Topic: Do I run roll-off at 69hz or 107hz??

[Liquid Drum]

Hi,

Ok, I've been testing my new mics and batt box and been playing around with the bass roll-off settings. The mics I have are Cardioids (SP-CMC-19's) so they roll off some bass already.

Anyways, I tried 69hz, 95hz and 107hz and they all seemed ok. I'm trying to decide which setting to use at my next taping either 69hz or 107hz.
I don't want to remove too much bass so is it too much too roll-off at 107hz or do you think that'll be ok??
I also don't want my recording distorted either, lol. I'm using line-in on my MD deck.

I want to get a clean recording but I don't want to damage the natural bass - I'd rather just stop it distorting and being over-powering.

Thanks for any help,
Simon.

[zhianosatch]

69 if at all. 107 will be too much.

[ethan]

69 if at all. 107 will be too much.

I disagree...everything depends on the room and PA and what pleases *you* on playback. If 107 sounds good to you then go with it.

Anyhow personally, I never use roll off is small rooms or on-stage and sometimes I run closer to the wall to get more bass in these rooms. In medium/large size rooms I am either familiar with the room or make the call during the opener. I almost always run my HPF on my V2 at 125 for outdoor shows. The bass can be quite overpowering outdoors. Of course it also depends also on your mics. In my case my DPA4011's can bring way too much bass outdoors. Another thing to consider about too much bass is that you are not recording the mids and highs as well when the bass is the dominent power in the signal. just MHO...YMMV.

One last thing....avoid roll off switches on mics....I've never heard one that does as good a job as rolling off in the pre-amp.

[M]

I thought that the bass roll off settings on a sp batt box was configured for mic in and the effect of the roll off was reduced drastically when used with line in.

In which case is wouldn't make much of a differance if you used any of those settings because they would all do almost nothing.

[Oysterhead00]

I want to get a clean recording but I don't want to damage the natural bass - I'd rather just stop it distorting and being over-powering.

I always used the second lowest setting, I think 16Hz.  That was AT853s > SPBM-2 > Sharp MD (line in).  I recorded Tool, 2 Ozzfests, Mudvayne, Slipknot, Ill Nino, and other HEAVY bands in both arenas (4th row for one Ozzfest) and PACKED tiny clubs (Mudvanye at Northern Lights in Latham, NY where you could barely breathe) and never had any overloading of bass, had some clipping a few times but that was a level messup more than anything.  However, I LOVE bass in my recordings and you can always turn down the bass on your EQ if you don't like, but you can't turn it up and create non-xistant bass.

Like has already been said, do what you think sounds best.  Others will enjoy your recordings regardless, so do whatever makes you happy.  I've had people complain some of my stealth recordings were too bass, but I love 'em. 

If you have a local club that has like 5 LOUD bands play a night, so stealth the show and make bathroom breaks between acts to change the bass settings.  I did that some Battle of the Bands locally when I got my first switchable battery box and that's when I realized that the lowest setting worked best.  I THINK that the setting means that any bass above that frequency is cut off...so the lowest setting SHOULD get rid of any distotion caused by the bass.  The higher the setting, the more bass you are telling the battery box not to send to the mics.  That's like "Bass rolloff for dummies" and I could be wrong...but that was my conclusion.

[TideBleach]

line in pretty much cancels the bass roll-off at least it does on my HiMD NHF-800. so its really wont do anything unless you use mic in.

[Brian Skalinder]

If you know the input impedance, you might be able to use DKlein's spreadsheet to calculate the actual rolloff for your recorder / battery box:

http://www.taperssection.com/reference/xls/Rolloff%20calculator.xls

[TideBleach]

If you know the input impedance, you might be able to use DKlein's spreadsheet to calculate the actual rolloff for your recorder / battery box:

http://www.taperssection.com/reference/xls/Rolloff%20calculator.xls

thanks, i was looking for that not too long ago and couldnt find it.

[Liquid Drum]

Thanks for the help, I might have another mess-about with settings, etc... after hearing that it probably won't do nothing.