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how much do you guys roll of your synths? i've heard from 200-500hz for the high end and 100-150 for mids/lows.

SouthSideSamurai wrote:how much do you guys roll of your synths? i've heard from 200-500hz for the high end and 100-150 for mids/lows.

I think it just depends up the synth type and what else you got going on in your track, mate. That being said, if you've got a lead type sound, rolling off the lower end like you mentioned is pretty wise. On the other hand, if you have a synth bass, you might want to keep that lower end in (or carve out a hole for the kick).

I'm not really sure if there is a rule apart from rolling off what the track doesn't need

SouthSideSamurai wrote:how much do you guys roll of your synths? i've heard from 200-500hz for the high end and 100-150 for mids/lows.

That will depend on the patch and the context where it will be heard. I try to not roll off too much in the bass region and I rather do it with shelving and soft curves. I use filters like bx_cleansweep that do rolloffs well or simply EQ8 shelving cuts.

In the high end I sometimes roll off quite low, like 6-9Khz in some places depending in what else I want up in the higher registers.

Generally just enough to fix any muddy issues, typically just a couple dBs with an EQ bell curve though, I don't normally reach for high pass filters unless there's subsonic (infrasonic?) information below 50Hz I'm trying to clean up.

SouthSideSamurai wrote:how much do you guys roll of your synths? i've heard from 200-500hz for the high end and 100-150 for mids/lows.

It depends. I mainly just increase my highpass until I can hear the synth thin out and then back off Unless I really need to thin out the sound. You really don't hear much of a difference usually but the idea is more of clearing up headroom and reducing your low mids when you can.


That said on sparse mixes, I'm less likely to highpass everything as everything usually have a place and needs less EQ.


Some sounds if your lead is kind of a bass or provides the main low mid energy, you could also boost here but usually I'd use a resonant highpass filter to do this which provides a more focused boost than a shelf.

Since my target audience is whales and elephants I never roll anything off the low end and often boost it. Hope that helps.