What are the best frequency crossover cutoff points?

[Reginald]

What are the best frequency crossover cutoff points?

 

[Munyaradzi Mafaro]

For what application?

 

[Reginald]

For what application?

Multiband compressors/limiters, stereo imagers, and harmonic exciters or saturation plugs.

 

[Bombastus]

Well, like almost everything in professional music production, there are no ideal settings that will work for every source material, but some audio software plug-ins include a "learn mode" feature that will automatically do that for you, and I'd highly recommend you give it a go as a starting point for whatever you are attempting to do. Be it sound mixing or audio mastering.

 

[Scorpio]

What are the best crossover cutoff points?

Your question needs more clarity, LOL.

 

[Reginald]

I want crossover frequency points that can match a certain given width in terms of octaves.

 

[Munyaradzi Mafaro]

I want crossover frequency points that can match a certain given width in terms of octaves.

What does that even mean?

 

[Reginald]

What does that even mean?

For example, if I want to slightly bring forward the midrange using iZotope Ozone's Exciter by 3 octaves in terms of width with the center frequency being 1600 Hz or by 3 ⅔ octaves while the center frequency is roughly 3500 Hz.

 

[Borrowdale Barron]

To me, it sounds like you should use an EQ effect. Isn't that much faster?

 

[Reginald]

To me, it sounds like you should use an EQ effect. Isn't that much faster?

Most digital EQ plugs do not add ear-pleasing harmonics like iZotope Ozone's Exciter.

 

[Benzorghini]

For example, if I want to slightly bring forward the midrange using iZotope Ozone's Exciter by precisely 3 octaves in terms of width with the center frequency being 1600 Hz or by 3 ⅔ octaves while the center frequency is roughly 3500 Hz.

If your center frequency is 1600 Hz with a width of 3 octaves (i.e., Q 0.404) that means your lower cutoff frequency is approximately around 561 Hz whilst your upper cutoff frequency is approximately around 4561 Hz. Therefore, this should perhaps get the job done:

Bandwidth	Center frequency in Hz	Link band 1 in Hz	Link band 2 in Hz	Link band 3 in Hz
3 octaves	1600	anywhere you want (or disable it)	561	4561
3 ⅔ octaves	3500	anywhere you want (or disable it)	969	12636

 

[Reginald]

Benzorghini can you do that for other Bark critical bands?

I mean with Q 1, 0.71, 0.4, and also with 0.3 as the width.

 

[Trythanks Lightfoot]

Benzorghini how did you calculate that?

 

[Munyaradzi Mafaro]

Benzorghini how did you calculate that?

Download and install Eclipse IDE or IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition and run this code.

package test;

import java.util.Scanner;

public class CutoffCalculator {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);

    // Read in center-frequency and quality factor from the user
    System.out.print("Enter center frequency: ");
    double cf = scanner.nextDouble();
    System.out.print("Enter quality factor: ");
    double qf = scanner.nextDouble();

    double a = cf;
    double b = Math.sqrt((1 / (2 * qf)) * (1 / (2 * qf)) + 1);
    double c = 1 / (2 * qf);

    double d = Math.round(1000 * a * (b - c)) / 1000;
    System.out.println("F1out: " + d);

    double e = Math.round(1000 * a * (b + c)) / 1000;
    System.out.println("F2out: " + e);
  }
}

F1out that's your lower cutoff frequency

F2out that's your upper cutoff frequency

 

[Trythanks Lightfoot]

@Munyaradzi Mafaro I don't know anything about programming.

 

[Benzorghini]

Benzorghini can you do that for other Bark critical bands?

I mean with Q 1, 0.71, 0.4, and also with 0.3 as the width.

The band centers?

 

[Reginald]

The band centers?

Yep, these:

Bark band centers (Hz)
13500
10500
8500
7000
5800
4800
4000
3400
2900
2150
1850
1600
1370
1170
1000
840
700
570
450
350
250
150
50

 

[Benzorghini]

For 3 octaves​

Q	Center freq (Hz)	Link band X (Hz)	Link band Y (Hz)
3 octaves	7000	2475	19801
3 octaves	5800	2050	16407
3 octaves	4800	1697	13578
3 octaves	4000	1414	11315
3 octaves	3400	1202	9618
3 octaves	2900	1025	8203
3 octaves	2150	760	6082
3 octaves	1850	654	5233
3 octaves	1600	566	4526
3 octaves	1370	484	3875
3 octaves	1170	414	3310
3 octaves	1000	354	2829
3 octaves	840	297	2376
3 octaves	700	247	1980
3 octaves	570	202	1612
3 octaves	450	159	1273
3 octaves	250	88	707
3 octaves	150	53	424
3 octaves	50	18	141

The most useful center frequencies above are prolly from 570 to 3400 Hz. And as for Q 1 or Q 0.71 that is just too narrow. I am highly skeptical if it even works. It prolly doesn't. Another thing—assuming I remember this correctly—you can't have the top band higher than say 10 kHz. I am not sure about the lowest band. It must be somewhere around 100 Hz if my memory is right.

 

[Tamuramaro]

All of this is meant for what? Mastering music?

 

[Benzorghini]

All of this is meant for what? Mastering music?

Make of it as you will.