Cuting Highs & Lows in Mastering - Rapid-Fire Q&A 

Definitely gotta be careful about doing anything on your master buss but I will say that recently, after going through a bunch of frequency response charts that compare classic records recorded with analog/tape & modern records in digital, I started rolling off a lot more of my high end (including in some cases on my master buss when it sounded better) around about 19500hz and couldn’t be happier with the results. There were plenty of bad things about tape and analog from cutting off or awkwardly boosting low end in unpredictable and undesirable ways to the destructive editing (literally having to cut tape with a razor blade....not gonna get too many chances to get that right...gotta love command Z and comparatively endless hard drive space to record with) which is why people don’t go back to tape and analog even though we could if it truly made more sense. With that said the things that I and many other people love about analog could pretty much be brought into modern music, to make it more appealing to the ear, with two things...first of all roll off the extreme highs as discussed and you’ll already have a lot “warmer” analog sounding record, then the clutch part is to add drive with NLS or some similar plugin (I made a compressor in Reaktor5 that has a drive knob to get those second and third order harmonics as well as an analog setting that runs it through a tube amp simulator and some 2 pole low pass filters set to 19500hz). One last area where analog was truly more precise than digital is basically the sample rate (this one I don’t mess with as much because projects with larger sample rates take up way too much hard drive space for a rather small gain in quality and even sometimes lacks the punch of 44.1k with its mild digital distortion) as analog would be “sampling” at the speed of light, resulting in perfectly smooth waves instead of stairstepped digital waves....I know I took it a little off topic there but I think it’s important to get people rolling of their high end more. It would make modern music, especially edm and hip hop sound way more like records instead of just a bunch of overly bright harsh digital synths. Even when I went to school for audio engineering my old school teachers who grew up with tape and analog taught us to boost high end for “air” in pro tools like they would to make up for high frequency loss with tape when they should’ve been telling us the high end in digital is what turns people off and to cut it a bit instead! The part that makes it even better is that it was an unintentional byproduct of rudimentary gear that put those touches on old records, it’s way more respectable as an audio engineer to add that back into digital on purpose and to be fully aware of what you’re doing it for...

I just love this series! Thank you David! Can you link the video where you talk about cutting the highs? Thank you and stay safe!

I use a Mäag EQ4m on all my mixes. I boost +6 at 40k and sometimes the sub which is 10HZ, and i love the results. I used to cut on my mix/ master bus but was doing it just because I read I should be doing it... Do what sounds right!

Q/A: Do you use multiple reference tracks on each section of a track? Like intro reference, breakdown reference, chorus/verse references?

Awesome video as always David

Although I do like to darken my mixes normally for the warmth, I always love leaving it to my mastering engineer to run it through his gear and the tubes for the extra warmth that I would be trying to achieve by shaving off the highs

Love the guide. Will definitely apply these tips on my new projects

Interesting answers, thanks a lot! Inaudible frequencies do not mean that they cannot be unconsciously perceived and they often add "something good" (that is hard to explain but we feel it) to the music. I can definitely "perceive" up to 20K so I also "optimize" up to there while mastering. It adds subtle additional "air". I'll cut a bit the low end at 20Hz only when too punchy (ex: drums for hip hop) as it can make some cheaper speakers to "choke" when playing ultra loud. Sometimes, I'll be transferring some very tiny subtle energy from there to higher frequencies like 40Hz to 50Hz and it brings good overall results at mastering. Maybe it may not be "technically right" to do it at mastering (we should go back to mixing) but I personally like the results (artists also) as it often improves more than just 1 instrument as it would be the case if going back to mixing. Like in my car after a certain volume level, too much low end at 20Hz will make the speakers to choke for half a second after some beats so it limits to power you can get in your car. But I like that extra dry energy that the low end at 20Hz can bring especially when listening using great headphones and speakers so I'll often work there a little when mastering and see if subtle boost can be made or I will be inter-changing some power between 20Hz and 25Hz and compare the difference. Very soon, I'll watch the video that you refer to in this one. Thanks again for your awesome advices! Best Regards from your friend François in Montreal, Canada! 🎼🃏🎵🎶🙏😁👍🌠

Man thats a nice studio

I usually use the HP filter in Dmgaudio Limitless master limiter which is set at 20Hz (you can change it to whatever you want though). There is almost never anything down there anyways because I mostly mix rock music, but I use it just in case I have missed something!

good shit man

Awesome thanks

Good subject thanks 👍👍

At 01:09 you mentioned a video, can you point it out exactly, the title I mean, cheers

Great stuff! I usually use the final EQ before limiter on master channel. And it cuts with a 12db/oct slope around 15-20 hz, and 20-22khz. So practically inaudible, but it gives that tiny little bit of headroom. Maybe I am wrong, what do you think?

How about your New studio tour? , i still waiting for it.

I’m doing live stream drumming , what outboard would you use to compress?

Can you link the video you referenced about cutting high end on tracks that don’t need it? Thanks!

I was told to cut above 18-20 kHz on the master countless times by youtube tutorials, wtf

How do you go about mastering a rap track with vox and a 2track beat

Dear Mixbus - You are among the best - thank you for all that you are doing to help us. I am looking to purchase a BASS Sim for metal and rock productions ... I see that Plugin-Alliance has these 4 AMPEG BASS Sims to choose from : AMPEG B-15N , SVT-3PRO , SVT-VR and V-4B Which one should I get ?

To cut or not to cut. The question

Thank you for this video David! Do you think alt-rock bands that are cutting the low end of the bass guitar are making a bad decision? Why I ask that? Because I love those bands but some of them sound to soft, liquid, weak in their last albums....For some time I was wondering why. Then a day I isolated the low end, under 60Hz, and there was no Bass guitar! Only kick drum. Last Three Days Grace and even more Breaking Benjamin's albums are like that. So I went to compare with their erlier albums and they used to have it beatifully. So I compared to other bands. Audioslave, System of a Down...many... they all have that nice low end on the bass! So listened to recent recordings I know I love the mix, Stone Sour's Hydrograd album and Tremonti's last album, and thay also have that region of the bass, wich have fundamental notes! C=33Hz D=35Hz...

What do you think of mixing in mono?

Hey David, you mentioned that you have an important video on putting high cuts on tracks that aren't meant to be bright. Can you provide the name or the link to that video?

you was in my dreams. I think I watch your channel too much.

David. Can you please share the link to the video you're referring to about using LPF on tracks while mixing and deciding which tracks should not be bright sounding? Thank you.

How to make the vocals sit in the mix with the beat glued to it? Thank you

I have looked at the frequency range of a lot of professionally mixed/mastered trailer tracks and many have been brickwall cut at 17k.

How can i approach a mix track that sound nice but looking at the tonal balance the high end appears to be falling out of the box how can i fixed that without losing the brightness of the vocal and the whole mix

I respect your advice greatly, but I have to disagree with your suggestion about not cutting above 17kHz. I think cutting steeply at 20Hz can be beneficial to tame the low end for things you can't hear. Same with the high end. Every sound ever produced that can be heard has been mixed within the bounds of an average person's hearing...this does NOT include frequencies above 16-18kHz. If you can tell me just one song, that has a memorable hook mixed above 16kHz, I'll eat my words. I can understand what you mean by the cutoff isn't a sharp "brick wall," I get what you mean. Yes, the cutoff above 17kHz will inevitably affect the frequencies before it as well; however, at 17kHz, and cut sharply, you will introduce phasing unless you use a LP EQ, but that phasing is the price to pay to keep frequencies above it from getting folded over the Nyquist limit. That...is a whole other discussion but you're less likely to introduce new harmonic frequencies above the half-sampling frequency limit that get folded back into the pass-band. This is why when bouncing, you set the processing sampling rate to bounce above the project sampling rate. By cutting those frequencies off, you introduce less of them, if any, bouncing the way I described. Anyway, I'm not trying to argue that I'm right, but I am arguing my point which is also shared by some serious Mastering Engineers. I don't have to mention who they are, but you know who I'm talking about. I know what I'm saying is not new, but from a technical point of view (scientific), you probably should cut what you don't need/use. Anway...for the record, let's just call this my opinion.

Actually like master of Skrillex cut everything in 16k but he keep one element above 16k

Should you cut at 17.5kHz? Yeah, if you're sure your mix is only going to be heard by octogenarians lol