Motion to Rename HPF and LPF

[Starthief]

I'm the other way around -- so used to lowpass and highpass from the synth world that "high shelf" and "low shelf" on EQ can throw me.

 

[murphy]

I

It's a small thing, but I find the terms High Pass Filter and Low Pass Filter confusing. Every time I hear the terms, I have to think through what they're doing. I propose going back in time and popularizing them as Low Cut Filter and High Cut Filter! You know, name the filters after what they filter instead of what they don't filter.

I'm not an idiot (abundant life-choice counterexamples aside) and I have, like, totally serious degrees in engineering and stuff. I can figure out what these pedals do. They just need better names, IMHO. Just me?

I'm with you...it is confusing...to many many people.
I get it now...But the term isn't where our brains have been trained
Low on a knob means bass....High on a knob means treble

 

[tb-player]

It's a small thing, but I find the terms High Pass Filter and Low Pass Filter confusing. Every time I hear the terms, I have to think through what they're doing. I propose going back in time and popularizing them as Low Cut Filter and High Cut Filter! You know, name the filters after what they filter instead of what they don't filter.

I'm not an idiot (abundant life-choice counterexamples aside) and I have, like, totally serious degrees in engineering and stuff. I can figure out what these pedals do. They just need better names, IMHO. Just me?

You're not wrong. I played a whole set with the wrong filter once and it sounded like . I got them mixed up in my head. The sound guy was freaking out trying to get some bass back in the subs.

 

[g-dude]

It's a small thing, but I find the terms High Pass Filter and Low Pass Filter confusing. Every time I hear the terms, I have to think through what they're doing. I propose going back in time and popularizing them as Low Cut Filter and High Cut Filter! You know, name the filters after what they filter instead of what they don't filter.

I'm not an idiot (abundant life-choice counterexamples aside) and I have, like, totally serious degrees in engineering and stuff. I can figure out what these pedals do. They just need better names, IMHO. Just me?

Just you.

It falls apart when you start talking about a band pass filter, as well as a notch filter.

 

[G On Bass]

We could rename volume pedals/kill switches accordingly:

 

[Gustopher]

It passes what it says.

 

[gln1955]

Think of them as Elmer and Cletus and you'll never confuse them again.

 

[crguti]

What's is your idea of a new name for a band-pass then?

 

[Altitude]

The current names tell you exactly what gets PASSED. It's right there for you. You've demonstrated that you've already figured it out even if you don't find it intuitive.

#firstworldproblems

Yeah, but then the products put the word "filter" right after they told you what they passed, which sort of calls the whole thing into question again.

I agree with the OP, it's confusing. Clearly named by engineers.

 

[Adamixoye]

Yeah, but then the products put the word "filter" right after they told you what they passed, which sort of calls the whole thing into question again.

I agree with the OP, it's confusing. Clearly named by engineers.

...no?

 

[Killing Floor]

Scientists, mathematicians and engineers don't get the fame they seek so they take it out on us by messing with our heads out of spite. Think sine-cosecant instead of sine-cosine. The name isn't the issue, it's intentionally done that way for laughs and there are too many examples to list.

When you buy a lamp or light fixture for your home there's a temperature on the label. It's the CCT, correlated color temperature in Kelvin. It specifically represents the color of light emitted from a heated metal strip, lower temperature makes the strip appear orange-yellow and the higher temperature would burn white and then blue. So here's where they mess with you, we refer to the hottest Kelvin as "cool" light and the coolest Kevin as "warm". In your bedroom the lamps are usually 2700-3000K. That's "warm". And the LEDs on your new car headlamps are super blue 6000K, that's "cool" light. This is true. It's established engineering. The hotter the temperature it represents, the cooler we describe it.


Sometimes you just have to memorize because the inventors are just messing with you.

 

[pbass2]

I have to admit it can be confusing, as the terms aren't standard everywhere. For example, look in Logic, probably other DAWs--there it's called "Low Cut" and "High Cut".

 

[Adamixoye]

Scientists, mathematicians and engineers don't get the fame they seek so they take it out on us by messing with our heads out of spite. Think sine-cosecant instead of sine-cosine. The name isn't the issue, it's intentionally done that way for laughs and there are too many examples to list.

When you buy a lamp or light fixture for your home there's a temperature on the label. It's the CCT, correlated color temperature in Kelvin. It specifically represents the color of light emitted from a heated metal strip, lower temperature makes the strip appear orange-yellow and the higher temperature would burn white and then blue. So here's where they mess with you, we refer to the hottest Kelvin as "cool" light and the coolest Kevin as "warm". In your bedroom the lamps are usually 2700-3000K. That's "warm". And the LEDs on your new car headlamps are super blue 6000K, that's "cool" light. This is true. It's established engineering. The hotter the temperature it represents, the cooler we describe it.


Sometimes you just have to memorize because the inventors are just messing with you.

I don't know if the people who name things are "just messing with us" as often as you assume. Sometimes there is a historical reason that a name sticks even though it doesn't make sense. Sometimes it is just stupidity.

As an astrophysicist your "color temperature" example is a good one that really annoys me. But it's not because anyone is trying to mess with you. It's the tension between science vs. art.

In art blues are considered "cool" while reds are considered "warm." But scientifically, as you heat a blackbody object, the color goes from red to orange to yellow to white to blue with increasing temperature. A "blue-hot" star is a hotter than a "red-hot" star.

So the stupidity is combining the reddish 3000 K color temperatures (accurate scientifically) with the art term calling that "warm" and the whitish 6000 K color temperatures (again accurate scientifically) with the art term that says this is "cool." Both are right in their own context (though I prefer the scientific way to the artistic way), but it's dumb to combine them this way.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

I vote for no label. Just let people wonder and figure it out.

Or maybe bass roll off or treble roll off. Western bass slope cut.

 

[HolmeBass]

I think the real confusion stems from how low we set the frequency for the high pass filter, and how high we set the frequency for the low pass filter.

Thanks! I'm here all week. Try the veal, it's delicious!

 

[g-dude]

I have to admit it can be confusing, as the terms aren't standard everywhere. For example, look in Logic, probably other DAWs--there it's called "Low Cut" and "High Cut".

If you turn on the bass and treble circuits on a Höfner, you get neither.

 

[BartmanPDX]

If it bugs you that much, get a label maker and label the knobs "treble cut" and "bass cut".

Personally, I'm fine with knobs that do what they say they do.

 

[Ken R]

It's a small thing, but I find the terms High Pass Filter and Low Pass Filter confusing. Every time I hear the terms, I have to think through what they're doing. I propose going back in time and popularizing them as Low Cut Filter and High Cut Filter! You know, name the filters after what they filter instead of what they don't filter.

I'm not an idiot (abundant life-choice counterexamples aside) and I have, like, totally serious degrees in engineering and stuff. I can figure out what these pedals do. They just need better names, IMHO. Just me?

You poor Sod. The crap you are about to receive for even suggesting this will make you shake your head. I made the same comment a while back and the amount of crap I got from even daring to mention this surprised me. You would have thought I did bad things to their family members.

 

[aprod]

They have already been renamed. Use to be the bass and treble knobs.

 

[Queue]

Hey, man. Nice shot.

Take a picture