for example a hi hat.....

if i see no audio signal coming through on the low end of the hi hat in my EQ plugin ....isn't it useless to cut the lows? they advise to do that anyway for a cleaner mix but I was wondering if there's no audio signal in the low end...nothing is being cut if i EQ that out right?

 

You're Right !
No money... no honey

 

Sorry ... you're absolutely right.
No need to put an effect, if the track does not need it.

 

correct

trash advice imo, even someone like mixbusTV refuted it easily

 

They advised to cut something that's not there? And even worse, this should have a positive effect?

Ok, seriously, usually, due to technical reasons, every recorded signal has some low end, even a triangle and high passing these can have a positive effect if you're working with a bunch of channels and are compressing the high freqs. Otherwise the freq relation (low to high) remains the same, no matter how many signal you have.

 

This advice is meant in general, specially for people who mix real raw takes, and in this case you would see signal in the medium low end.
If you are using samples, most of them are already cleaned, so it's generally not necessary to cut the low.

 

I think master bus could be where to cut all 20db and less...