Should I cut very low and very high frequencies on master ?

[Superbit]

I've noticed that most commercial tracks don't have much high frequencies (maybe due to MP3 compression ?), they sound rather muddy to my opinion exept some house tracks.

I like to boost my high frequencies a little on the master to give some air to my mix. But is it bad ? Do they cut the very high frequencies on commercial tracks to prevent speakers damage or something like that ?

What about very low frequencies ? Should I cut everything below 30hz ?

Thanks.

[metamorphosis]

DOES IT SOUND GOOD?
If not, no. That is the only and singular rule you should follow.

[Superbit]

Well I don't know, it gives some air to the mix imo, but it can get tiring for the ear after some time...


When I listen to my track in the DAW and then the commercial tracks on my itunes, my track sounds very clear while the other tracks sounds, clear, but with much less high frequencies...

[Superbit]

I think I found out what was the problem.

I put only a classic compressor on my melodies (only blips, so kind of harsh to the ear when not compressed enought). And now with a multiband compressor, it still sounds clear but the high spikes got compressed !!

[an-electric-heart]

In the high end the frequencies (when looked at in an analyzer) there should be an even slope from about 1Hz to 20Hz, 20Hz should be about 10db below 1Hz, and also saturation comes into play when mastering in the very high frequencies, it is a different thing all together than boosting e.q, but can probably be mistaken for a high end boost with e.q.

[dark_virus]

I always cut everything below 30-40hz, according the sound. To my upper freqs, I like to cut to taste, starting at 16-17khz. A gentle cut, in general.

I've noted this upper cut on comercial tracks too. Seems a new trend, since most Trance from circa 00-03 had plenty of high freqs on hihats, cymbals, shakers and so.

[IBurstBubbles]

I always cut everything below 40Hz and I mean EVERYTHING...I dont mess with the higher frequencies if they sound good...Only minor cuts to get a cleaner sound.

[Loki Fuego]

I've noticed that most commercial tracks don't have much high frequencies (maybe due to MP3 compression ?), they sound rather muddy to my opinion exept some house tracks.

I like to boost my high frequencies a little on the master to give some air to my mix. But is it bad ? Do they cut the very high frequencies on commercial tracks to prevent speakers damage or something like that ?

Hmm... Just took a look at one commercial track. Notice the sharp roll-off at higher frequencies (it's around 15.7-15.9 kHz). Strange.

[osiris]

Cut cause it's wasted noise.
http://www.alexandermagazine.com/record ... 4/bass.htm
Very interesting article about bass.
The wisdom is anything below 40Hz is wasted energy in the speaker (Unless perhaps your scoring for film)

From Wikipedia:

When compressing a digital signal, an acoustic engineer can safely assume that any frequency beyond approximately 20 kHz will not have any effect on the perceived sound of the finished product, and thus use a low pass filter to cut everything outside this range. The sound can then be sampled at the standard CD sample rate of 44.1 kHz (or 48 kHz in DAT), set somewhat higher than the calculated Nyquist-Shannon rate of 40 kHz to allow for the cut-off slope of a reasonable low pass filter.
When additional compression of sound is required, higher frequencies are usually cut off first, because regular adults' hearing in those areas is often even less than 20 kHz. This is due to loss of hearing in the high-frequency range, due to either hearing damage (e.g. from listening to loud music) or aging. For instance, the commonly used MP3 coding often cuts sounds above 18 kHz, or when compressing as high as 128 kbit/s, at 16 kHz[1].

[sonicpowa]

I've noted this upper cut on comercial tracks too. Seems a new trend, since most Trance from circa 00-03 had plenty of high freqs on hihats, cymbals, shakers and so.

"Upper cut", you are talking about MP3 music?
About that "sharp roll-off", is that MP3?

[dark_virus]

I've noted this upper cut on comercial tracks too. Seems a new trend, since most Trance from circa 00-03 had plenty of high freqs on hihats, cymbals, shakers and so.

"Upper cut", you are talking about MP3 music?
About that "sharp roll-off", is that MP3?

No. I'm mentioning CD tracks from general VA compilations.

But even old Trance mp3 seems to have more hi freqs on hats/cymbals than newer Electro House, but maybe it's a stylistic thing.

[dark_virus]

I've noticed that most commercial tracks don't have much high frequencies (maybe due to MP3 compression ?), they sound rather muddy to my opinion exept some house tracks.

I like to boost my high frequencies a little on the master to give some air to my mix. But is it bad ? Do they cut the very high frequencies on commercial tracks to prevent speakers damage or something like that ?

Hmm... Just took a look at one commercial track. Notice the sharp roll-off at higher frequencies (it's around 15.7-15.9 kHz). Strange.

Seems it belongs to a mp3 file.

[Kim Lajoie]

Hmm... Just took a look at one commercial track. Notice the sharp roll-off at higher frequencies (it's around 15.7-15.9 kHz). Strange.

Seems it belongs to a mp3 file.

THIS.

-Kim.

[Loki Fuego]

Hmm... Just took a look at one commercial track. Notice the sharp roll-off at higher frequencies (it's around 15.7-15.9 kHz). Strange.

Seems it belongs to a mp3 file.

THIS.

-Kim.

Sure. I should have noticed that I incidentally loaded mp3 file. The uncompressed wave file has nothing unusual.

[deleted]

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