how low is too low

[fluct]

hi

Because there is soo much sub in alot of techno music , im curious as to how low people eq on their masters, as im not sure what will translate well on a decent sound system.

Where do you put your low cut/high pass, and what kind of slope is used (eg does a cut on 40Hz mean that it's 40 at the top of the slope or at the bottom ), any advice is muchly appreciated.

Do you cut at the master, the kick and bass groups, both??

tar

greg

[loopdon]

lots of people either highpass at maybe somewhere starting @20 -40 Hz or lowshelf. On the master or on the channels that have these low frequncies in them (i.e kick/bass).. ... so the slop/cut would start at say 40 Hz.. :)

[RDR]

Agreed. Although i stand by my EQing kicks at 45-50.

i usually perform a steep shelving EQ at 3-35 hz.

All percussive parts are rolled off at around 125hz.

hi rez bell attentuation at 250 get rid of mudiness.

As for bass parts - create layered basses that leave nothing to chance, a sine for the bottom end under strict compression control and a rezzy part for the top end to provide tonal definition.

[TechMouse]

hi rez bell attentuation
:eyes:

[etnarama]

I never cut the kick, only the bass, depending the note and only at 40hz max.
In techno its much better if you leave the lower spectrum of the kick, not saying like in hardtekno where everything is so muddled, dont understand how do they produce so badly and still sell stuff ...... oh i do cut everything else....
Sometimes in the mastering process i do lower the low freq but dont cut it.
This all depends of which type of kick you use, if its very muddled and dirty or not. I tend to use a more cleaner kick. But i do my own kicks.

[RDR]

hi rez bell attentuation
:eyes:

There, there. :roll:

[loopdon]

I never cut the kick, only the bass, depending the note and only at 40hz max.
In techno its much better if you leave the lower spectrum of the kick, not saying like in hardtekno where everything is so muddled, dont understand how do they produce so badly and still sell stuff ...... oh i do cut everything else....
Sometimes in the mastering process i do lower the low freq but dont cut it.
This all depends of which type of kick you use, if its very muddled and dirty or not. I tend to use a more cleaner kick. But i do my own kicks.

referrring to the bad hardtechno (the newer 145/150 + stuff) production, chris liebing once said sth. along the lines of. these producers kinda modeled their tracks using live-recordings from dj sets in clubs (think rush/liebing himself in his harder days) with all the PA introduced distortion/ruffness/saturation rences. And he said those records were the ones he has problems with. I think that holds some truth. Because if your tracks are to distorted when on the record, then the PA will add dist. to that again which certainly can't be good. So i am rather careful with distortion alltogether - it sure has it's value on certain elemens but one should always think about the place were stuff is supposed to be played - clubs. rant off

[etnarama]

Yes i do agree with ya, but when you masteriz you can fix any prob of those.... They need to sort that distortion before going into vinyl, if the master is a proper fat tune without loads of distortion and with the kick in its place theres no way they should f*** even more, a proper masterz will delete all phase distort and stuff. It might happen that the labels wanna do a quick and cheapo masteriz and "print" to vinyl, and by doing that the music will suck...
Sometimes i doubt if people do listen in proper monitors, and check in different speakers.

[dirty_bass]

When cutting to vinyl the engineer will cut at around 35hz anyway, so no point sitting anything down there.
As for how low do I go personally.
It depends, there are no standard eq`s you should apply to any sound or instrument other than when correcting for a recording medium.
Sometimes my kicks will sit mostly at 80hz and the bass may be below that going down to 60 or 50.
sometimes I`ll sit the kicks around 100-120 and let the bass have loads of room from 80 down to 45.
Sometimes I sit the kick right in the middle of really big bass, and pull it`s frequencies out from the bass.

[eyeswithoutaface]

yeah kick usually sits around 80hz, i find i get most definition around there, going a tad lower sometimes works better depending on whats going on in the bass but never as low as 45-50, as usually that's around where my bass is sitting too, but i couldnt imagine it anyway. Of course though everyone has their own techniques, and surely thats what techno is all about. Doing things others dont.

I tend to play things alot more by ear except for when i need alot more preciseness such as cutting the kicks and bass, i think sometimes sticking to suggested freq's and guidelines too strictly will probably stifle the creativity and you should just kinda go with the flow if you think you've got something really rocking on the cards

[RDR]

Dear god.... thats my technique 45-50.. if you two dont like it or dont think its relevant thats tought shit, im sick to **** of this.. **** off.

[RDR]

oops, just read the other bit scott..

apologies.

this has really been getting my back up recently. Does everyone think im bloody deaf or somthing????

FFS.

[eyeswithoutaface]

easyyyyy tiger

certainly wasnt having a pop, far from it matey

nuff respec' fwar doin' yarrrr aaawn ting bro!

[dirty_bass]

Wasn`t talking to you, but answering the question.
I think you need a shag.

[RDR]

Wasn`t talking to you, but answering the question.
I think you need a shag.

@scott - total overreaction, sorry.

@steve - dont we all chief, dont we all. BTW i rate your tunes man and have respect for what you do. good on ya. :)

[dirty_bass]

actually I do really need a shag, damn the missus for sleeping normal hours

[eyeswithoutaface]

im ok for a shag i saw one of the local Scarlet Ladies by mine this evening, surprising just how far 45 p stretches these days, especially with inflation

[dan the acid man]

what ?, she inflated you in that rubber suit again, all for 45p ? :shock: :lol:

[Mindful]

I cut everything below 30 myself , gonna start doing the 35 thing from now tho.

lol @S_B and the missus sleeping normal hours, sounds familiar

[holotropik]

Roll off 18db/oct at 20hz.
I have a mate of mine down here that owns a Funktion1 rig and I cut my teeth on infra-bass, so I have a thing for exploring what can be done done in the nether regions of sub-space. Tricky territory but I reckon its fun, just dont over crowd it or expect most systems to translate the music very well in that area.
I dont produce for vinyl as it has limitations I cant live with.

[etnarama]

I dont produce for vinyl as it has limitations I cant live with.

Absolutely i prefer my own music played on cd's or ableton it sounds cleaner...... and with a big stereo field

[holotropik]

Actually I dont produce for much at all, I just play Live.

[dirty_bass]

I dont produce for vinyl as it has limitations I cant live with.

Absolutely i prefer my own music played on cd's or ableton it sounds cleaner...... and with a big stereo field

Most rigs are run in mono.
but I digress, Essentially I produce for CD/Ableton, and Vinyl.
It`s good to know how to do both.

PLaying with real serious sub frequncies when live on a soundsystem is so nice.
Also finding the power points of the cabinets with the mid range and getting some brain shattering resonance going is farking good fun too.
Makes people wince and shiver.