100-150 Hz build up.

jimwilbourne

I try.
Aug 20, 2010
537
1
16
Boston, MA
I'm finding that I tend to get too much going on around 125 Hz when mixing.
I think most of the problem is between the guitar & bass.

which should take a cut? bass or guitars?
should I just be more careful when dialing in my tones when tracking?
 
Depends on how you tracked your guitars, I'd think.

How much EQ are you using?

Experiment with a HP around your problem area on both instruments.

If not satisfactory, there's always a multi-band compressor.
 
Depends on how you tracked your guitars, I'd think.

How much EQ are you using?

Experiment with a HP around your problem area on both instruments.

If not satisfactory, there's always a multi-band compressor.

well I HP my guitars below the fundamental (I happen to be tracking one band in C and one in A at the moment).

I ended up taking a huge chunk of the freq. down about -3db.

Then it started to sound really hollow. but the mud was gone.
I replaced some of it with a bump in the Bass (I can't recall exactly where).
it helped a little, but I feel like I'm just missing alot of power.
 
well I HP my guitars below the fundamental (I happen to be tracking one band in C and one in A at the moment).

I ended up taking a huge chunk of the freq. down about -3db.

Then it started to sound really hollow. but the mud was gone.
I replaced some of it with a bump in the Bass (I can't recall exactly where).
it helped a little, but I feel like I'm just missing alot of power.

Use a medium to sharp Q HP around 120 on your guitars and slooooowly bring it up until you start to lose punch. then take it down just a bit.

Sweep the guitars in your EQ (I'll assume you have them under a parent folder) and find a place where 'the meat is' and drop that with a bell EQ on your bass.

Then take drew_drummer's advice and sidechain your bass so you have the balls without the worry of mud around your low end.

Then report back to us what you have.
 
pull out some kick from 125, use multiband compression to tame the woof on the guitars, sidechain your kick to the bass... welcome to the neverending battle for great lowend... for expert advice see joey and ermz lol, those guys do it great
 
pull out some kick from 125, use multiband compression to tame the woof on the guitars,

this is what I do, along with notching out the 110-120Hz area on the bass (and subsequently boosting 90Hz to compensate).

this area has been extremely frustrating to me currently in my current project. I changed my mix position a bit to make it better, but I have a huge null in my seating position from about 100-130 Hz (to the tune of over 10dB's according to the measurement). I completely don't notice it until referencing on other systems, and it sounds horrible. Finding a midpoint has been difficult, but for me cutting that area on the kick (cutting around 120Hz but a tight Q boost at 60 HZ to compensate), a little notch in the bass and MB comp for that area on guitars was the trick.
 
Try moving your amps to a different position in the room and get some thick rockwool/owens corning bales
in the room you record (not expensive) soak up some standing waves, keep out of the corners
with the amps. Check the response of the mic you use for peaks in that area, same with your
monitoring environment, unless your mix room is extensively treated you are going to have response anomolies
of 35dB+ at the monitoring position at bass frequencies.

Bass is the most commonly difficult thing to judge in ill treated rooms, physics dictates this.
 
I don't think filtering everything is good advice. Instead be judicious at each stage a filter affects everything above the filter point (phase relationships) so you get to point B but not without affecting A.

Improve the source (room) and the mic, then if you need to use filters you can, but I cannot remember ever using a HPF on a 100-150Hz issue, a parametric EQ maybe but not a HPF.
 
I don't think filtering everything is good advice. Instead be judicious at each stage a filter affects everything above the filter point (phase relationships) so you get to point B but not without affecting A.

Improve the source (room) and the mic, then if you need to use filters you can, but I cannot remember ever using a HPF on a 100-150Hz issue, a parametric EQ maybe but not a HPF.

i was not implying that the OP should hp filter everything @100Hz

Chart


most instruments can be hp filtered @ 30-40Hz

before compiling a drum mix (or complete mix), it would behoove the recording engineer to track the drums/instruments in a room that is acoustically maintained for quality performance and by using phase coherent practices such as mic placement, gain staging and phase switching (agreed).

while vocals, guitars, overheads and other misc. instruments are typically hp filtered @90Hz & up, low frequency information below 40Hz in non-musical content. these fundamental/harmonic values can potentially mask content in the low-mid range content.

filtering is a practice supported significantly by electrical engineers and professional recording/mixing engineers (obviously).

it is simple to assume one would not use educated judgment when applying these methods. it would also be an erroneous assumption that subtractive equalization by way of a parametric equalizer is not going to be used at all.

i don't believe my advice to be correct (or the best for that matter)... however this advice was given to me by none other than alan parsons. he can be quite convincing for obvious reasons.

anecdote:

there are a few methods in sidechaining filter/eq into compressors that i use on almost every channel. this will subdue the unwanted frequency without completely eliminating it.