Where should i low cut stereo information?
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 110 posts since 25 Sep, 2018
I have this bass bus with all kinds of heavy basses on it and im wondering where i should be lowcutting the side information, ive heard people mention this causes phase??? is that true? Can someone tell me where to cut and what db slope to use???
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- KVRAF
- 15263 posts since 8 Mar, 2005 from Utrecht, Holland
You can start with a cutoff freq of 160 Hz or so and a gentle slope of say 12 dB / oct.
Is there any stereo info on that bus below 100 Hz at all? If not, you're wasting time. If all those bass synths are known to be mono (or if you made them mono) you don't even need to look into this issue. Stereo is pretty overrated imho. There are some pretty nifty stereo analysers with good visualisation plugins available, I forgot their names.
Stereo on the bass can cause some issues:
1. When printed on vinyl the needle will jump. The vinyl mastering engineer however should take care of that. Chances your track gets printed on vinyl are near zero, so this is not a real problem for you.
2. When played on a system with separate subwoofer all stereo info below 100 Hz is lost anyway through the cross-over circuits of the playback system. So if two basses on left & right cancel each other out, you hear none anymore. Some clubs play mono altogether, so this is not only a problem for bass freqs.
If you have phase issues on bass to begin with, then by cutting out all the side information these will surface and slam you in the face.
BTW: having several tracks all in the same frequency space is asking for trouble. I know that producers want big bottom sounds, but this is not achieved by stacking track upon track upon track. That will only produce mud. Bass needs a lot of energy, and by having multiples of them you're eating up all your headroom and the song as a whole cannot get as loud as you want it to be. Less is more...
Is there any stereo info on that bus below 100 Hz at all? If not, you're wasting time. If all those bass synths are known to be mono (or if you made them mono) you don't even need to look into this issue. Stereo is pretty overrated imho. There are some pretty nifty stereo analysers with good visualisation plugins available, I forgot their names.
Stereo on the bass can cause some issues:
1. When printed on vinyl the needle will jump. The vinyl mastering engineer however should take care of that. Chances your track gets printed on vinyl are near zero, so this is not a real problem for you.
2. When played on a system with separate subwoofer all stereo info below 100 Hz is lost anyway through the cross-over circuits of the playback system. So if two basses on left & right cancel each other out, you hear none anymore. Some clubs play mono altogether, so this is not only a problem for bass freqs.
If you have phase issues on bass to begin with, then by cutting out all the side information these will surface and slam you in the face.
BTW: having several tracks all in the same frequency space is asking for trouble. I know that producers want big bottom sounds, but this is not achieved by stacking track upon track upon track. That will only produce mud. Bass needs a lot of energy, and by having multiples of them you're eating up all your headroom and the song as a whole cannot get as loud as you want it to be. Less is more...
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- KVRist
- 335 posts since 9 Aug, 2004
Brandon, you can check with mono compatibility utilities. They often impart useful information for tasks like this.
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- KVRist
- 349 posts since 13 Oct, 2015
you dont necessarily need to do it - but 100-160 hz is a good range
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- KVRer
- 6 posts since 17 Oct, 2018
I would say....it depends on the Style and Genre....sometimes on Rock/Heavy Metall Tracks ....its perfect to have a wider Bass
But 60Hz-100Hz is a good starting Point....
But 60Hz-100Hz is a good starting Point....
