Ableton Forum

what's the best Q setting for the EQ 8 low cut when you need to "roll off" the low end frequencies?

i've read a few different articles that say different things...

use the setting that sounds best to your ears. try different setting and compare them directly.

funken wrote:depends where you are rolling off from. The higher the hz the lower the Q, if you are talking kick or bass. If you are in the mid or upper range you can probably go fairly steep, but still best not to overdo it.

is the default setting of .071 pretty good for anything under 200hz?

fishmonkey wrote:use the setting that sounds best to your ears. try different setting and compare them directly.

thanks but i've listened to crappy garage and punk most of my life and found it to sound quite awesome, so what sounds "best" is entirely subjective. unfortunately i can find redeeming merits in even the worst production, so my judgement probably isn't the best. right now i'm looking for some hard and fast rules when playing in the electronic realm.

use your ears... (we can't hear your source material...)

as a general default "easy" roll-off..
I use 1 band...Q somewhere between 0.6-0.78
if I need a steeper cut then I use another 'band' in addition...

thanks guys, appreciate it.

The problem I see with that is that the rolloff still causes so called overshoots (see viewtopic.php?f=1&t=154087, section "question 4"), even if you are using Q values around 0.7.

This means that there is the likeliness that you get more level out of it that you have put into it, even if you want to suck out much of the bass energy (I tried with values around 80 Hz).

My plan was to create a clean computer based two-way frequency crossover with Live and the EQ 8 to be able to avoid another physical device consuming power and material and gathering dust in my room.