I like a gradual high end roll off on overhead condensers before I feed them into a kinda aggressive (almost distortion) limiter. The high end eats up the rest of the mix otherwise. Coles 4038s have that rolled off sound built in, but I don't have that kind of monies.

A HP filter on a kick in the 30-40ish range isn't a bad idea a lot of the time. Basically unmusical rumble below that.

MoreSpaceEcho wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 11:29 am

Another neat tip was adding more V-Gain to a channel that has some editing in it to give it a more natural sound.

This kinda sounds like jive. What does "more natural" mean? I've comped/edited loads of stuff and no one could tell just from listening, I'm assuming V-gain has some sort of saturation in it? Don't really see how that's gonna help cover up edits but maybe I'm missing the point.

I've definitely done a lot of vocal editing, cutting out the dead spots between to get rid of the background noise. Of course, you can't tell much once you put it in a mix with everything else going on, but if we talk about that extra 5% polish to make good great, I find it to be something curious enough to explore.

penningtron wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 12:59 pm A HP filter on a kick in the 30-40ish range isn't a bad idea a lot of the time. Basically unmusical rumble below that.

Yes! Definitely been needing to do that, and then you can add back some of that low end with overall mix EQ and the lowend sounds smoother without that crazy bottom-end thud.

cakes wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 1:22 pm

penningtron wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 12:59 pm A HP filter on a kick in the 30-40ish range isn't a bad idea a lot of the time. Basically unmusical rumble below that.

Yes! Definitely been needing to do that, and then you can add back some of that low end with overall mix EQ and the lowend sounds smoother without that crazy bottom-end thud.

Yep, I remember Bob Weston (in a mastering context) saying something like "turn up the good bass, turn down the bad bass". I don't remember exactly what he did, but for my own uses it's usually been a slight boost between 60-120hz and some cuts in the low mids (another guy I trust swears that point is 250hz, but I've experimented with scooping as high as 500hz). EQ stages before compression, not that I do a lot of that (I can spot a 'squished kick' from a mile a way these days, and don't care for it).

Even if your HP or LP filter are set with their cutoff frequencies outside of the audible spectrum, they could potentially be adding slight phase shifts/group delay in the audible spectrum, depending on how they're implemented (filter order number, overdamped/underdamped response, etc.). Whether you can hear this is not for me to decide.

That being said, HP filters on everything is probably a good idea. Removing ultra-low inaudible stuff can improve overall fidelity on some listening systems. I have experience with an amplifier design that can pass DC signals (no coupling capacitors in the signal path, therefore no audible phase shift). It's designed to detect potentially speaker-damaging extended-length DC signals and mute the audio to protect the system. However, there's a Celine Dion track that has something like a 5Hz signal in it that will trip this protection. That's kind of an extreme example, but these extended low frequencies can cause certain amplifier designs to work harder than necessary, which can cause distortion.

I only ever use computer console routing to insert outboard effects, but I’ve got variable high pass filters on a couple preamps and I love them. Depending on the source I generally just bring it up until I can hear it working, then nudge it back down some.

It’s only ever bitten me on the ass once this acoustic guitar overdub where I wasn’t paying attention, but even then I just compressed it a little and used it as a special effect.

Hpf on vocals I am kind of up and down on. I don’t have a deep voice and even a filter at 80 hz can be too much just depending on what is going on in the track.

I keep getting drawn back to the AMEK 9099. Something about it just feels good to use and the controls are responsive. There's so many good shaping tools in each strip.

penningtron wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 1:31 pm

cakes wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 1:22 pm

penningtron wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 12:59 pm A HP filter on a kick in the 30-40ish range isn't a bad idea a lot of the time. Basically unmusical rumble below that.

Yes! Definitely been needing to do that, and then you can add back some of that low end with overall mix EQ and the lowend sounds smoother without that crazy bottom-end thud.

Yep, I remember Bob Weston (in a mastering context) saying something like "turn up the good bass, turn down the bad bass". I don't remember exactly what he did, but for my own uses it's usually been a slight boost between 60-120hz and some cuts in the low mids (another guy I trust swears that point is 250hz, but I've experimented with scooping as high as 500hz). EQ stages before compression, not that I do a lot of that (I can spot a 'squished kick' from a mile a way these days, and don't care for it).

I had an old Tascam 320b board where the Low Eq on the channels was a Bell shape and not a shelf. I liked it cause you could boost some low without boosting everything lower than you wanted below it too.