Killing The Snake

[nobody]

When I'm mastering, I always "kill the snake". If I'm the only one using this term, "the snake" is the bouncing band of frequencies below 20 Hz that can be quite loud. It's caused in my case by many of my synths producing that kind of output (my Virus is notorious for this). While not audible, it muddies up the mix.

I was wondering if I should "kill the snake" for individual tracks in a composition, rather than at the master output as I normally do. Which way is "better" and why?

(FYI, I "kill the snake" with a multi-band EQ, with however many bands are necessary, all set to 10 Hz with a narrow Q, turned all the way down. Sometimes the last one or two bands in the chain are peak/dip instead of shelving low if I have any stubborn LFs.)

[EdisonRex]

with me, there are fairly few sources of unwanted LF. Usually that's the mic(s), and yes, a couple of my synthesizers can do that (the modulars are pretty good at it). However I just use a high pass filter with a Fc set to about 40-50Hz and a fairly steep rolloff. My AT4033 has a rolloff switch on it, I just leave that on. Remember that anything below about 40Hz isn't really discernable as music and that range is really just where thumps and bumps live.

Those transients from modulars, mechanical noise, etc can really affect a mix; the transients as you know will saturate the low end, besides not sounding particularly musical.

[varice]

I usually don’t have a problem with LF signals in the master mix (as I generally prefer a strong bass sound anyway). I think that reducing the LF content at the master mix level would be wrong place to do it. Better to reduce the undesirable LF at the source, and leave the “bumps and thumps” of bass and percussion signals unaffected at the master level (without causing overload clipping, of course).

I find that reducing mid-bass frequencies in the master mix usually minimizes a “muddy” sounding mix.

[EdisonRex]

[nobody]

Thanks, guys. I'm going to give your suggestions a try!