Ableton Forum

Hey all,
So I'm wanting to split up a bassline I have into low,mid, and high frequencies. I understand there are a couple ways to do this (multiband compressor, rack + filters) . I decided to try the bass split chorus audio effect rack and it seems to be working well. But after having a look at my spectrum analyzer I see that there are two big notches out of the bassline where the low-mid and mid-high crossovers occur.
I want to manipulate the the low-mid-high section of the bassline, but dont want it all notched out.

ummm...well. uhhh. can't even describe how fucking insane this is.

I saw a little trick that might help you here. Create an effect rack with 3 layers in and put a multiband compressor in each layer. In the first layer solo the highs, in the second solo the mid and in the third solo the low. Now you'll have your bass split up and the crossover points should be spot on (as I'm sure ableton put a lot of time and effort into making sure they are seamless).

Hope this helps.

thanks puzzle ill try that out

puzzlefactory wrote:I saw a little trick that might help you here. Create an effect rack with 3 layers in and put a multiband compressor in each layer. In the first layer solo the highs, in the second solo the mid and in the third solo the low. Now you'll have your bass split up and the crossover points should be spot on (as I'm sure ableton put a lot of time and effort into making sure they are seamless).

Hope this helps.

+1

i tried this for S&G. worked like a charm! thanks puzzle factory!

Here's a video that explains how to do this in detail:

http://www.quantizecourses.com/pages.php/?p=895

I've been using this approach but it does seem to color the sound a little bit. Where are you guys setting your low and high cut points?

Does anybody have any other favorite approaches to isolating the mid frequencies for effects?

You can also use a rack with three chains of EQ3. Of course EQ3 is not transparent, but you may like it. With the 24dB slope and some overlap, there shouldn't be any notching. If you want more transparency, you could try the same thing with EQ8 or a VST EQ of your choosing.

this is all you need

http://rhythminmind.net/1313/?p=43

4 bands transparent splitter rack

LOVE!

hdrpbx wrote:this is all you need

http://rhythminmind.net/1313/?p=43

4 bands transparent splitter rack

I've been looking at these racks and admit I don't understand why it would be considered more effective than using the multiband compressor approach (if you only need three bands like I am using).

Also, could you explain the difference between the regular and 24db version of these racks?

Thanks!

djspirit wrote:

hdrpbx wrote:this is all you need

http://rhythminmind.net/1313/?p=43

4 bands transparent splitter rack

I've been looking at these racks and admit I don't understand why it would be considered more effective than using the multiband compressor approach (if you only need three bands like I am using).

Also, could you explain the difference between the regular and 24db version of these racks?

Thanks!

EQ3 gives you two options for slope at the cutoff: 48 or 24 dB per octave. So 24 is more gradual, while 48 is more of a Sharp cutoff. In EQ8 you have more control by using the Q value.

djspirit wrote:
I've been looking at these racks and admit I don't understand why it would be considered more effective than using the multiband compressor approach (if you only need three bands like I am using).

Also, could you explain the difference between the regular and 24db version of these racks?

Thanks!

Soloing the bands in the multi-band compressor isn't transparent. These where created with transparency in mind. The 12&24db reference the filter slope.

rhythminmind wrote:

djspirit wrote:
I've been looking at these racks and admit I don't understand why it would be considered more effective than using the multiband compressor approach (if you only need three bands like I am using).

Also, could you explain the difference between the regular and 24db version of these racks?

Thanks!

Soloing the bands in the multi-band compressor isn't transparent. These where created with transparency in mind. The 12&24db reference the filter slope.

Thanks Rhythm Mind!

I'm a newbie and don't know what you mean by transparent. Please provide a quick explanation and what advantage it offers? Also, someone wrote a comment on this page on your web site identifying a bug, "in the 24 db freq dividers the low mid and low x-over chains are swapped at the output, means only wrong named but causes little bit confusion which is the low mid and the low". Are you going to release a fix for that? Also, he asks you to explain the advantage of the 24db dividers.

Thanks so much for your work and help with this!

wow, I never realised just how much the Multiband Dynamics plugin colors the signal! I always presumed that it would be flat.