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With so much focus on the low end on this forum I'm curious how you guys handle the high end...what parts are normally allowed the most reach? hats im assuming? where do you roll them off at? then what..vocals,pads,mid range bass? ive been trying to get a better grip on this ala burial and am struggling to prevent things from becoming muddy..

At the higher end of the spectrum I become much less worried about frequencies clashing. If something sounds like it is getting swallowed up I'll EQ a bit, but I try not to go too much otherwise things sounds too thin. As far as rolling off, the ear should be able to hear up to 22k, but most of the time the track is low passed at around 17-18k.

I agree with Alpz - cut around 17khz, sometimes I roll my bass/kicks off around 5-6khz depending on the bass obviously.

Also it's worth thinking about creating perceived depth and space in a mix, remember that the further away things are the duller they sound (less high end), since learning that I've been rolling off things like pads and atmos (including the reverb) - but as always, it's all to taste..

I roll off pretty much everything. I don't like those really high freqs and don't like my mixes sounding shiny. What I do though for things I do wan't to have some high presence is roll off the top end, or cut, and then re-introduce some of those harmonics in a perceived sense via saturation, all depends on the type of sound tho and what I want it to do so might take a different approach, there's no set procedure like everything in production. If you watch the komonazmuk computer music vid he goes into this with some depth. He rolls everything off at 12k I think it is, then uses subtle distortion and saturation to give the perception that those freqs are still there. Check it out though I can't remember it fully was a while ago I saw it.

Usually my hats and snares take up the majority of the high end. Personally I cut a lot of stuff at around 18k. Once you start reaching up into the 18k-20k range things become a lot less audible and it's more noise.

I also use an eq to cut unused frequencies out of whatever sound I'm using on that channel. I tend to roll off the low end of every channel except my sub bass. I roll the highs off of anything that doesn't use the high frequencies. Mainly I do this simply to cancel out sound bleeding. Even a hihat can have some sound bleed into the low ranges that you don't even know is there. Although it may be a very small amount, it does tend to add up after awhile.

Basically i do what you guys do, roll off hats around 17k. I don't want the high hats too prominent in the mix. Also on a tune i'm working on at the moment i used a notch filter on the hats around 4k to filter out something that i found to be ear fatiguing/annoying. I don't always do this but found it necessary for this tune. Always trust you ears above all else. Subtractive eq is the way to go.

Jedeye wrote:Basically i do what you guys do, roll off hats around 17k. I don't want the high hats too prominent in the mix. Also on a tune i'm working on at the moment i used a notch filter on the hats around 4k to filter out something that i found to be ear fatiguing/annoying. I don't always do this but found it necessary for this tune. Always trust you ears above all else. Subtractive eq is the way to go.

Agreed. I always find myself unwilling to boost almost anything, even if it's something like boosting the highs on a snare to stop it sounding too muffled. In my experience boosting with EQ can easily lead to a mess whereby you are chasing your own tail, boosting and cutting everywhere to get things to fit.

Thanks for the input guys..I've been having to do a pretty gentle roll off on my highs around 12khz in order to prevent ear fatigue from piercing highs. Could there be other frequencies causing this tiring effect? Could it be the room I produce in? I use rocket krk 6's with the HF turned all the way down, but am still experiencing this phenomena. Could it be reflections off my wood table? Off the hardwood floor? The way the sound accumulates in the corner I sit in?

P.S. I don't think I've ever boosted a frequency in mixdown...subtractive eq ftmfw

musicandme wrote:Thanks for the input guys..I've been having to do a pretty gentle roll off on my highs around 12khz in order to prevent ear fatigue from piercing highs. Could there be other frequencies causing this tiring effect? Could it be the room I produce in? I use rocket krk 6's with the HF turned all the way down, but am still experiencing this phenomena. Could it be reflections off my wood table? Off the hardwood floor? The way the sound accumulates in the corner I sit in?

P.S. I don't think I've ever boosted a frequency in mixdown...subtractive eq ftmfw

One think that I always do in my mixes, is boost really high (like 12 DB) on a narrow Q, and run it up and down the frequency spectrum. This exaggerates nasty and resonant frequencies in your mix, so you can hear them much more clearly. Once you've zeroed in on a problem frequency, apply gentle cutting.

I don't cut anything unless I hear that it should be cut.