What Kind Of Top End Do You Actually Want?

There's top end.

And then there's Mäag top end.

I'd heard Dave Pensado mention the Mäag EQ plenty of times over the years, particularly when talking about vocals.

And I'd heard that top end on records plenty of times too.

That open, polished top that somehow doesn't sound like you've just boosted the treble.

It took me a while to connect the two.

Once I really started listening to what the Air Band was doing, particularly at 40 kHz, I recognised it.

That's the top end I'd been hearing.

I'd tried getting there with other EQs.

Some got close.

Some gave me more brightness.

But I've always struggled to find anything that does quite what the Mäag does up there.

And once I understood what those Air Band positions were actually giving me, my top end felt much more under control.

Not because I had a better way of adding treble.

Because I had a better way of deciding what kind of top end I wanted.

Top End Isn't One Thing

We tend to talk about top end as though it's one area.

It needs more top.

The vocal needs more air.

The hi-hat is too bright.

But there's a lot going on up there.

Presence.

Definition.

Brightness.

Sheen.

Air.

Harshness.

Sibilance.

They're all part of what we loosely call the top end, but they're not the same thing.

And boosting the wrong part can completely change the character of a sound.

A conventional high shelf can make a vocal brighter.

Keep adding it and eventually the vocal starts telling you to stop.

The esses come forward.

The consonants get harder.

The whole thing starts feeling thinner or harsh.

So you back the EQ off.

And quite often the thing you were actually trying to hear disappears with it.

The Mäag Air Band behaves differently.

The Air Band

On the EQ4, the Air Band gives you five positions:

2.5 kHz

5 kHz

10 kHz

20 kHz

40 kHz

They're not simply five different amounts of brightness.

They're five different places in the top end.

Each one is an octave above the last.

So as you move through the Air Band, you're moving that shelf through the top end, one octave at a time.

At 2.5 or 5 kHz, the effect can be much more about presence and definition.

Move through 10 and 20 kHz and it starts shifting towards brightness, sheen and air.

Then there's 40 kHz.

That's the one I've struggled to get from anything else.

It opens the top.

Cleanly.

The Mäag manual makes an important point about the Air Band: frequencies below the selected frequency are also affected by the transitional slope.

That's the key to understanding the 40 kHz setting.

You Don't Need To Hear 40 kHz

The problem with 40 kHz is that we can't hear it.

So why does boosting it make such an obvious difference?

Because you're not listening for a 40 kHz tone.

The Air Band is a very broad shelf.

Set it to 40 kHz and the slope extends down into frequencies we absolutely can hear.

Put the 40 kHz setting into an analyser and you can see it.

The rise is already happening well inside the audible range.

So you're hearing what that filter is doing on its way to 40 kHz.

That's why 40 kHz isn't really the strange part.

The shape of the EQ is.

Think about what happens when you put a conventional shelf at 8 or 10 kHz.

You're saying:

Give me more of everything above here.

Put the Mäag at 40 kHz and the audible part of that curve is much more gradual.

You're still adding top.

But you're approaching it from much further away.

And that sounds different.

Brightness And Air Aren't The Same Thing

This is where I really hear it.

There is a top end on vocals that I've heard on records for years.

Open.

Expensive.

Close.

Detailed.

But not obviously bright.

That's the contradiction.

You can hear plenty of top end, but it doesn't feel like somebody has simply turned the treble up.

When I started properly using the Mäag, that sound suddenly made more sense.

It isn't just more top.

It's a more open top.

Because the top end isn't one thing.

You can have plenty happening around 5 or 10 kHz and still feel like the top of the sound is closed.

Push more into that area and it might get brighter, but it can also get harsher.

The Mäag gives you another option.

Move the Air Band higher and you can add openness without necessarily adding the same sense of edge.

You can have less edge and more top end at the same time.

Once you hear that, you start approaching EQ differently.

Instead of asking:

Does this need more top?

Ask:

What kind of top does it need?

Move Through The Slots

This is where the five Air Band positions become really useful.

Don't automatically reach for 40 kHz because that's the setting everyone talks about.

Put some boost in so you can clearly hear what the EQ is doing.

Then move through the slots:

2.5 kHz

5 kHz

10 kHz

20 kHz

40 kHz

Listen to what happens to the sound.

Lower settings can bring the top end towards you.

Move higher and that emphasis starts to change.

At some point you'll find the position where the sound goes where you want it to go.

On a vocal, one setting might make the consonants too obvious.

Another might give you the brightness you were looking for.

Then another can suddenly open the vocal without making it feel brighter in the same way.

That's the slot.

Now back the gain down until it sits properly.

You're not just choosing a frequency.

You're choosing where you want the top end to happen.

Don't Be Frightened Of The Boost

This is another thing the Mäag changed for me.

Normally, seeing a large high-frequency boost makes you suspicious.

+6 dB?

+10 dB?

Surely that's too much.

Not necessarily.

With the Mäag, I can find myself using amounts of boost that would feel excessive on another EQ.

That's not an invitation to automatically add 10 dB at 40 kHz.

It's a reminder that EQ settings don't exist independently of the shape of the filter.

Listen to what it's doing.

Not what the knob says.

Control What You Add

Sometimes I'll use the Mäag to bring the top end into a sound, then control what happens above it.

A hi-hat is a good example.

I might find the Air Band position that gives the hat the presence or character I'm looking for, but then find I've got more sizzle right at the top than I actually want.

So I'll put a low-pass filter after the Mäag and roll some of that top back off.

It sounds counterintuitive.

Why boost the top and then cut it?

Because they're doing two different jobs.

The Mäag has already changed where the hat sits and brought the top end into the picture.

The low-pass then lets me decide how far I want that top to extend.

The Mäag puts the top into the sound.

The low-pass decides how far I let it go.

The Bigger Lesson

I've struggled to find another EQ that gives me top end quite like the Mäag.

There are plenty of brilliant EQs.

And plenty can make something brighter, smoother, darker or more detailed.

But the Air Band gave me a way of thinking about the top end that I didn't have before.

It isn't one thing.

Sometimes you need presence.

Sometimes you need brightness.

Sometimes you need sheen.

And sometimes the sound already has enough brightness.

It just needs opening up.

That's the bit I'd heard on records for years.

And once I understood what the Mäag was doing, I could finally hear the distinction.

So next time a vocal needs more top, don't immediately reach for a shelf and turn it up.

Ask a different question.

What kind of top end am I actually trying to hear?