At what frequency would you crossover/x-over to add/blend effects? HX Stomp related but general.

[warwickhunt]

Messing about with adding a bit of grit / overdrive to my signal, got me to thinking is there a 'best' frequency/frequencies to set a crossover at, if you indeed use one!  

 

Context - using a 12 string bass I wanted to add a bit of drive/grit to the upper registers of my signal but not ALL of the signal (to avoid mush). 

 

I'm doing this through an HX Stomp so it is very easy to create two pathways and place an OD in 1 pathway and leave a 2nd pathway unaffected to maintain a clean signal.  The use of a frequency split to create the 2 paths means that I can choose above what frequency point to send the the highs to add grit (I'll call it grit as opposed to Overdrive as I don't want full on distortion/fuzz).  Everything can then be blended back together to send to a mono out OR I can send the high/affected sounds to the effects send and the unaffected to the main out; potential to put the high register through a different amp/cab combo but that's not priority as I'm getting a good blended mono signal as is.

 

Obviously too low a frequency and I get mush, too high and there's not much effect.  Initially I was sweeping between 100Hz and 1.2kHz but the sweet spot seemed to be 400-800Hz.  Which lead me to start considering the frequency spectrum and fundamentals, octaves, overtones etc.  Through the amp/cab I used and at the volumes I was listening, there didn't seem to be much difference in my chosen frequency band.

 

I think I'm going to set the split to 400Hz but has anyone found a sweetspot that worked or reasons not to choose certain crossover points and why... indeed if anyone cared?  LOL

 

[BigRedX]

In the days when I used to bi-amp my preferred crossover frequency was (IIRC) around 320Hz.

 

Of course there is no "correct" answer use what your ears tell you sounds good. Mine was reached as being the optimum position where I could put a quite extreme chorus on the upper frequencies but still maintain enough low-end thump. It was also dictated by the cabs that I was using for each side of the signal - a 15" driver in a large cab for bass and 2x8" cab for the top end which was based on the dimensions of my favourite guitar amp of the time.

[warwickhunt]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

In the days when I used to bi-amp my preferred crossover frequency was (IIRC) around 320Hz.

 

Of course there is no "correct" answer use what your ears tell you sounds good. Mine was reached as being the optimum position where I could put a quite extreme chorus on the upper frequencies but still maintain enough low-end thump. It was also dictated by the cabs that I was using for each side of the signal - a 15" driver in a large cab for bass and 2x8" cab for the top end which was based on the dimensions of my favourite guitar amp of the time.

 

@BigRedX interesting as I've just been messing around further and based on purely my preference I tweaked the split point and settled on about 340Hz; came back on here and you've said 320Hz.  I then wondered if there was a mathematical reason for this area of the frequency spectrum, so I Googled 'frequency musical notes' and this area is around the 4th octave of 'E'.  

 

[itu]

X-over that I have had (KMA) or use (IE) is set to around 400 Hz. 

 

I checked the fundamental frequencies over the fretboard, and decided to try to keep these frequencies intact. This led me to around 400 Hz. It seems to work fine, and I can push practically any effect to their limits without losing the clear low end.

 

BUT the possibility to push effects to their limits means that there can easily be far too much effect. Not only OD/fuzz/dist, but flanger, chorus et al. Not good: it is easy to get too excited of the possibility. 

[MartinB]

 300 Hz here - there's a wide range around there that all sounds good, so I just went for the round number