HPFs and the Low B-String Fundamental

[Jazzdogg]

This. I've experimented with this a little as I have a Broughton variable HPF. A 30Hz HPF usually means that is where the slope starts. I've found I can't hear a useful difference in the fundamental of the B until I get to like 50 with a nice big 15 inch speaker. Like, can I notice it before that, yes, but we're talking a volume difference of the tiniest increment on the ppp to fff I could manage with my fingers.

What I feel on the other hand even dialing it up, is a reduction in muddy resonances and feedback with the drums I don't want.

So I have mine set at 40.

I vary the setting in each venue, and with each of my basses. After sixty years as a bassist, I will no longer gig without a variable high-pass filter.

 

[ColonelZulu]

I let the sound guy handle it. My on stage amp is often just for decoration and delineating the boundaries of my domain.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

Like @Jazzdogg I set it according to what makes my ears happy in a given venue. I use an fdeck which has no numbers on it but it doesn't matter. It's a value that has no value.

BBB

 

[Jazzdogg]

I let the sound guy handle it. My on stage amp is often just for decoration and delineating the boundaries of my domain.

I find greatest value of the variable hpf in its ability to help me hear each note clearly, especially when playing DB and fretless electric. With full FOH, variable HPF helps with the intelligibility of my on-stage sound even more!

 

[Bliff Curton 2]

I play a 5-string NS Design CR5 radius with a 35" scale. It has a thunderous B string - especially the low D and C. I use a Broughton HPF with the cutoff set at about 40Hz-ish. And any of the notes I play on the B string will rip your guts out. In fact, using the HPF tightens up the perceived sound tremendously IMO. I play live about 60 times a year and will never be without that HPF in my signal chain.

I have this same bass.
Absolute monster of a B string that I can play just like an E string doing metal style 16th notes and everything is clear.

The onboard eq is set at 40hz and is just too much. So I'm always using an HPF, and my recording engineer uses even more HPF up to 55hz. And it sounds even better.
A lot of 30-40hz is just slapping the speaker causing excursion so it's not giving a clear note.
HPF eliminates excessive excursion and allows the notes to actually sing.

I have my CR5 tuned down a whole step and it's a dream. I wish they made these with a rosewood or wenge fingerboard. I find ebony a bit clanky at standard tuning so I've got the ebony board bass tuned down and my rosewood board bass at standard tuning

 

[Barghest]

As an engineer, I'm HPF'ing the whole system, probably around 30Hz, maybe higher if the subs are under-specced for the room. Simply put, even the big-boy subs that we know and love on the big shows aren't going down quite that low. For instance, the last show I did, I was running d&b Y Subs. They're specced to 39Hz-140Hz with a -5dB variance. These are high end subs, not their flagships sure, but even the KSL-SUB is specced for 33Hz-75Hz with the -5dB variance, and that's in the Infra setting.

Frankly, at those frequencies, all we're going to be pushing out is mud, which will cost us impact and headroom. I don't want those frequencies in my mix, making a mess of things in the low-end. I'm already fighting the room, I don't need to be fighting the band as well.

 

[getBAK]

Too much of the extreme low end can really ruin a mix in a hurry, especially in a large, live room.

Nothing quite elicits rage in me like the 'door slamming' bass drum sound drowning out everything else.
I'll never go to a show at Shoreline again.

 

[sunbeast]

The majority of the live music I've heard in the past few decades has been ruined by FOH overusing subs.

Yeah probably 20 years ago when I was still into metal music I found pretty much any larger touring metal band I would go to see here in Denver either had completely inaudible bass, or the subs from the bass or bass drum were completely drowning out the mix. Same thing with alot of other music, but it was particularly destructive with fast and intricate stuff. Only occasionally in smaller clubs did things sound good. That's why I grabbed an early fDeck HPF when I first heard about them.

I feel like it's gotten better out here in general in the meantime (I lived on the West Coast for 15 years and the sound at venues out there was generally much better), probably better equipment and better sound-people since it's become more of a destination city. Still I've been to a couple pretty big/high-profile gigs since I've returned here in the last few years that just sounded like a low-rider with a sub in the trunk. Pretty crazy to me!

 

[agedhorse]

I never mixed like that, nor did most of those on the circuits I worked on.

 

[Fondsdale]

Yeah probably 20 years ago when I was still into metal music I found pretty much any larger touring metal band I would go to see here in Denver either had completely inaudible bass, or the subs from the bass or bass drum were completely drowning out the mix. Same thing with alot of other music, but it was particularly destructive with fast and intricate stuff. Only occasionally in smaller clubs did things sound good. That's why I grabbed an early fDeck HPF when I first heard about them.

I feel like it's gotten better out here in general in the meantime (I lived on the West Coast for 15 years and the sound at venues out there was generally much better), probably better equipment and better sound-people since it's become more of a destination city. Still I've been to a couple pretty big/high-profile gigs since I've returned here in the last few years that just sounded like a low-rider with a sub in the trunk. Pretty crazy to me!

This even happens in Jazz... A famous jazz drummer, (can't remember exactly who) mentioned in an interview that he specifically states on his rider for the sound crew to not setup the subs (or remove them/unplug them) as apparently most FOH can't help themselves with going overboard with the low end.

 

[One Way]

First time our band played at one venue which provided the PA w/ subs and a soundman I could hardly hear what I was playing because of all the low end mud, I was playing ampless using my DI box to go direct to board.
The next time at that venue and each time afterwards I always took my Mesa rig, Subway D800+ amp and Mesa Subway 115 and 210 cabinets and asked the soundman to let my amp carry the house and keep my bass out of the PA. Curiously more than one patron commented that my bass tone was superior to some of the touring acts that played there (to be clear they didn’t say my playing was better ).
Subwoofers done right - just adding lower extension - sound awesome! Subs dominating the mix are not so good.

 

[Ian774]

Been using a HPF a lot recently as I’ve got an Anagram now. I just got a new 5 string bass after months of 4 string only, and it’s crazy how much better and clearer the B string sounds with a HPF set at 40Hz. It makes the whole string tighter.