Gain staging - sub bass

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steevio
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Re: Gain staging - sub bass

Post by steevio »

Mono-xID wrote:
RichardLodge wrote:From what I've read i thought it best to leave room in the low end for kick and bass...
forget what you've read and hear what you do...you shouldn't cut everything below 200 Hz...sometimes you got a perc/synth whatever loop that will interact nicely with the low elements...when you cut every low end it sounds dry....

i can imagine you heard it gazillion times but it's true....THERE ARE NO RULES...there is no "cut this,boost that" and all that sh!t...if you can reproduce the low end you should save some money and buy some new speakers that can...everything else is just speculation...
totally agree.

i really dont understand the whole 'you should cut below this and that' .

it totally depends on the frequencies of the instruments themselves.

if youre using a kick that has a fundamental of 50 Hz whats the point of cutting below 40 Hz, there's nothing there to cut ?
or if you have a kick with a fundamental of 33Hz, and you cut below an arbitrary level like 40 Hz, you are having a major effect on the sound of the kick.

same with the bass, if your lowest note is say E 41 Hz, then theres nothing below that frequency to cut anyway.

i quite often use a snare that has a fundamental of around 175 Hz, because i find that sounds great through a big club rig, (even though it doesnt necessarily in my studio) so if i cut everything below 200Hz, im losing some of the power of the snare.

i dont usually cut anything. i just use the correct fundamentals in the first place. with electronic music you have that option, you can choose which frequencies you use so you dont need to cut anything. it make your music sound more open.

if i do have a problem sound with wayward subs i would most like cut below 75Hz, but i never cut the bass and kick.

of course it makes sense to remove inaudible frequencies in a mix below 20 Hz.

like Phase Ghost says you must have a spectrum analyser. absolutely essential.
and good monitors that go down to around 35 Hz are a must for EDM imo
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Mono-xID
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Re: Gain staging - sub bass

Post by Mono-xID »

yeah goddamn...there is absolutely no point to do this....when i produce a track,i equalize all elements while hearing them played all together...and when i add a loop or a synth patch to it which sounds good with all other elements right away,why should i cut it to a specific frequency that is stated by some music magazines or tutorials as a "must do"...

i mostly don't cut anything aswell...i use shelving filters instead

when it sounds good,it is good and there is no reason to cut something when it sounds alright...

spectrum analyzers are one of the most important tools...when you check different tunes with them,you'll see that there is no "magic sub bass volume stage"...every track is unique and so it needs unique parameters...
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