highpass on a kickdrum?

[Emdprodukt]

Who does it and where do you put it (especially with ssd/lsd kicks)

I have a real hard time lately to get the right lowend in my kickdrums. Always too much or too less. It's freakin' me out. Last mix sounded sooooo huge in the studio and at home it was like I had a subdrop on every kick hit. I'm not used to the room yet and it's so new for me to actually hear the low frequencies.

So how much bass in the kick do I want? Do you boost the lows of a kick at around 60hz everytime?

 

[XnaySaturo]

I noticed recently I had waaaaaayyy too much low end on the kick (straight from SSD, no processing) in my mixes that was brutalizing the headroom. I highpass them at 45Hz now.

 

[Emdprodukt]

I noticed recently I had waaaaaayyy too much low end on the kick (straight from SSD, no processing) in my mixes that was brutalizing the headroom. I highpass them at 45Hz now.

Good to know. Had them highpassed at 60Hz and thought the kick got weak in comparison to commercial metal releases.

I don't know... but I thought that Slate wrote that his kicks can get highpassed at 130hz. Was way too much when I tried it.

 

[Internity]

I like do a low-shelf from 100hz and shelfing off about 2-3 db and it works real nice

 

[Seth Munson]

i never high pass slate stuff. always boosting the lows a tad and scooping some low mids

 

[colonel kurtz]

HP on the kick isn't unheard of, but i wouldn't do it any higher than 40-50hz...

 

[Ermz]

I usually high pass kicks from 30 to 40hz

 

[XnaySaturo]

Yeah, just highpass absolutely everything all the time. Even if it's at 20Hz. If you can't hear it, doesn't hurt to take it out. Could be affecting your mix without you knowing it.

 

[tempe]

I generally High pass to about 50-60hz, I prefer to have the subs of the bass sitting above the kick and giving the kick its low end at about 80. I assume thats because I usually use slate kicks lol. Although I honestly prefer that on the whole they are quite bass heavy. Its a lot easier to take bass out then it is to add it!

 

[BLUElightCory]

This is a good situation in which to compare your mixes to finished/commercial mixes - this will give you a better idea of the low end in the room.
As for me, my drum bus generally gets high-passed around 40-50 Hz.

 

[amarshism]

Anywhere from 20-50. Even if you can't hear it in your room accurately you're probably freeing some headroom up at the least.

 

[ahjteam]

Slate wrote that his kicks can get highpassed at 130hz. Was way too much when I tried it.

depends on the slope. with 6db/oct filter (like the free brainworx filter: http://www.brainworx-music.de/en/plugins/bx_cleansweep_v2) I wouldn't wonder if it sounds good even at 150hz.

 

[Emdprodukt]

i never high pass slate stuff. always boosting the lows a tad and scooping some low mids

Really? It made kick 10 go like a subdrop for me.

 

[waltz mastering]

Anywhere from 20-50. Even if you can't hear it in your room accurately you're probably freeing some headroom up at the least.

Freeing up headroom by using high pass filters with minimum phase eq's is a myth and can be verified easily.

Because of the phase shift of the eq, when applying a hp filter you are boosting the frequencies right above the cut off or shoulder frequency. If you have a cut at 35 Hz, it's inherently boosting around 40 - 45 Hz.

If you take a broad band recording, run it through a 35 Hz hpf and notice the peak level before and after, you see you're loosing head room.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

I'm usuallynot highpassing kicks at all.
I do often scoop low mids though.
I'll have a 32Hz HP in mastering though

 

[wibi08]

Freeing up headroom by using high pass filters with minimum phase eq's is a myth and can be verified easily.

Because of the phase shift of the eq, when applying a hp filter you are boosting the frequencies right above the cut off or shoulder frequency. If you have a cut at 35 Hz, it's inherently boosting around 40 - 45 Hz.

If you take a broad band recording, run it through a 35 Hz hpf and notice the peak level before and after, you see you're loosing head room.

so which way do you choose?

 

[waltz mastering]

so which way do you choose?

For mastering, I don't use a hp filter all that much, but when I do it's either a linear phase filter with a 12 dB slope and/or I just picked up the new Dangerous Bax eq (shelving and h/l pass filters) which is very smooth.

For mixing, I'll use a minimum phase eq as a hpf, but only to clear some stuff out if it's really a problem and never by default.

It helps to have full range system that goes down to 20 Hz, where as with near fields that sometimes only reach down to 35-45 Hz, your left guessing to what's going on. Low end can be a bitch for sure, but I think it's better to make informed decisions so you don't end up doing more harm than good.

 

[amarshism]

Isn't that only when using a steep slope? I've heard it referred to as overshooting the q? I must have misunderstood.

 

[amarshism]

Sorry, i was also referring to headroom going into a comp. Or is that incorrect anyways?

 

[waltz mastering]

Isn't that only when using a steep slope? I've heard it referred to as overshooting the q? I must have misunderstood.

The steeper the slope and tighter the q, the more phase shift occurs which tends to effect the neighboring frequencies. Using wide bells and slopes that aren't so steep tend to be more natural sounding. It's just how minimum phase eq's works and there's nothing wrong with it.... just something to maybe be aware of.