Do high pass filters ruin your mixes? Fixing Bad Music Production and Mixing Advice EP.2

[@inthemix]

Let me know which one you thought had the high pass filter at 4:20... I'm still waiting on a winner. Edit: still waiting on a correct answer. I will reveal the answer in my next video. If you enjoy my videos, you can buy me a coffee here buymeacoffee.com/michael.inthemix 📱 All my links: linktr.ee/inthemixlinks 0:00 - Introduction 0:20 - Good advice 1:12 - Bad advice 1:35 - Where the bad advice comes from (Audio Example) 4:20 - Can you hear the difference? Full Mix Example 5:20 - Plugin Doctor and some social media advice 6:45 - Thanks for watching

[@Jint-E]

I think a has the high pass applied. I don't know for sure. Its more a feeling thing

[@faridM.7]

B reason: subbass

[@johnviera3884]

both are exactly the same mix.

[@0kino353]

A, It sounds like it has a higher pitch. B sounds like it has more low end and feels a bit more flat.

[@finance_nex953]

I would go for A is highpass applied because for B I can hear more sub bass rumble specially on the kick when it kicks in.

[@vincentaugustus2748]

Was a little worried when I saw the thumbnail, but I am glad you used the clickbait properly and got people to the “correct” conclusion. Lots of crazy info on this topic

[@inthemix]

I had to make sure I drew in people who were looking to have their view affirmed, only to show them the truth instead! Thanks for trusting me.

[@Tekkerue]

@@inthemix I came here for an argument! 😜

[@mosheperl.EDMmusic]

Same​@@Tekkerue

[@bob-sk3cn]

This is weak sauce advice, why focus on the “DONT DO THIS” instead of show what to do? Look up alexmadeit he’s leaked audio school material thank me later

[@eklipseRomania]

We obviously need more musical MythBusters like you and Dan Worrall

[@pizzazemle6262]

Bro Dan Worall is insanely wise

[@lyrixFH]

Both British too

[@DeltaWhiskeyBravo13579]

Does that mean we'd be better mixers if we're British too?

[@pizzazemle6262]

Drink tea and biscuits for better mixes@@DeltaWhiskeyBravo13579

[@Platinum_XYZ]

imagine both of them collabing. the best in audio education

[@ivansoto9723]

A & B sound the same to me for the most part. Which brings up an interesting point. Like 99% of the people listening to your music isn't gonna hear the difference either, or even care or know what a little phasing or pre-ringing is/sounds like. Listening on E8XT's

[@t3ch_n0]

Literally exactly, I think its a trick question, but even if its not, it may aswell be, theres NO audible difference to 99% of people, on 90% of devices.

[@mysteriousshadow395]

Yeah true. I have 10+ years playing piano, so my ears are pretty sensitive, but generally I don't hear the differences. I thought it's because I wasn't a pro in digital music.@@t3ch_n0

[@AndrewChin-ck9uk]

​​@@t3ch_n0there will be audible differences when you're mastering the track. You'll be able to punch through harder during limiter with phase aligned tracks

[@CaptainTodger69]

but you're listening on a low-to-mid-range pair of monitors. When people mix and master music it's designed to sound great on ALL speakers. Especially dance music. If the low-end sounds like shit, it will literally never get played in a club or by any DJ.

[@johanneschristopherstahle3395]

Audible differences are only one reason people do this. The second one is low end rumble from different tracks adding up and thus forcing you to mix at a lower level before you risk clipping. This problem by now only applies to the main bus since floating point computing allows us to exceed 0dB on individual tracks but there used to be times where this was different. The lower bit rate forced you to record as hot as possible to use up as much of the precious dynamic range as possible. But since you were not allowed to go past 0dB at any point in the chain a simple EQ boost on a single track could cause huge problems, because you already were as close to the ceiling as possible. So high pass filters were not only used to give every instrument it's own place in the mix but also to help to be deal with the limitations of early digital recordings.

[@IuliusCurt]

Yes, that! Thank you for saying it. This whole tight schedule content creation that eventually need to create problems to solve is constantly pushing beginners off track

[@inthemix]

I couldn’t agree more. It’s why I only post once or twice a month at most. Not good for business but much better for the audience.

[@lesdodds6491]

I can only thank you. After a 15 year break from my hobby doing music with Orion Platinum that was discontinued. I bought FL Studio. Things had moved on alot. Fl studio certainly has. You've made my learning curve so much easier with your excellent presentation and style. I'm really enjoying my hobby once again. Thank you so much. Awesome tutorials. You've a great talent 👌

[@alastairgames_]

Mix A has the highpass enabled. Mix B has more low end in the very sub frequencies. I'm listening through my dedicated sub!

[@inthemix]

Thanks for sharing your answer, I will share the results next week on my community tab on KZbin.

[@slikyviky]

Niooooo

[@adityaa6407]

I am on the same page

[@441snipes]

B does not have a filter on it

[@theradios8978]

I thought the same although I'm only on Yamaha HS7s with no sub. Maybe it was placebo but if you're on a sub guess it must be the case

[@djdippa1]

The end of this vid is so so true, I have found vids on KZbin that question my whole music and then obsess over fixing it when it was actually fine and I spent hours wasting time.

[@DeepanshuRishi]

A was original and B was High pass filter. To me, the difference was in listening the kick in context of the whole mix. In A the kick felt like it was playing separate to the other sounds of the mix, whereas in B, the kick sounded more included with the other sounds of the mix, so I believe the sub frequencies were cut in the B.

[@ashleykister4634]

I agree with A as the original and B as High Pass. If you listen verryyyyy closely to the kick, B is a teeny tiny bit fuzzier sounding to me. A sounds like all of the original frequencies are intact.

[@bolleursjustin]

Exactly

[@meeenakom]

I'm on this one as well. I noticed in B that the kick's body is much more present and blended with the mix, while in A the kick's body is less audible due to the sub content that hasn't been removed. Sometimes less bass = more bass (Maybe? 🤷‍♂). Listening on Focal Alpha 80.

[@disdain7143]

​@@ashleykister4634claps are more crisp too, the low cut brings out the high frequency transients a little i feel

[@JohanBuurma]

I agree, but for different reasons: (copy+pasted from other reply) I hear more bass in A, and likewise I hear more transient definition in B. Can't tell if the lack of transient definition in A is from either slight preringing the HPF gives (if in linear phase) or is instead from the slight added resonance that occurs at the cutoff points of HPF's. B clearly has more transient. Not sure if this is because those are the original transients that haven't been minimized from an HPF (aforementioned preringing or resonance boost) or if it's because there's a bit less overall sub-bass. It does sound more natural to me, though. Would have been helpful if he told us whether the HPF would be "Natural Phase" or "Linear Phase."

[@ChrisCaaa]

I can't tell you how relieved I am to hear you say this, I love a high pass and I've been paranoid about using them since I heard about the phase problems.

[@mcgritty8842]

Remember that pro artists just create and experiment, everyone else spends time thinking about the bs

[@gonzadolape]

@@mcgritty8842I'll steal this. It's powerful and I needed it.

[@ChrisCaaa]

@@mcgritty8842 Yeah I guess I do like to spend a bit of time messing with gear, but with this I just use my ears and ask does a high pass make it sound better here.

[@Thing5888]

Very well said ​@@mcgritty8842

[@patkelly8309]

Phase issues are still a scary concept to me that I don't quite understand. Even after 10 years.

[@osky3301]

This person is professional, as a beginner the video is very easy to follow. I managed to make 1 EP of lofi music with standard chords and following this guy's mixing tutorial, at least it worked in my case. Thank You

[@blakecasimir]

Imho high pass is better suited for any sound that has no business being in the low end. Even then, gentle curves are better. And EQ. 😉

[@inthemix]

I agree

[@marcinkisala9436]

Where else would it make any sense in the first place? Sounds pretty natural to me

[@musicmakinmofo1112]

Great vid Michael! "A negative AUDIBLE difference" is a very important point. There's so many in-depth analytical tools available to us, this makes it easy for mixers to focus on the science way more than the sound.

[@rojoratatatata4002]

You REALLY stand out from other Mixing engineers on KZbin! Great video

[@theyrecousins]

I just built several acoustic panels for my home studio off of your instructional video (with batts of recycled demin material, thank you for that tip!). This kind of video really helps me out, operating out of a home studio space with odd and not ideal dimensions - the room itself can trick me into thinking there are inherent issues where there aren't. And snapping out of the paranoia of looking for problems everywhere helps me focus on what I'm actually doing to assemble a mix (and worrying over whether or not cutting/accentuating low end is a big area of stress sometimes). I really appreciate your videos and outlook on dealing with sound.

[@EventHorizonUwU]

You give easily some of the most informative and useful advice when it comes to this stuff, I'm glad you're making videos like this and just your videos in general, such a gold mine for a newbie like me 💙

[@caltimuslk1887]

Please never leave this platform. Love from US 2024

[@IconicPhotonic]

2:57 This is a perfect example of what a highpass filter is - it differentiates a signal, just as a lowpass filter integrates a signal (I know, big scary calculus...) I generally agree with your conclusions and this is presented fairly, but the old advice I remember receiving was to highpass everything except for bass instruments, which is much more sensible than HPF everything. If you know that you are filtering below the lowest fundamental of a given instrument, it really doesn't do any harm, and you really can clean up some noise (rumble) that may have bled into the recording. Obviously, still a tool that should be used appropriately.

[@EalingArundel]

I was on the fence about quitting music altogether because it just wasn't sounding how I wanted it, not to mention EQing I just couldn't figure out whether I was taking out too much, or too little. This video actually helped me to understand that I might have been focusing far too much on trying to eq the lows off of most tracks apart from bass etc. Thanks!

[@DaneBryantFrazier]

This is aside from the video, but would you be able to do an updated tour of your studio including the lighting, how things are placed, etc.? I noticed right straight how you always have a calming sort of theme to your studio and is something I'm trying to create a sense of for my new studio. Thanks in advance!

[@inthemix]

If you and others want to see it, I’ll happily make a video. I wouldn’t give advise to people on what to do precisely but I can share what works for me.

[@GhostRAOfficial]

@@inthemix please!

[@djjelgui]

A is the original and B is the one where the high pass is applied, you feel that the kick is less strong, and the other elements, including the mids and highs, shine through better in the mix, this is because even though it wasn't a brutal cut but the fact that the kick is "cleaner" ends up making room for other frequencies, bringing a cleaner sound

[@DJPastaYaY]

Glad you made a video about this. This has been something on my mind for a while now!

[@inthemix]

Happy to have added some clarity to the discussion.

[@5kyX0]

I've been wondering this forever. Ever since I started HP again I've been hitting -2 LUF easy. When I was just shelving it was never possible. Thank you for confirming this

[@roninmode]

It’s definitely A for sure 100% reason being is the base and the kick are way more cleaner and puncher! B has more body but is more muddled! For dance music A is what you want! I hi pass everything witch is what I learn from deadmau5! But it depends on what you’re going for and the genre! You can give the packs to someone else who could use them I’m good! Great video and thank you!

[@Cefshah]

Good video!! And all I know for sure, is that I like example "B" much more. And no matter the processing I would choose... that is where 'my' ears and musical sensibilities would take me. 😊

[@producermantra]

Sample B is high passed because it has a little less low end compared to sample A. BTW love your content. You always teach something new. Keep it up❤❤

[@AlexWilkinsonYYC]

Great vid! My take is generally if you have phase issues, you'll hear 'em. New engineers are probably overthinking phase. I only worry about phase when placing mics, or when I hear a phase issue while mixing - which is actually quite rare. Also if you really want to ensure your phase is correctly aligned, there are plugins for that. I have used them, and no longer do.

[@domanca-dk3mx]

i wish people would stop talking about phase generally …. there’s so much misunderstanding about what it actually means and there are so few situations where phase shift actually causes problems. obviously if you have two related sounds playing on top of eachother phase shift matters. but for example with kick and bass your kick and bass will never be in phase!!! they’re completely different and unrelated signals. in the same way like this video says the phase shift from highpassing a single track will literally never ever be an issue

[@PsychopompPsy]

A has a HPF on it, When you switched to mix B you could hear more sub bass, my headphones go as low as 15hz but I could hear it. Thanks for the video by the way, cleared a lot.

[@timgreig1704]

What headphones go to 15Hz?

[@PsychopompPsy]

ATH-M30x, some go even lower, there's a video in this channel about headphones@@timgreig1704

[@_KR6]

This is awesome, been watching your videos and have been trying my hardest to learn all these skills you give us. I’ve been runnin the trial version of FL for moooonths now. Been trying to get fluid on it before I purchased it. Thanks for the content man, keep it up!

[@TheAngelOlguin]

I was replying to a girl I'm in the "talking" phase with and this video popped up in my notifications. I immediately clicked.

[@DjAnkushPawarOfficial]

It's more important than a reply to a girl l 😅😅😅

[@povilasl5383]

you should tell her how the phase shifts when you use an eq on a sound

[@Sunita.Kumari303]

@@povilasl5383lmaoooo

[@xX_dash_Xx]

idgaf

[@happyswiftie6075]

PhAsE iSsUes

[@DubFreakuencies]

Great stuff, glad that you mentioned the low shelf.Anyway, love this type of videos.

[@christopher__ledger]

The answer for me is B - I’m listening with the iphone earplugs on a train, so maybe not the best surroundings but i get the sense that B has the low cut on, in zero latency/ Natural phase mode - the reason being is because i can hear the 180 degree phase shift which usually translate in an enhancement of the mid-low frequencies, very frequent in what is called the ‘Gibbs effect’, not too audible but that’s what my ear tells me.

[@christopher__ledger]

For ‘enhancement’ i mean an increase in amplitude in an aera really close to the applied Low Cut. Having a low cut/eq on, doesn’t necessarily mean that there’ll ve a reduction in amplitude of the overall dynamic, as in this case. Phase shift needs to be taken in consideration.

[@audaversemusic]

So happy to see this, been thinking about it forever. Thanks for clearing it all up, Mike. Great as always!

[@spencerrobinson780]

I finally unlearned the habit of highpassing most sounds a couple years ago. Ill Gates has a fantastic seminar called "The 80 20 of Mixing" where I first learned about the phase cancelation problem. Glad to see you are also putting out this corrected version of the information 👍

[@Teuntjuhh]

Did you watch the whole video lol. He is debunking the advice that highpassing most sounds is a bad idea.

[@spencerrobinson780]

@@Teuntjuhh did you read my comment?

[@ace-smith]

you should watch videos instead of just looking at thumbnails and leaving comments

[@stateazure]

He's not even discussing phase cancellation here, phase cancellation is only something you need to worry about if you're doing parallel EQ'ing. If using an EQ in serial/as an insert at 100% mix for example, you don't need to worry about phase cancellation.

[@honigtamara]

As it were: cool, calm, collected. Thanks so much.

[@reginaldd.paperstacks194]

Love how in depth these are!

[@SebastianKomor]

Thank you for this video. I consider this common sense. Or one would think it is. There is absolutely no reason, what so ever, to leave unwanted frequencies tornadoing through your mix. Especially subs and low end in general. Leave that area for the Kick and Bass. With the exceptions of specific productions where some percussion elements or other low end instruments wanting to play in that frequency range as well. More often than not, I see useless low end information in hihat samples, snare samples, vocals, strings..etc..etc. And highpass filters is one of the first things I do in a mix when mixing for others. In fact, quite often this fixes all the clarity issues.

[@10stgaming81]

Mix A has the highpass enabled. You can hear the low end come in when switched to B. It’s subtle but you can definitely hear it

[@djGreenALERT]

I have to admit, this is SUCH a great exercise to train what we hear.

[@eskyde]

My guess is: [A] is highpassed, [B] is unprocessed It's more like a feeling since I got no Sub and no large monitors so I went with my ATH-M50x. [A] sounded more "airy" and "cleaned up" to me where [B] sounded "mushy" to my ears. Anyways: Thank's alot for your videos and the effort you put in. Your channel is solid gold 🙏

[@dezolatestation]

as a high pass user for lowend user. this vids gonna change my mind & my ears ,thankss!!!

[@lexbeats13]

Yes! Absolutely! Something I've recently changed in my production was ridiculous low cuts. Just cut the bassy part of a hihat bro, let that transient juice come out of that damn hat, if you want white noise hats just make it in 3oscx instead.

[@alienteknology5390]

With my earliest efforts I knew little about EQ or compression, except that cutting some of the lower end in sounds made the resulting mix clearer. Along with attenuating at 16000, 8000 & 4000 Hz, It's still one of the most important things I have learned about music production. There is no single rule of thumb for where to cut low end. You need a good audio setup for monitoring low end & you have to use your ears. A gentle slope is best of course. And the linear phase trick is handy.

[@ZigbertD]

I think there's some advice online that is bad if it's not given with enough context or explanation for why or when to apply it. One example is the common technique offered to beginners to sweep an unnaturally boosted EQ band to "find" problem frequencies that are too loud and need to be cut. Without explaining that this is only useful if there is an obvious problem frequency and you need some help finding it, novices go around hunting for "bad" sounding frequencies. And guess what? If you've got an EQ boosting a frequency band by 10dB or something, you'll find plenty of them! It's a classic example of a solution in search of a problem. Inexperienced mixers need to learn to trust their ears, and not search for problems that may not exist. They are bound to find plenty of real problems and their ears will tell them about them. That's the time to figure out how to solve them, and hopefully how to avoid them in the first place. High passing is a different kind of case, because you're kind of dealing with things you CAN'T hear, but you can hear the effects when all the headroom is being eaten up inaudible of unneeded frequencies. However, you still need to know why and when it's actually useful to apply it. There's a lot of content online in which people say "Yeah, do this," without explaining why or when it's actually useful. They may not know themselves, their just making content out of things they've heard or seen from others. I'm barely more than a novice myself, and my advice based on my own mistakes is "Don't do something unless you really know why your doing it with the specific thing you're working on." Generally novices should be doing less and focusing on more fundamental things like simply getting a good balanced static mix. This is going to offer greater returns in the actual sound of the mix and also help them gain more useful experience than "three weird tricks" kind of stuff.

[@inthemix]

The "Solution in search of a problem" is all too common these days.

[@Noone-of-your-Business]

This is what we have spectrum analysis for: only cut away the _noise,_ not the *signal.* I use high passing on _every_ microphone track because there can always be low freq rumble from your steps on the studio floor - or from thumping the desk - reaching the mic via the mic stand.

[@hbo001]

Do you really know what noise is? I mean in terms of frequency spectrum. If we could easily filter it out noise when it is present in the signal we would not need low noise audio pre-amps and ADCs.

[@Noone-of-your-Business]

@@hbo001Does _who_ really know what noise is? Anyone who doesn't know their rumble from their hiss doesn't belong anywhere near a mixing console in the first place. Anyone who wants to *learn* can _solo_ and loop any noise to get a good long look at in a spectrum analyzer. Train your ears _and_ your eyes.

[@onimisilovesonmusic4548]

I stopped watching KZbin videos on production I have decided to sit down and put inn the work because the song making process comes with a lot of ups and down. Sometimes what works for A may not work for B. Your advice is good great advice

[@bigbillrecords]

I am working on a mix that should sound different from any mix I have done before and this video was scientifically informative.

[@xsessivmc]

B has the high-pass filter on it, I can hear it in the low-mids :) Thanks for the video!

[@SamiJumppanen]

Really well done video. Sticking to facts. I like the calm presentation and easy tempo of the speech. Thank you!

[@GaborKmetyko]

Nice thought about panicking over subtle things you didn't know existed just because you saw a video. People, trust yourself more ;)

[@inthemix]

I am glad more people are recognising it these days. Fear is such a good way to get views but it’s not good for us!

[@momopercusion4445]

Thank you very much, for the FL Studio tutorials which have increased my knowledge in this DAW. I'm still an amateur just learning about DAW FL Studio🙏

[@wito6020]

I believe A has a highpass on it. It felt like the kick and snare did lack just a little bit of power & Clickiness in the transients in comparison to B. This I believe would be due to the phase shift caused by the non linear cutoff messing with the signal phase :)

[@mojizvukovi]

A is with filter because B is more full sound and youre plugin is very welcome, already thanks for aal the videos , tips&trics, you are the mixmaster

[@jordansimmons3462]

B is the HPF. A Original. The sub frequencies in B from the kick are high passed allowing the bass to carry the track more. 👏👏👏

[@DannyCuyto]

A is the one with the high-pass filter. You can hear it on the kick; it's warmer on B.

[@UsefulDemigod123]

Really nice video as usual🙌 As for the mixes, I feel both the Mixes A and B are the same. I couldn't hear any difference honestly. The Mix B seemed slightly different but I feel its just because of the different bass note. Keep up with such videos.🙌♥️

[@weezyzone]

This is incredible advice!! Thank you so much for all the help

[@apprentice0ne]

i really like the term low cut over high pass. High pass makes you think about the high frequencies. Well you are letting them through 'pass'. But for example Pro-Q has a preset named Low cut, doing exactly that. Cutting out the low end

[@inthemix]

You know, it’s funny that you mention that. I default to calling it “low cut” as it seems intuitive to me. However, all the critiques I’ve received have called them “high pass” filters. So I was hoping to reach that audience and it seems to have worked. Off camera, I called them low cut filters too :)

[@devingobind]

Micheal and Dan are the only one's I can sit and watch and be like 'Aaahh I see"

[@pqunit]

EQing things is going to change the phase. But it's not like these things are impossible to correct for. Anyway - great video !

[@DrallianOfficial]

Track A has been processed / HPFed due to the ambient synth that's been side-chained sustaining all of the track audibly having more bass / low-mid frequencies around the 150 hz range on track B. This bleeds into the pluck bass and mostly the arpeggiated synth with a similar timbre. To the point where some of it's lower register is obscured. Right as the transition happens you can subtly hear a right pan biased low saw wave tone compound with the bass pluck pumping on the offbeat. It's very subtle, but a reduction in mix clarity.

[@ndmuzic1873]

Hey, your channel is one of my favorite and i have learnt a lot of tricks here. Keep up the good work 👍I find A is high passed and B is original as I can hear more sub in B. Also the high frequencies are bit clear on A.

[@Lolwutdesu9000]

It's worth adding that the high-pass filtering technique is shoved in our faces as though it's something that absolutely must be applied whenever making mixes otherwise your mix will end up being "wrong". Instead, highpassing too much can simply take away the "life" from a song because sometimes those low frequencies just add a bit of body to the sound, whatever it may be, and amateur music producers will end up having rather thin and weak mixes.

[@inthemix]

I couldn't agree more! I like to process with intention and do as little damage as possible.

[@TheBigLou13]

The native FL Studio EQ 2 can draw the exact phase rotation curve, so you can clearly see at which frequency which degree of phase rotation is applied. Helps keeping the bass phase intact and allows creative use as well (e.g. when you intentionally want to rotate phases around a cutoff)

[@Newschoolcovers]

I've only listened quickly via my smartphone inears, but B should be with a high-pass filter. At least it sounds less precise and "fatter" to me than without the highpass filter. I've known about this topic for a long time because it's also a big issue in loudspeaker development. A much more important point, in addition to the phase, is the time consistency. With loudspeakers, the so-called 'group delay' is measured. This is a frequency-dependent impulse response. With steep IIR filters, the problem is that this impulse response rises very sharply at the frequency of the filter. Put simply, this makes it sound muddier and less precise. This is not only an issue with high-pass filters, but a general problem with small-band EQs. Cool video - thanks for making the topic more transparent for the general public!

[@Dr-Curious]

"Put simply, this makes it sound muddier and less precise. " Like tape?

[@bli55fi5h]

A was hi-passed. Reason: The non high-passed version B feeds the side-chain compressor with more low end energy - i.e. the pumping is more intense.

[@kalebsatterfield2443]

A was the high passed track. There seemed to be a subtle smoothness to B that gave it a more natural feel.

[@claudioramirez_]

This isn't by any means a hate comment, but besides the clickbait-y title, there's a bit of ambiguity that may turn into, well, bad advice. The general takeaway of the video is that you shouldn’t overdo HPFs, but what it fails to mention is that cutting closer or even above the fundamentals not only is common practice, but usually makes sense in the context of the mix. This could make newer engineers hesitant, if not completely deterred to try it in the first place. It would also be great if you could help further de-mystify the phase coherence in filters, which I think you're in the right track for. Keep up the good work!

[@Janomix]

Exactly, lowpass and highpass are used to transform the original shape of the sound to make space in the mix and get more control, NOT FOR RUIN anything... Take account if the master are commercially squashed at -5 dB LUFS, the filters are an essential process... thanks.

[@Mars_Monkey]

I'm going to say B is the processed example, because I can hear the bass coming through cleaner and clearer, which only happens when you get the low frequencies out of each others way.

[@SKMPMusic]

A had the high-passed filter and B hadn't because A sounded more balanced than B as B had some low rumble going on that might have been messing with the frequency's overall balance. A was much balanced compared to B after lowering some of the very low (almost inaudible but can be heard if you have the ears) frequencies from the mix. That gave the mix a bit more room too. A sounds high passed to me..🎧🎵

[@danny.phanmusic]

Nice mix as always ! Thanks a lot for these, appreciating it. Tuning in from Vietnam :)

[@Dr-Curious]

Amateurs often stare at charts and meters and draw conclusions about what they are hearing. It's the usual insecurity and problem creation that separates them from creative and skilled pros.

[@shane5003]

:36 There's there's another thing to be aware of here though which is in the spectrographs the fft band spacing isn't equal. What does that mean? It means that because of overlap in the bands and the fact that you've got one band for all the low frequencies it looks like there's a bunch of energy down there but that's just the curve that it's drawing over the values which would be able to be displayed for example as a bar graph. Try making a sine wave maybe using something like operator in Ableton and do it on a low E1. It's a sine wave so you know by definition it's just one frequency. Now open up spectrum and instead of the standard view set it to just look at the fft bins. You will see what would effectively be a normal distribution If sound wasn't geometric in nature because of the fft bin overlap and you'll see that there are way less bins for lower frequencies. What does this all mean? It means that even if the spectrograph shows that there is stuff down there there often isn't stuff down there.

[@inthemix]

That is an important point that I didn't address. However, in my example at 0:36, I did actually make sure there was a low end down there by synthesizing a low pulse wave (for the sake of the visual only!).

[@bukowskimoho]

what i can learn from this video is: use linear phase mode, high pass less agressive when the sound you are eq'ing a nice sound with a usable low end, BUT when you compare those two kicks well, actually the phased one is what i wanted, reduce the power of the kick some times, is not always bad, sometimes you want to reduce some power or exesive low end, so its not always a bad thing.

[@ORIGINAL_MEDIA]

One of the most important question. 👏 Great Michael 👍

[@aneeqkalson5550]

B is high-passed because the bass is coming through clearer. the mud under 15Hz is muddying up the sub bass on A ironically, the tasteful high-pass on B is actually allowing for a bassier feeling mix. nice video! :) thank you~

[@juanvi.n]

A is the high passed Mix as the kick thump is definitely more present there compared to B. This is because (when correctly high passed), removing unwanted low frequencies increase the perceived volume of our tracks and helps to remove the bass mud.

[@AN-iz8hq]

The phase shift is only an issue if you mix the HP'd signal w/ the dry signal. Or if you used multiple mics/channels on a source and don't HP all the channels together. If you understand how your tools work & how to use them properly there won't be any audible problems.

[@rayeband]

"A" had the high pass filter applied. That mix sounded (and felt) slightly cleaner AND louder. Conversely, "B" had a bit less energy; and sounded "muddier", more diffuse.

[@David_prod-eNGee]

I know this is old, but just wanted to comment anyway. "B" is the mix that is high-passed. Can tell because less sub frequencies are hitting the master compression/limiter. The result is cleaning up the pumping effect coming from the kick drum, and allowing the overall mix to feel less heavy and giving more clarity. Though I could be wrong, as my open-back headphones aren't great for sub frequencies. Sometimes I get tricked by the low-bass, rather than sub because of that... The main issue I ran into with OVERDOING it with the high-pass on the master, was that due to the phase shift, the input on the limiter INCREASED, even though I was only trying to "remove" frequencies. The mix ended up being hit harder by the limiter and sounding more squashed, even though there was no audible difference in level coming out of the EQ... First time I'd come across that and man did that ever throw me for a loop. Because of this, the answer could be "A", especially if linear phase is not enabled, because the phase shift could be causing a higher level to go into the limiter, which would cause the pumping. Without a doubt, the highs are clearer on "B". Dang, sucks to be wrong. But even after viewing this track on a spectrum analyzer, don't even see a difference either!

[@OUTSHADES]

This is brilliant. I've always tried and experimented with HPF s but never tried to visualize it with something as simple as a kick. This cleared up the topic so much. Thank you. Another thing I struggle with is creating space and depth in the track and I've always wondered how to use the combination of stereo and mono reverb and delays in a track to achieve a clean yet deep mix. If this topic is worthy of a video please make something, nonetheless I will be satisfied with an explanation in the comments. Thanks 😊

[@stuttersmusic]

They sound almost the exact same, but A felt a bit weaker. B just had a bit more beef to it, so I think A is high passed. Overall, the master would sound fine either way imo. Just separate your low, mid, and hi frequencies, crank them up with a super transparent Pro-L, then sidechain them using whatever method you like. I personally use Fruity Limiter for the Kick, followed by trackspacer to clean up the spectral space with the kick sidechained through it, then i add another Fruity Limiter for the snare after that. It'll be loud, but just bring the slider down to balance the volume however you want in the mix. It's pretty meticulous, but it's SUPER clean and works for me. Route that through a Post Sidechain, then trough a pre-master, clean up the mix in the premaster, then go through the master and do your thing. Tbh, as long as you clean up your low end mix, your mix is gonna turn out great. Just a ton of very transparent limiting. I don't really compress much unless I'm sound designing.

[@carbon9652]

Comapring A and B I feel that B would definitely be the Hipassed sample if you listen closely the Bass on the Kick seems to be more tamed neutral sounding compared to sample A where you feel the kick thumping in the low end.

[@anybody4802]

A has highpass enabled, because lowend on A has a tiny bit of delay and slight boost of 40-50hz, which is probably the result of slight phase shift, while B seems to have more balanced lowend and it's more on time

[@fescolfaro]

B has the high pass with either a resonant Q or a small bump up with a shelf. It sounds tighter yet more present, exactly how it should when properly high-passed. It feels like it has "more" bass when in reality it has less where it shouldn't.

[@aadilmusic__]

A is High passed. Low end sounds clearer and increased perceived loudness overall on A. Would love to try your plugin on my mixes. Thanks :)

[@user.08994]

Thank you for establishing the truth; there are so many misguided tips for beginners on the internet

[@Sukhoi_Leeway]

It’s The Mix No. B, kaz in my ear’s the low end seems all over the place in the mix! either way i prefer the kick of the mix A over the mix B 😊

[@nerdexproject]

On my studio headphones A and B sound absolutely identical. Not sure what system you have to be on to notice a difference. But thank you so much for the insight! :)

[@MorzakEV]

Yeah, I haven’t got my monitors hooked back up at the moment, and on headphones it’s hard to tell the difference.

[@titiracoon267]

Well, you effectively need good headphones to hear the signal part below 60Hz ! I hear it with a Sennheiser HD 25-13 II...but it's more accurate with big monitors and good acoustic environment.

[@MorzakEV]

Yeah, I was listening late at night on buds and it was tough. When I get back I’ll give it a proper listen on monitors and I’m sure it will be obvious.

[@nerdexproject]

I feel really good about my answer now. Haha

[@axzarrr]

B is highpassed, because you can hear the kick's sub being shorter, so it sounds instant/punchy, but A has the opposite, like if it had a longer decay

[@mcfiddles8814]

The HighPass on mix A gives more room for the mids and highs to push through so the overall mix feels brighter and less muddy. This also makes it appear slightly louder.

[@Submersed24]

The issue I find is sometimes I won’t even notice something is causing an issue but I will know there is an issue somewhere or I won’t be able to hear it because it’s too subtle but when I remove it, it somehow makes the track cleaner and fixes major issues I didn’t know existed

[@DJONTHETRACK985]

I use the high pass to leave room for the bass is what I've always been told. It makes sense but I'm going to play around with this and see what happens

[@andreafaraboli3398]

Hello and thank you for the advice, very helpful. I've started using them to consistently publish my songs on my KZbin channel.

[@noah-gdesign9570]

Excellent video. I always learn so much.

[@wohlklangforschung]

thank u so much for this great video. i am happy to see, i am not the only one, thinking about influence of high pass in a mix. of course B ist the one with the filter. the tight impule is destroyed. would be interested into a video about influence of high pass to different tracks in a drum muktitrack and how u can use it to better summing signals just by exploiting their individual phase shift

[@RFmath_]

Yup. I had to learn this the hard way... I listened to this one youtubers advise on this and stopped using low pass filters... overtime I found that my mixes not translating well from speaker to speaker / were always 'off'. One day I decide 'what if I just don't care at all about the phase on the low end?' Boom. That solved so many problems. I hate that youtuber with a passion now.

[@JoeStuffzAlt]

I have a mic that sounds like mud, but with a high pass filter, it cleans it up really well (Rode M.2). A vs B: the difference was very slight and I could only could tell in the mix. I would guess that A would be the original and B is high-pass. It took maybe 5 listens (so I would notice listening to an album) where the bass drum was burying other sounds, and with B, I could hear the other instruments easier. A also sounded more fatiguing on my ear drums when I used headphones especially. I closed my eyes and listened to the comparison. I can feel A almost slamming my ear drums (boompf boompf boompf boompf), but when B played, it felt softer on my ears. I'm not mixing drums (yet?), but this was a really great lesson (even if I'm wrong). The thing that's driving me crazy is "is this psychological?" because maybe if I'm listening to A enough, would my ears get used to it. A few more listens and I stand by "A = original ; B = High Pass"

[@randyproctor3923]

I think B has the hi-pass, because the swell between the kick hits feels tighter, and that makes me think that the low frequencies didn’t “make the cut” of the compressor’s attack in A are now gone in B.