never hear it and you certainly can't, so how do you even know if it's correct?

In addition, low frequencies, to become audible, require a lot more energy, which means headroom. If you've got weird shit flapping around in the sub-sub bass region it can save you precious dBs and get your track just that (apparently) louder. Assuming you know how to capitalise on it.

Now, the thing is, the likelihood is that you actually don't have speakers that can do much useful below 50Hz (e.g. the those �200ish Alesis ones), but the problem is some really good stuff happens down there - I think of the region between 30 and 50hz as the "warmth" region. Hack that out and your music will lack real depth on a system capable of it (like a club systeam) and also lack that "trouser-flapping bass" effect so loved by the likes of the Edison Factor

In this case, I'd probably start rolling off around 35hzish and then just hope and pray the sub is half-decent. Then take it somewhere with a decent monitoring environment where you can check it.

*breathes*

im no audio engineer. but i do know that 20 hz is noticeable on a good rig. and if there is a chance your track may get played on a good rig then it should use all the frequencies it can. the audio spectrum is 20-20000hz so i think it should all stay.

Agreed - there's a chance that it could sound good down there (not that you would know on small speakers) so try two masters - one with the rolloff and one without - and play them both on a big club system, or in a decent studio.

Easier said than done perhaps, for many people... but don't expect to deal with this stuff at home unless you're set up right

Honestly, Im sure those sounds can be heard on random sound systems and what not. If it doesnt DRAMATICALLY help then i wouldnt even bother with it. if your tracks are hits they are hits. you can't always turn something shitty into beautiful.. Aparantly Shrek figured this out a little late. Truthfully there are tons of smart amazing people on this board that know there stuff. Understand these techniques are really the behind the scenes type of stuff that you should know but dont really need to know that much or whatever. I dont know if i am rambling on or not i dont want to be mean or pop anyones bubble.


My 2 0.2 Cents

don't cut off below 40/30/20Hz, that would make your track sound kinda weak and, dunno..lifelses maybe.
those frequencies we can't hear (i.e. below 20Hz - and yes I can hear a 20Hz sine wave on my headphones, and my rig really sucks) - we can feel. just put your hand on your speakers next time you play a mastered track. your hand would be shaking.
that what makes the crowd move and feel your track in clubs (among other things of course).

make a good mix.. and leave the mastering to the pro`s

quote:

Originally posted by ronk we can feel. just put your hand on your speakers next time you play a mastered track. your hand would be shaking. that what makes the crowd move and feel your track in clubs (among other things of course).

Never thought about that. You might be into something.

I hate to be like this, but this is so "old"!!

Like Subtle wrote, consentrate to do a good mix and then send your mix to a mastering studio. Mastering can do alot to your track, but if its sounds bad before, it will sound eaven worse after! (Just from personal experience).

Im not verry good at mastering, but i dont think there is a general rule where you should cut, boost or whatever. It depends on how your track sound!

I was also trying to master my tracks before, but i gave up and decided to send it away for a pro.mastering., and i will continue to do so. You can also get some really good feedbacks from them on whats wrong in the mix etc etc...

Its all in the mix!

Cheers
C

in fact i dont any of you, or few of you are actually capable of mastering your own tracks, ofcourse it can be done, but mastering means making the track sound good on any system, and also making the track at the right volume and balance.

But mastering engineers uses specially treated acoustic rooms, and uber-expensive monitors, compressors etc.

the key is in the mix!

Roll off everything under 600 Hz, and your neighbours will love your mastering

there are a few things you should consider too
when you do a highpass in let's say Waves Q10 it still leaves a little bit of the low end there...

now let's say you roll off at 35 hertz...you have some more headroom to give your peaks some room...or
you can maximize your track a bit more...
sometimes the few decibels more can make a great master too...

and btw...too much bass kills the rest of the spectrum so I think, the idea of cutting the very low end is good. and should work on most tracks.
There are a few things to remember though, I think, first is that you should be able to find what can be cut without making the rest sound shit (therefore no-one can tell you exact range) and I just forgot the second lol.

It totally depends.

Let's say you have a mix containing just a vocal and a piano. Naturally you would highpass both to remove any excess rumble and to make way for the higher frequencies, thereby cleaning up the sound and removing the unwanted content. You might highpass both around 100 Hz - the piano a little lower, the vocal a little higher. The mix now contains few, if any frequencies below 100 Hz.

Now, when it comes to mastering, do you precede to roll off again what isn't there in the first place?

As you see, it totally depends on the mix. If you've already taken care of the sub range by rolling it off on the instruments that need it (which would be almost everything, sometimes even the kick and bass), there is no reason to so again in the master. In fact, it's much better to do so in the mix because you wouldn't always want to highpass the kick or bass at 10-20 Hz now, would you?

As an example, here is a spectrum of a mix where the sub hasn't been properly rolled off, followed by one where it has been properly dealt with:







I dealt with the first one as follows, while the second - perhaps to no surprise - didn't require any treatment:

I thought most speakers cannot go below 50Hz thus cutting these frequencies will result in more headroom.

I cut most low end below 40-50Hz, it always sounds more crisp/tight and if the track is decent enough, the mastering studio can fix this.

I am only really picking up mastering on a decent level, maybe I need correcting?

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