Some artists really have a hard time managing the lower end of the frequency spectrum. Mostly the reason is overusing that range. You'll be surprised how many sounds will occupy space in that range although played in much higher registers. Aliasing can play a role, bad sound creation also.

Imagine you select a pad from your synth and hit some keys or pads on your external midi controller. It sounds so beautiful! Oh, how lovely.
You bring it into an arrangement with drums and a bass. But what's that? You can't really bring it to the front, it sounds weak and almost lost.

1) Played on its own it sounds so beautiful because of its foundation in the lower end of the frequency spectrum.
2) Within the arrangement, that foundation has to fight against the kick and the bass, and so it loses its power.

Highpass all the way. Really. It will give you a whole new perspective on your sounds. I recommend 24 dB for the steepness. If you only have 12 dB filter, put two of them in a row with the same settings.

Kick and bass have their base freqencies somewhere between 50-110 Hz (there are exceptions, but in general...). So you can go as high as 110-120 Hz with the HP filter. Of course, if you listen to your pad solo'ed it has lost its impressive character (the foundation is missing), but you don't use it on its own. So listen to it in the mix. Everything is so much more defined now. The kick hits harder, the bass vibrates your stomach, the pad glues it all together and is crisp and strong.

Highpassing is just one way of dealing with lower frequencies, but it is a very cheaap and quick one, so I recommend to use it as often as possible on everything that's not intended to be bass or kick. You don't need it for everything, and after some time you will recognize which sounds need it and which sounds not. But always think about it. Keep your lower range clean. Also, a lot less compression is needed when using the above tip.

 

I knew someone would come up with it. I also saw these videos, and I fully understand what he is talking about. That's why I gave an example of useful highpassing (and did not talk about a guitar), and also talked about 24 dB instead of brickwall. If you ever had a bad preset and did not care about it, you'd know what I'm talking about. Just as he says (and I said) in the first video - you need the low end to vibrate in your stomach. What you don't need is a muddy shit of unnecessary frequencies.

I also explicitly said that it's just one way of dealing with the low end, and that it's cheap and quick. That was to prevent smartasses to post here. Unfortunately it wasn't clear enough. Or did you just hear the bell ringing right after "HP filter"?

I respect his opinion, but it is just an opinion. Just like mine. So far, my mixes get good reactions. What about yours?

 

Definitely depends on what style of music you're mixing. These glitch-step, launchpad triggered-styled trackes are more linear in sequencing, and there is a lot of room for the bass. Drum n Bass seems like a logical genre for the HP trick. If you have 100 tracks and HP every single one at 100hz (minus low end trks) you'll notice that 'hi-bass' hole. You still want some "hair" in that freq range, but not so much that it sounds like wet mud. The slow HP db curves are your friend in that regard.

Watch how he quickly makes a sunset, with hair and everything :

 

Last edited: Aug 20, 2017

This statement was my approach for the longest time also. My mixes are getting much better recently thank you.

 

I always audition the sounds Im hi-passing solo'ed and in the mix while Im adjusting the cutoff point. As well as trying different drop off curves. I do it by ear. for the intros or breakdowns you might want that bass in there, but when the rest of the track elements come in youll need that part of the spectrum for the other parts of the song. I try to stay away from steep curves unless its necessary. Sometimes I will automate the filter for when the sound/track breaches different parts of my song. So it wont hog up too much of the spectrum and balance. Nothing I was taught or learned just how my flow developed and common (ear) sense guided me.

 

We are on a forum talking about HPF? Calm down, dude

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 20, 2017

trolling you own post