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Is there an Argument AGAINST High Pass Filters?

I will add to my previous post, once I put the HPF on the remixed tracks, it became WAY easier to EQ. Instead of having to experiment with faders to slot frequencies, I turned off the graphic completely...all it needed was a slight bump of the lower mids, a notch of the upper mids, and the result was clean muscular bass.
 
Anybody else here think this?

Yes but not just because of cabinet tuning
If you have the cabinet and the power to go low, and, the amp manufacturer designs an HPF for a highish EQ point with a steep slope, you can never get the low bottom back.

For example, my SVP-CL preamp through a big iron amp goes very low and clear for the big cabinets I have.
I have micro amps that sound great but have a higher freq. It’s not that they sound bad but different and the don’t reproduce the medium to extreme lows.
It’s not a matter of turning up the bass control but rather how low a freq. you can reproduce.
The cabinet and the room have a big effect; some cabs sound better with certain amps and I believe a HPF can be one of those reasons.

Edit: this pre has an adjustable ultra low control that acts like a HPF.
I don’t use the setting the turns it completely off.
 
Anybody else here think this?

Not a question of conjecture but rather the nature of the beast. My explanation is pretty poor and a simplified re-telling of something Alex Claber addressed years ago in an Acme-centric thread...wish I could find it. He's far more knowledgeable on the subject than I so I pretty much embraced it as gospel.

Riis
 
I don't use amps, just a sans amp and IEMs. My house sound seems woofy and undefined but the sound in my ears is tight and punchy. Can a HPF help me here?

Hmmm...not enough info. Something may be mal-adjusted anywhere along your signal path right up to the mixer & mains. Never judge your sound by what you're hearing in the cans. I would sit down with my sound guy along with the bass, SansAmp, and FOH mixer and identify the issue...repair as necessary. Throwing extra hardware at an unknown is never a good idea.

Riis
 
Yes but not just because of cabinet tuning
If you have the cabinet and the power to go low, and, the amp manufacturer designs an HPF for a highish EQ point with a steep slope, you can never get the low bottom back.

For example, my SVP-CL preamp through a big iron amp goes very low and clear for the big cabinets I have.
I have micro amps that sound great but have a higher freq. It’s not that they sound bad but different and the don’t reproduce the medium to extreme lows.
It’s not a matter of turning up the bass control but rather how low a freq. you can reproduce.
The cabinet and the room have a big effect; some cabs sound better with certain amps and I believe a HPF can be one of those reasons.

Edit: this pre has an adjustable ultra low control that acts like a HPF.
I don’t use the setting the turns it completely off.

Thanks for the embellishment! Here's the comment from Alex a few years back:

"If you use a filter on the Acmes make sure it's set at ~30Hz. If the filter is set much higher than that, like at ~50Hz, you could actually increase the risk of over-excursion and cone creasing by increasing the power demands an octave above the tuning frequency where the excursion is greatest.

Alex"


Riis


 
Thanks for the embellishment! Here's the comment from Alex a few years back:

"If you use a filter on the Acmes make sure it's set at ~30Hz. If the filter is set much higher than that, like at ~50Hz, you could actually increase the risk of over-excursion and cone creasing by increasing the power demands an octave above the tuning frequency where the excursion is greatest.

Alex"


Riis

Thanks for this Riis.
I had not considered this possibility.
 
I just don't feel it's nessisarry for me anymore. I just delt with the issue by compensating in other ways. I don't boost my lows, infact my Eq on my stingrays and my preamp are always relatively flat. For a power amp I use a crown xls 1500 which puts out 1050w at 8 ohms bridged. So it's not like Im concerned about maximizing the efficiency of my amp. My cab is probably more of the reason though. I use an ampeg 410he which is a higher tuned box than most 5 string players use but I changed all the speakers out for usa eminence bp102 200w speakers. So now it's 800w 410 that has a lower frequency when it comes to the speakers than a 410hlf and most 18s can put out but the cab being sealed keeps things really tight. So now I can play really low notes and it doesn't sound like rock bass tone instead of hip hop.

I kind of got the idea of doing that from Nolly of peripherys Zilla cabs. He uses sealed 610 cabs with celestion speakers not found in production cabs and his 6 string is set up with low f#, even his drop C bass has a low G on the bottom. A sealed cab with good speakers does make a pretty big difference.
 
So it might be a stupid question but if you are using some Octave or Sub type effect would you place the HPF at the beginning of the effect loop or at the end of it ?
I am guessing at the end but I just want to be sure.

Second stupid question. When using the Meatbox for example there are some inaudible frequencies but you can "feel" them. When used on a big amp, it gets the floor shaking. Using an HPF would likely cut those, right ?
 
So it might be a stupid question but if you are using some Octave or Sub type effect would you place the HPF at the beginning of the effect loop or at the end of it ?
I am guessing at the end but I just want to be sure.

Second stupid question. When using the Meatbox for example there are some inaudible frequencies but you can "feel" them. When used on a big amp, it gets the floor shaking. Using an HPF would likely cut those, right ?
Yes and yes. If your speaker system can handle 30hz and less you don't need a HPF unless all that floor shaking gets distracting.
 
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Thanks for the embellishment! Here's the comment from Alex a few years back:

"If you use a filter on the Acmes make sure it's set at ~30Hz. If the filter is set much higher than that, like at ~50Hz, you could actually increase the risk of over-excursion and cone creasing by increasing the power demands an octave above the tuning frequency where the excursion is greatest.

Alex"


Riis


I dont understand why. Cone excursion rises below tuning frequency - hittig low with high power can reach XMAX or even Xdamage quickly with bad cab build. Also there is a bump at double freuquency of tunning where Xmax also i reachable.



PS I dont want to argue. I just want somone to try explain that.
 
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FWIW there a little know HPF in the Zoom MS-60b, B3 and B1on. There's a preamp model based on the Fishman Pro EQ Platinum, which has a Depth control - basically an HPF.

Might be worth exploring if you have one of these devices.

It's definitely good enough for most people's use, and there's a thread here somewhere where someone figured out approximately where the HPF started rolling off the lows at which settings.

That said, I was using that preamp, and the Step Filter in my 60B, so I sold it since I use my 70CDR a lot more. I now have an Fdeck 3 on the way.
 
I dont understand why. Cone excursion rises below tuning frequency - hittig low with high power can reach XMAX or even Xdamage quickly with bad cab build. Also there is a bump at double freuquency of tunning where Xmax also i reachable.



PS I dont want to argue. I just want somone to try explain that.

I believe the potential for issues is because you cut the lowest frequencies, it is possible that you drive the amp harder to get a more full sound, and you then into excursion issues at the "hump" you would see in excursion before the tuning frequency.
 
I believe the potential for issues is because you cut the lowest frequencies, it is possible that you drive the amp harder to get a more full sound, and you then into excursion issues at the "hump" you would see in excursion before the tuning frequency.

I believe it to be the exact the opposite, Zac: you cut subsonic frequencies, or some very low-freq notes that your ear+brain interprets anyhow due to missing fundamental, therefore you reduce excursion. Higher notes require far less cone excursion, and you're not wasting a significant amount of wattage trying to reproduce sounds we can't quite hear anyhow.