KVR Audio

friedMIke · Post by **friedMIke** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 11:42 pm

How's it going all. Don't know if this is the right place to post this, figured since it has to do with an effect- EQ that here would be ok.

Anyway, been having discussions lately with people and looking around the innernetz and my feeling is that using a 48 db/oct filter for things like rolling off, splitting freqs and general track eqing is too much. btw Im talking about the one in ableton's eq8 in Live 9. nothing against the eq, its sounds great, just for some reason they chose 12 and 48 db/oct only

so, people i work with tend to grab the 48 first.
I have noticed that things sound very "filtery" and artificial when using these too much. and have been telling people to only bust the 48s out when you really need to go in that hard and to use 12 and 24 for general track eqing/rolling off and splitting.

any thoughts here. would love to hear what people here think as I don't want to give out bad info and would like to know for my own music.

Thanks!
Mike

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 12:11 am

12dB/Oct definitely sounds more musical than 48dB/Oct.

Personally I only use steep filters, if I really need to be sure to cut something away that I don't need. Else I try to work in the 6dB/Oct to 24dB/Oct range as well. That is more than enough most of the time. Even for Wah Wah effects.

Tricky-Loops · Post by **Tricky-Loops** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 12:18 am

That's true. I would use filters steeper than 24 db/Oct only for surgical tasks, if you want to cut out some noise, for example...

meloco_go · Post by **meloco_go** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 5:41 am

The steeper the slope, the longer filter will ring. I don't like ringing most of the time=)

camsr · Post by **camsr** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 7:25 am

Stick with the lowest slope you can. Filters aren't good for fidelity.

friedMIke · Post by **friedMIke** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 8:18 am

Some good info...Thanks alot fellahs.

Mike

Tronam · Post by **Tronam** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 6:38 pm

Is Live's EQ8 default low cut filter 12dB/oct? If so, then I suppose a good way to achieve 24dB would be to stack two 12dB low cut filters and control them simultaneously with an effect rack macro knob.

friedMIke · Post by **friedMIke** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 10:48 pm

Tronam wrote:Is Live's EQ8 default low cut filter 12dB/oct? If so, then I suppose a good way to achieve 24dB would be to stack two 12dB low cut filters and control them simultaneously with an effect rack macro knob.

Yup,
In Live 9 you could just rubber band select the two filter nodes and drag, so no need to use a rack any more.

Mike

3ee · Post by **3ee** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:58 am

Don't forget about phase distortion... the steeper the slope, the more you get. I guess that's a general rule.

48 db/Oct Filters too much for general EQ work