Splitting Up Frequencies

[Studdy]

How many of you are "splitting frequencies", what I mean is separating different parts of the spectrum into different tracks? Example: Low end on bass on one track low passed, and mid/high end of bass on another. If you are doing this do you prefer to use an eq or use a multiband compressor and mute/solo different frequency ranges. Essentially kind of the same thing but I wondered if muting/soloing sections onWaves C4 or alike would yield better results (phase, etc.) than basic eq plugin.

Thanks!

 

[mva801]

All the time on bass. Primarily so that the distortion being applied doesn't affect the low end to give you a nice smooth, consistent low combined with the growly top. Haven't done that much on anything except bass.

I just use a simple Hi Pass and Lo pass on the respective tracks, but the idea of using the c4 to set an exact split and solo/ mute certain parts seems fine. Try it!

 

[Nimvi]

I pretty much always do this on bass, have done it on kick sub bass (not usually on metal though) and have once done it on a vocal track where the voice was to be distorted but still warm and clear throughout the entire song. I distorted only the lower mids and left the rest intact. Sounded pretty cool. Thick and fuzzy, but still sort of natural. Again not metal though.

I just use a regular EQ with whatever roll-off slope I think sounds fitting.

 

[Studdy]

Okay I just went to the studio and tried splitting the bass 2 different ways.

1. Digi EQ on each track with respective hi and low pass filters.

2. Waves C4, bypassing compression, and muting the high bands on one and soloing the lowband on the other.

Conclusion: both methods work but do sound different, can't really describe the difference I am hearing, could be simply due to the steepness of the slopes. I will have to keep playing with it. I am actually generally splitting into 3 tracks, 1 low, 1 mid/high/ 1 distortion.

 

[mharwood]

Okay I just went to the studio and tried splitting the bass 2 different ways.

1. Digi EQ on each track with respective hi and low pass filters.

2. Waves C4, bypassing compression, and muting the high bands on one and soloing the lowband on the other.

Conclusion: both methods work but do sound different, can't really describe the difference I am hearing, could be simply due to the steepness of the slopes. I will have to keep playing with it. I am actually generally splitting into 3 tracks, 1 low, 1 mid/high/ 1 distortion.

Cutoff slope steepness will definitely have an impact on the sound you are getting from your split channels.

As others have said, bass tracks are a great place to start experimenting with this idea. I usually have my bass split into low (< 250 Hz) and high (> 700 Hz) tracks, using the HPF/LPF from any standard EQ plugin to set the cutoff points on each track. This obviously leaves a huge hole in the midrange, but that's part of the idea as the 250-700 Hz range is stuff you usually don't want to hear from a bass anyway. I generally try to keep the slopes reasonably shallow so they don't mess with the sound near the cutoff frequency too much. Overdrive is applied to the high track and the low track is kept as clean as possible. Find a balance between the two that you like and then buss both of those tracks to a common bass track to apply compression, automation, etc.

 

[botus99]

the 250-700 Hz range is stuff you usually don't want to hear from a bass anyway

 

[Nuno Filipe]

^ bass without midrange, must be a pleasant experience :Smug:

 

[Daybreak]

This is pretty common practice for bass, yes. I always split up my bass into two tracks - One 'sub' and one 'dist'.

 

[Studdy]

I think everyone is taking this thread the wrong way. No doubt people are "splitting frequencies" on instruments, this is an old trick. The reason I posted was to ask how people are accomplishing it, either basic eq, or multiband compressor. I just figured that soloing/muting a great multiband compressor might be better in terms of "phasing/smearing" if those are the correct words to describe. And about the no midrange comments, im sure he didn't mean absolutely no midrange, what he's saying makes perfect sense, he is finding the offensive mid range spot where he would most likely dip and uses that as the spot as his hi/low pass point, with a fairly gentle slope and not carving too much away this is actually a great way to do it.

 

[botus99]

I guess I prefer more organic tones. Gotta have mids in your bass tone! Shit, that's where you get them to poke through on small speakers. Meh, different strokes I guess.

On the subject of splitting using EQ's or MBC's, it would theoretically be much better to be using linear phase versions. The C4's crossovers REALLY screw with phase! I don't use the C4, but there was an article in Fab's Lab showing this that, of course, I can't find right now

 

[mharwood]

I guess I prefer more organic tones. Gotta have mids in your bass tone! Shit, that's where you get them to poke through on small speakers. Meh, different strokes I guess.

I'm certainly not gonna argue with you on that. I just prefer to have the midrange on my bass poke through a little more in the neighborhood of 700 Hz - 1.5 k or so, as this seems to keep it audible on small speakers while avoiding the muddy-ness of the low-mid frequencies on a bass. Granted, a lot of the tracks I've been mixing lately have pianos as well, which seem to need a good deal of that low midrange real-estate to sound natural. I like my guitars to eat up a little bit of that area, too, so if I don't move the bass out of that area the whole mix just seems to get muddy real quick. If something isn't living in that low-mid range, though, then the whole mix is gonna sound like crap.

On the topic of how to do the splitting, I usually just route the track to as many additional tracks as I need (just two for bass), and then use any standard EQ plugin to set the cutoffs on those individual tracks. Never tried a MBC for that purpose, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. As botus99 referred to, though, a linear-phase model would probably be best either way, especially as you steepen the slope. I usually just stick to more gentle slopes filter slopes, but that may or may not give you the effect you want depending on what you're doing. I've also used the included 3 & 5 band splitter plugins that come with REAPER, but I feel more comfortable just using the EQ that I'm familiar with.

 

[Alphanumeric]

Only on bass if lots of tracks. Vocals for layers/harmonies.

 

[Studdy]

What are most of you doing to the lowend of the bass? I generally track through a Great River 1nv so I get a decent amount of saturation on the way in. Generally some compression and Im in the ballpark. I generally run an instance of Sansamp plugin on the mid/high portion but generally not on the low end. Do you most of you generally run some sort of amp / emulation on the low end or generally just the DI. Of course there is no right or wrong answer here and every mix should be approached in a manner that best suits the mix. Just looking to discuss general things people are doing on split bass tracks.

 

[mva801]

I usually just eq/ compress/ limit in that order. Generally make little cuts / boosts to get the bass working where I want with the kick in the 120 Hz and below areas, then compress to even it out. Little bit of L1 or Massey L2007 to keep it tame, then bus it in with the high track. SOMETIMES a little maxxbass or Rbass if it really needs help.

 

[mharwood]

I usually just eq/ compress/ limit in that order. Generally make little cuts / boosts to get the bass working where I want with the kick in the 120 Hz and below areas, then compress to even it out. Little bit of L1 or Massey L2007 to keep it tame, then bus it in with the high track. SOMETIMES a little maxxbass or Rbass if it really needs help.

Same basic idea here. Just EQ to keep it from interfering too much with the kick, then compress/limit until it's behaving nicely. If it was not originally tracked through an amp, I'll either re-amp it or use a bass amp VST before EQ/compress/limit. Distortion, etc is only applied to the higher freq. track.

 

[Studdy]

Do you guys find you are generally clamping the bottom leaving very little dynamics and letting mid/high end breathe a little more and have more dynamics?

 

[FrankTheSmith]

Whenever I put 808's on songs I always split up 0-60hz and 61-22khz or so. Then I side chain the 0-60 channel to the 808 to dip out a little bit when it comes in.

 

[FrodoTBaggins]

I used to do this all the time for bass guitar but lately I've just been using iZotope Trash 2's multiband distortion. If you haven't checked it out it's pretty much the tits for bass. I run the whole thing through the Grafton Bass Cab impulse that's in trash 2 as well. Probably my favorite plugin at the moment just because it's so badass on bass or anything that you really want to mangle.

 

[slo77y]

bass and kick all the time