Hey guys,
I have always heard that when you appy distortion to any sound with a lot of low end, such as a bass or a kick drum, you should filter out anything below 250-200 hz and layer the distorted signal with the original. Today I created a bass drum where I'm using this technique, but I find that the drum sounds much, much better and closer to the sound I'm after if I leave the distorted signal unfiltered before mixing it with the dry signal.
Is doing this a total no-no, and if so, why?
Distortion, low end and layering
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 33 posts since 16 Oct, 2012
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- KVRAF
- 3477 posts since 27 Dec, 2002 from North East England
Are we talking about EQing out the low end before distortion or after? I assume you mean after. If you're EQing before you'll likely miss out on all the harmonics from the fundamental that you want.
I've never heard this maxim, but I don't really see any problem with layering without filtering the original signal, or using the dry/wet control on your distortion. As long as you've got decent phase coherence (I.e. no cancellation artifacts) you should be fine. Multiband distortions can sometimes throw up phase issues, but I've found that single band stuff tends to be fine when mixed with the dry signal.
That 200-250Hz figure seems very high to me too. On a kick with a strong fundamental frequency you'll likely be dropping the volume of the first couple of harmonics that the distortion adds, and to me these would be the harmonics I wanted the most. Distortion can indeed rob a sound of its bass impact though, and that's why you'd want to mix some dry signal back in. Strong distortion flattens the volume envelope of the signal, so it makes sense to mix some of the dry signal back in to get that transient bass 'thump' from the original envelope shape of the kick. If you're going to high pass the distortion for more clarity on that thump, I'd be looking at trying to only filter out the fundamental (i.e. lowest) frequency. However, if it sounds fine unfiltered, why not? One of my general rules is that, if something sounds fine, it is fine.
I've never heard this maxim, but I don't really see any problem with layering without filtering the original signal, or using the dry/wet control on your distortion. As long as you've got decent phase coherence (I.e. no cancellation artifacts) you should be fine. Multiband distortions can sometimes throw up phase issues, but I've found that single band stuff tends to be fine when mixed with the dry signal.
That 200-250Hz figure seems very high to me too. On a kick with a strong fundamental frequency you'll likely be dropping the volume of the first couple of harmonics that the distortion adds, and to me these would be the harmonics I wanted the most. Distortion can indeed rob a sound of its bass impact though, and that's why you'd want to mix some dry signal back in. Strong distortion flattens the volume envelope of the signal, so it makes sense to mix some of the dry signal back in to get that transient bass 'thump' from the original envelope shape of the kick. If you're going to high pass the distortion for more clarity on that thump, I'd be looking at trying to only filter out the fundamental (i.e. lowest) frequency. However, if it sounds fine unfiltered, why not? One of my general rules is that, if something sounds fine, it is fine.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 33 posts since 16 Oct, 2012
Thank you for the advice. I was actually told to filter out the low end of the distorted signal by an instructor at a sound design course I took a while ago, and I never really questioned it, seeing as how he had worked with some pretty famous people. So for a long time now I have been trying to figure out how to create a heavily distorted kick while only distorting anything above 200hz (which I realize now was meant as a guideline, not as a rule). Well, this is how you learn, I suppose... 
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- KVRAF
- 4590 posts since 7 Jun, 2012 from Warsaw
Distortion on low-end can cause some unpredictable phase issues, but once you know and understand them (or use phase adjustment), it's not that dangerous. Another problem is compressor, which may be confused by irregular rising envelope and you want it to trigger at just right spot of the bass.
Personally I find saturation on low-end pretty effective way to boost bass.
Personally I find saturation on low-end pretty effective way to boost bass.
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