If the frequencies aren't being used in the construction of the sound I want, then I get rid of them. Always.

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Pretty much yep.

Experiment.


Create a 10 channel mix and then render 16 bars with low cuts and then without.

You should see a definate difference in the clarity of the mix.

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Yes! unless you hear significant improvements to the sound if not doing so.

A common mistake many people do is to not cut the low end of the synths.

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I recall there was some mention of a plugin that gave you visual representation o the frequencies and showed your "hot" frequencies - eg busy / overloaded bands. Can someone refresh my memory / recommend one?

But also, while you may cut some frequencies, you may suck the life out of a track - some transients need room. As old adage goes - listen on various sources - car stereo, boombox, alarm clock with shitty one speaker and iPod dock, iPhone speaker.

Close the door and listen from another room. And then still not know what to do about crappy mudpie you slapped togeher

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A little bit of low band muddiness can often glue a mix together. On the whole you should take away as much of the low content you don't require in order to free some headroom.

Personally I think a lot of new producers use highpass to overkill and end up losing that lovely intermodulation you get with certain sounds playing together and covering a similar band between the bass and lowmid area. They can sometimes glue and add a human warmth very similar to what happens in an orchestra live.

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quote:

Originally posted by aNYthing I recall there was some mention of a plugin that gave you visual representation o the frequencies and showed your "hot" frequencies - eg busy / overloaded bands. Can someone refresh my memory / recommend one?

I believe the FL Studio EQ does something similar.

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I always cut everything below 60hz and bass below 50hz. You know what i find amazing though some manages to get through i proved this to myself by mixing it to -3 on the master bus and applying a low cut on the master bus as well and the volume jumped up to -0.5. i checked all the channels and eveysingle on including fx sends had the low cut applied.

Another good thing to do on weeding out problem frequencies (although some srgue it thins sounds too much) is to do a parametric sweep. Take a parametric eq or for instance cubases Q filter. Turn the Q down to the lowest it will go like 0.5 or something and (making sure monitors are turned down) boost that band by 20db and sweep it across the frequencies. The most powerful (in some peoples mind the trouble freqs) will suddenly jump out as horrible sounding volume spikes. Then you simply chop that freq out and becasue the Q is so small the sound remains almost the same just a bit thinner and definatley more clear. Some people like it, and it works for me.

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Processing a highly structured and complex pattern of sensory input as a unified percept of "music" is probably one of the most elaborate features of the human brain.....understanding how music is perceived and how it may elicit intense sensations is far from being understood.

quote:

Originally posted by Acton I believe the FL Studio EQ does something similar.

Yup, the FL Parametric EQ2 shows frequencies by color, and gets more saturated as the freqs get louder. I usually have one on every channel and on the master, even if I don't manipulate anything on it.

I literally just recently started low-cutting pretty much everything that wasn't meant to have a presence in it -- my production quality has always been a low point for me but now things come through much, much clearer than before. I doubt I know exactly what I'm doing yet but it's definitely helping one way or another.

quote:

Originally posted by DEAD_MOOSE A little bit of low band muddiness can often glue a mix together. On the whole you should take away as much of the low content you don't require in order to free some headroom. Personally I think a lot of new producers use highpass to overkill and end up losing that lovely intermodulation you get with certain sounds playing together and covering a similar band between the bass and lowmid area. They can sometimes glue and add a human warmth very similar to what happens in an orchestra live.

I agree 100% I especially don't like the arbitrary hi-passing of everything at a given pre-determined frequency - it should always be done by using your ears IMO because every sound has a different frequency range and interacts differently in any given context (i.e., the frequency range of the other instruments in the track). Also, I find that sometimes, you can get better gelling of your sounds if you group similar sounds (e.g., strings, pads) to a buss and hi-pass them as a group (again, using your ears) before compressing them.

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I only cut what doesn't audibly changes the full mix. This way you cut out irrelevant content which clogs up the mix.

Apart from that I also cut a bit more where I think is necessary of course.

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quote:

If less is more think about how much more more would be. -Frasier

stuff is getting generic if doing this too much imo. even a hihat should have some info lower down, its actual air moving in real life and that should be reproduced in stereo too. unless u plan to compress the hell out of it in order to make it sound loud on tv and radio.