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. 📱 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

We obviously need more musical MythBusters like you and Dan Worrall

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

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

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

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

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 👌

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 💙

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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. 😉

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

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

Love how in depth these are!

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.

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

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!

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!

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.

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🙏

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

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!

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❤❤

Example B has the filter on you can tell slightly because the kick is slightly “thumpier” and when you remove some of the sub it opens up more space for the kick over the 808

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.

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 👍

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.

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

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. 😊

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

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)

Great video Micheal !! Quick question What do you think about M Audio BX5 D3 studio monitors are they good if your room is not treated ?

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Excellent video. I always learn so much.

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

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.

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.🙌♥️

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

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

Please never leave this platform. Love from US 2024

Great content as always, thanks very much for this!

If I do mid-side recording with the copy-phase-shift-and-pan for the figure 8 recording, do I need to worry about the minor phase shift if I EQ the sides differently?

okay nice advice ! I have learning in case of using 2 EQ to apply the linear phase in the 2d one but not about the high pass trouble...thank you for this brightening about the phase in the low part, but now i'm asked me about the high part ? that's make trouble if i apply a brickwall low pass at 10000hz for example ? And for the case i using a reverb in a bus with a Eq after, i have to activate the linear phase too and don't using an hard high pass curve ? I will testing right now :)

I stopped watching KZfaq 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

Thanks for this. Could you do a video on mixing sub bass? I always seem to struggle with this part of my mix especially as my monitors don't pick it up great. Thanks

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

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.

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

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

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 😊

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

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.

I'm monitoring and my car is Bose Soundsystem currently from what I can tell a is definitely high past the way that I noticed was when we became in the actual attack of the Krum was way more obvious and there was more energy overall in the low end

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 :)

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. 👏👏👏

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

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"

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 🙏

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

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.

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.

A has the lowcut filter applied because there is more decay on mix B, the kick sounds rounder and a bit fuller overall!

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.

Makes sense but I've seen videos saying the only time to use linear phase is on the mixbus. EQs on channels should not be linear?

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.

Nice video. I always have problems with the correct amount of reverb and stereo widening for vocals and melodies and the correct EQs for both to get a perfect interaction between them. If you could make a video about that it would help a lot of producers like me, there aren't videos about that matter.

Many thanks for this advice !

thx for keeping it short and to the point

Very wise advice. Thank you 😊

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.

One of the most important question. 👏 Great Michael 👍

Does this also go when you make really loud Techno with a lot of kick and bass? I always cut between 30.000HZ and 40.000HZ on the master chain? I'm confused after seeing this video.

There are situations where high passing isn't good for the signal, I believe square wave sourced sounds are the biggest culprit if I remember right even lightly high passing them can cause increases of 6+ dB from the shifted phase. I think triangle wave sources may also cause this to a lesser degree where sinusoidal signals are safe from this prob. Correct me if Im wrong but I seem to remember this as being the case.

"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.

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.

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.

Thank you bro! This is a very nice data!

A recent recommendation I saw (that I haven't put to the test yet) is to use a low shelf instead of a high pass to remove unwanted frequencies in a more gentle way that doesn't have any negative side effects (phase, pre-ringing, etc). But to the phase switch side effect of hpf, wouldn't this only make a difference if you were using parallel or send effects? If you're fully wet (as in a filter) the result isn't played on top of itself, it replaces the original sound).

Great video! Thanks!

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.

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.

A has the high pass - it sounds slightly louder, so if you changed nothing else then subsequent dynamic processing has a bit more headroom.

B has the (correctly implemented) highpass Reasoning, it's louder, more of the bandwidth is available for the audible frequencies

the sub sound more intact in MONO for A, so i would guess B is the one with highpass since the sub frequency sounded less intact and loud when listened thru Mono. And in stereo, the sub sounded less in centre, which might indicate a phase problem due to the high pass filter. Also worth mentioning how the kick sub tail is shorter in B that also indicate that non-linear phase EQ is in the work!

B has the high pass filter applied. The low end sounds more defined because the sub bass is cleaned up by the filter.

very great video, thanks for your work. about that question... "A" seems to me like an a original mix with a great bassline, when the "B" actually have a very much of sub loss, like the high pass filter working around 40hz. literally a huge difference between those mixes. listening with presonus hd9

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 :)

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!

Thank you for your great videos!

Well, I could be wrong about one or the other, but I'd say the B version is filtered. The kick on the B version seems thinner and there's also a kind of transient that 'clicks' ? Also, when I listen to the relationship between the kick and the claps in version A, there's a completely normal distinction between these two elements, whereas the transient of the kick in version B seems to blend with the claps. With this kick clap relationship, version A sounds more neutral, version B sounds lightly filtred. Also on my big speakers, when B comes on, I get the impression that there's less subwoofer, at the same volume, in version A, I felt the subwoofer in my body, and in version B, the music didn't reach me physically as much, so for me B has less sub. Maybe it's the other way round and it's version A where the filter is, but that doesn't change what I said above and what I've heard and felt. Perhaps I'm over-interpreting by playing the game of which version is filtered and I'm becoming totally biased and my brain is playing a trick on me? That's my honest answer, now I could download the video, extract the audio, watch it on SPAN for example or try to do a null test...

I suggest B is the one with the High pass Filter applied and here's why, So in sample A the low end is a lot more fuller and punchy, but when we compare it with sample B , sample B is punchy but lacks the fullness in the low end especially around 50 - 80 Hz. So that is what I have been able to conclude !

good info for troubleshooting when mixes dont sound boomy enough. tho, honestly. i would never call a 40hz highpass a "ridiculous" move. it is all about taste, and if u know what u do go for it. for me the highpass almost sounded like using a bit of a compressor. really, its really up to u what u do. still good info for troubleshooting whith mix issues.