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Mixing/Mastering / Adding an EQ on the master = DISTORTION ?
« on: September 29, 2016, 12:47:10 pm »
I just figured this out by accident. On my latest track, I added a Fabfilter Pro-Q 2 on the master just to do the usual low-cut/high-cut and remove some ringiness. I forgot to do it before I rendered the track, so I re-opened the project and added the EQ. The thing is after I did the eq-ing, my kick started to sound different each time it hited. I thought it might be just in my head, but after several listens, I found out it's not. The eq was affecting my output. And I decided to make a short test.
I took several tracks, applied an EQ plugin on the master channel and (very important) started to low cut/high cut (basically "cut" some frequencies). I was very surprised to see that my master gain blew up by 5-6 dbs over 0! Now the question is... WHY? I didn't add any dbs, didn't boost anything. On contrary, I cutted out some frequencies that weren't needed. I tried this with Fabfilter Pro-Q (1 & 2) and with Ableton's stock EQ Eight. I even tried all the different processing modes from Fabfilter (Zero latency, Natural Phase, Linear Phase). It did the same for the "Zero Latency" and "Natural Phase", but it worked better with the "Linear Phase" mode activated. The thing is the "Linear Phase" adds pre-ringiness, which I obviously don't want.
Can someone please explain the "magic" behind this? Why is the output going red (by so many dbs lol) when doing frequency cuts?
I took several tracks, applied an EQ plugin on the master channel and (very important) started to low cut/high cut (basically "cut" some frequencies). I was very surprised to see that my master gain blew up by 5-6 dbs over 0! Now the question is... WHY? I didn't add any dbs, didn't boost anything. On contrary, I cutted out some frequencies that weren't needed. I tried this with Fabfilter Pro-Q (1 & 2) and with Ableton's stock EQ Eight. I even tried all the different processing modes from Fabfilter (Zero latency, Natural Phase, Linear Phase). It did the same for the "Zero Latency" and "Natural Phase", but it worked better with the "Linear Phase" mode activated. The thing is the "Linear Phase" adds pre-ringiness, which I obviously don't want.
Can someone please explain the "magic" behind this? Why is the output going red (by so many dbs lol) when doing frequency cuts?
