High pass on mastering does not equal to more headroom

[imrae]

Thumbnails like this make me wonder how cargo-cult some music production must be. It's warning people off a mistake that nobody who understands their tools would make.

[ramseysounds]

Just gain stage properly and hi pass every channel to remove unwanted frequencies to prevent build up when you mix.

"Hi-pass every channel" is perhaps the more commonly encountered myth of this kind, and can also be detrimental to the end result. It's not nearly as often needed as is sometimes portrayed, and it's better just to leave things without processing like this most of the time.

100% disagree. Have a look at a hi-hat on a frequency analyzer. Why do you want inaudible noise down at 50hz on a hat? Cut it out and save mud building up, especially if you have like 20-30 tracks that don't require any bass information less than say 200hz.

[Guenon]

100% disagree. Have a look at a hi-hat on a frequency analyzer. Why do you want inaudible noise down at 50hz on a hat? Cut it out and save mud building up

Nah, this is exactly the myth. It usually doesn't matter at all. Of course, it's a given that you should filter it out if you indeed have actual excessive rumble there, and it's an actual problem situation you need to counter. But doing it just because you can see something, or worse yet, just throwing it on everything "just because" , is the common error.

[vurt]

100% disagree. Have a look at a hi-hat on a frequency analyzer. Why do you want inaudible noise down at 50hz on a hat? Cut it out and save mud building up

Nah, this is exactly the myth. It usually doesn't matter at all. Of course, it's a given that you should filter it out if you indeed have actual excessive rumble there, and it's an actual problem situation you need to counter. But doing it just because you can see something, or worse yet, just throwing it on everything "just because" , is the common error.

it's an old technique, that has been carried over as im sure you know.
usually when recording drums acoustically, we get a lot of cross talk from other drums and maybe even low in the signal from amps and vocals etc..
gating is only going to get you so far, as it works on thresholds, so yeah, then you would eq tight, not quite a band pass filter, so you can get the most out of the drum intended on that channel.

but in digital with multi sample drums, we don't have that, so it is (mostly) unnecessary. just in the analogue realm, chances are you're gonna need to do it, so you do it anyway

[Guenon]

it's an old technique, that has been carried over as im sure you know.

Yeah you're right on the money on that one. Traditionally there have been very appropriate uses for this, when there are actual problems to counter (like I worded above ) and yep, that's the context indeed. Nowadays it's been sort of... extracted out of context and offered in a ton of blogs and on forums and on youtube, blabla, as a step you need to do in any case, in order to "polish" your mix, or at least when ever there's stuff you can see moving down there on an analyzer, heh - and when it's habitual use like that, done just because someone said you should, it's usually not doing any favors to the end result.

[nix808]

if u proper high pass and low pass,
u certainly will have more headroom

[ramseysounds]

it's usually not doing any favors to the end result.

Im calling this out as BS. Tell my why it doesn’t? I’m all ears and happy to learn

[vurt]

it's usually not doing any favors to the end result.

Im calling this out as BS. Tell my why it doesn’t? I’m all ears and happy to learn

i don't think it will hurt it (unless you cut too much of course... but that's a different issue...) but it is mostly unnecessary. the majority of instruments we use itb, have theoretically infinite noise floors, so there's no noise in the signal taking up space and using "speaker energy".

obviously, some instruments, especially samples of either acoustic or analog will have some noise, so can be more useful here, but not to the extreme i mentioned when talking about recording for example a live drum kit, with close mic on each piece of kit. as we still won't be dealing with crosstalk, as the samples will be done in isolation.

best thing to do, try it.
what matters for most of us is how it sounds, were not making money, for those who are, every second counts, so you don't waste time, even one second, doing something unnecessary

[Guenon]

Im calling this out as BS. Tell my why it doesn’t? I’m all ears and happy to learn

, I'll guide this a bit further, as what was happening instead was, I was calling out the usual BS, haha. But it's all good.

There's a certain irony in bemoaning youtube content and then countering with just some random youtube videos on the subject, but seriously, that's what I'm basically going to do as the tone of this exchange is starting to go ^ there, and I have no interest in dragging it out. Just chiming in and saying, to the ones interested, maybe try it yourself and see what happens to your mixes when you don't just habitually do this without considering. As in, there are also people who are just inadvertently sucking the life and a certain "feeling of completeness" out of the whole mix, by doing just what you suggest.

The first one of these is pretty entertaining, and I'm sure there are enough details to nitpick in that one; I'll just say, try hearing the bigger picture, though, and for example the practical demonstration at the section from 4:05 onwards

Oh and I'll just quote the comment from Fanu from under that video here (yeah he commented on this in the comments section, people who are in the field of electronic music probably know him )

I'm a mixing & mastering engineer. Every year, every now and then I get some mixes that just sound too thin and there's a lot of meat lacking in all the instruments, snares, vox, etc. I always ask, "Any chance you've highpassed most tracks in the mix?" and the answer often is, "Yes". I ask them to disable those and send me a new bounce, and the meat is back. "Oh, I've always been suggested to highpass everything"…………

[vurt]

yup, especially in the early days of computer music becoming mainstream, most amateurs mixes were sterile to the point it was almost painful, and many people blamed it on the tools, but at the same time in studios, using similar tech but more knowledgeably, we were hearing great mixes.


i blame listening environment as much, once everyone got used to listening on phone speakers or ear buds, bass was almost forgotten

[ramseysounds]

And I can find respected producers / mix engineers / mastering engineers on youtube that say that high passing is a good idea. I think it just means mix to taste and do what you think sounds best. No-one can be right or wrong

[imrae]

I don't think any respected mastering engineers would recommend a super-steep highpass like the one in the thumbnail.

[ramseysounds]

I don't think any respected mastering engineers would recommend a super-steep highpass like the one in the thumbnail.

Did I say that?

[camsr]

Using a highpass to reduce the bass levels is a shortcut that has the effect of both removing any DC current and reducing the amplitude of the lower frequencies. A low shelf cutting reduces as well, but does not completely remove any DC current.

Typically, just applying a highpass to a MIX track (not mastering here) will brighten a sound and possibly reduce maximum peak amplitude, which both have the effect of making a sound louder.

[Guenon]

And I can find respected producers / mix engineers / mastering engineers on youtube that say that high passing is a good idea. I think it just means mix to taste and do what you think sounds best. No-one can be right or wrong

As far as this particular matter is concerned, this is much closer to the truth already instead of recommending it as something that should always be done "because of reasons." It boils down to, actually try it yourself, and don't do it just because, and don't think this particular thing is somehow always objectively necessary (in most cases, it's not). And be aware of the actual technical negative impacts it can have as well, not just the positive ones, when relevant.