Hey all.  I read on this and other forums that a typical EQ-ing thing to do is to apply a hi-pass filter to pretty much everything to eliminate rumble and inaudible frequencies.  I also read that offensive frequencies can be notched out by maxing out the Q, putting the gain to max,  scanning until you find one, then cutting it. 
 
Anyway I use mostly either virtual instruments or digital ones like the Yamaha MOX8.   Is there any point to using the above techniques for these instruments, or does it only make sense if you're recording with a microphone?  A lot of times I feel like I should be doing it, but honestly it doesn't really make anything sound better.  A HPF on the piano just makes it sound thinner typically.
 
As an aside, I was reflecting on how easily I get distracted from the music-making process.  I'm a solo musician.  Half the time I record a keyboard take, select some drums from Addictive Drums, maybe lay down a bass track with my keyboard, then I inevitably get sucked into messing around with editing, EQ, compression, reverb, and effects before all of the tracks are even laid down.  Then after a few hours I just walk away without really even saving since at that point all the work I did (other than laying down the tracks) was pretty much pointless other than just to learn more about how to do it.  There should be a "No Distraction" mode in Sonar so all you can do is lay down tracks and arrange them!!! :)  I'm joking of course, but it happens all the time to me.
 
Same thing with my song writing. . . I write a nice piano track and put a beat to it, but then 90% of the time I can't think of lyrics or don't bother to write them.  So I just play and sing made-up words, and that also prohibits me from actually recording the full song.  Maybe the solution is to team up with other people and not try to be a solo artist anymore!

 
I can relate .  You wouldn't happen to have a background in computers / software perchance ?
 
Is it possible that your tinkering is a way of avoiding getting emotionally involved with your music ?  Or something to do because you can't ?  In my mind, a real musician is someone for whom being deeply involved is everything and instruments, programs and the voice are just means of expressing that involvement.  I don't think a real musician would care that much about a setting on an EQ.
 
As for lyrics, I think you have to sing about what really matters to you.  But then I've always wondered how songwriters can write about their experiences without it bothering those around them.  If I were to sing about the people around me, I doubt they'd appreciate it...
 
Maybe try to write a complete song using only your voice and an acoustic guitar (a awful lot of songs have only three chords and a current hit has mostly only one).  You can eliminate a ton of distractions and the format is very accessible both for you and anyone listening.  Once you have something, then try and expand it into something bigger with Sonar.
 

As far as virtual instruments and prefabbed loops and HPF, it depends.  Most audio loops are already processed.  EQ can help them "fit" into a song w/o other instruments.  Virtual instruments often have patches that are designed to be full spectrum so they sound good.  Often it helps to thin them out, too, even if they don't include rumbles and other mic noise.  The thinning out includes LPF, too, as well as other forms of EQ.
 
Making music involves collaboration.  Whether it is artist and audience or artist and other artists, multiple lines of feedback make the music better and ... more enjoyable.  You can, of course, choose to be a solo artist and make music only you are interested in and practically no one else other than your mother or long suffering significant other.  But as you have experienced, that is usually a dead end and produces experiments interesting only to you.  Even the most controlling classic composer still depends upon the musicians to add their own expression to the dead notes on a staff.  Modern musicians can play and record everything themselves, and their technical excellence produce the most boring music since it is pushing against air.  If you know a little of music structure, you are likely, w/o feedback, to produce songs that copy the forms and sound generic.  Which is fine, but is no reason for someone else to listen to copies of music they like.
 
I've always used a vocalist or VO artist since I have a voice similar to Leo Kottke, who described his voice as sounding like turkey flatulence.  I moved from soundscapes made with mono synths (w/ VO) to actual songs made w/ polysynths and chords and drum machines.  Audio loops then came along, which added another variable to my music.  Finally, I found a guitarist I like, and he actually likes working w/ my stuff.  A good guitarist.  And it has twisted my electronic stuff into a totally different direction.  It is not just more accessible (using the term loosely), but more fun for me. 
 
So by all means find someone that can help you w/ the things you don't do well.  When you do find someone else, it will be well worth it.
 
@

Paul P
 
I can relate .  You wouldn't happen to have a background in computers / software perchance ?
 
Is it possible that your tinkering is a way of avoiding getting emotionally involved with your music ?  Or something to do because you can't ?  In my mind, a real musician is someone for whom being deeply involved is everything and instruments, programs and the voice are just means of expressing that involvement.  I don't think a real musician would care that much about a setting on an EQ.
 
As for lyrics, I think you have to sing about what really matters to you.  But then I've always wondered how songwriters can write about their experiences without it bothering those around them.  If I were to sing about the people around me, I doubt they'd appreciate it...
 
Maybe try to write a complete song using only your voice and an acoustic guitar (a awful lot of songs have only three chords and a current hit has mostly only one).  You can eliminate a ton of distractions and the format is very accessible both for you and anyone listening.  Once you have something, then try and expand it into something bigger with Sonar.
 

As a matter of fact, I do have a background in computers, though halfway through getting a degree in IT I switched to engineering.  I think that's where the interest and the fascination with the software side comes from.  I also think I have pretty good ears for what sounds good.  I would love to one day have a production studio and just record people and do all the EQing and compression.
 
I feel very emotionally involved when I'm playing keyboard, and occassionally I tap into something and write some lyrics.  But in general it's difficult to tap into my emotions for lyrics, I'm never really sure what to write about.  I think I express myself much better in the abstract musical form than with words, which means that I'm really not suited to be a vocalist.  Plus my voice is just so-so.  But I know what you mean. . . a "pure" musician could sit down with pretty much anything and just get totally into it and write a song on it. 
 
I do have some basic skills on guitar but I sold it to focus on piano / keyboard.  But I agree the guitar is even easier to write songs on because it has the percussive element to it as well.  That's a good idea, maybe I'll pick one up and brush up on my skills to help stoke my creativity.
 
The other thing that I think I need to focus on is to just record live takes and not fiddle with everything so damn much.  I'm never going to produce things that sound like radio hits, and arranging and messing with MIDI is a path that can really interfere with getting a complete song done.  It's never "perfect"!

A couple weeks ago I did a workshop at Sweetwater's GearFest called "Songwriting on the Fast Track." It was all about how the process of creating music requires a different protocol than, for example, recording a band. It got into the way the brain processes information as well, and why bouncing back and forth between creative "right brain" activities and analytical "left brain" activities interferes with the creative process.
 
Although there's no video of the workshop, because it was very well-received Cakewalk wants me to re-create it so they can post it online. Not sure when I'll get around to it, but it's in the "to do" queue. 

AT
As far as virtual instruments and prefabbed loops and HPF, it depends.  Most audio loops are already processed.  EQ can help them "fit" into a song w/o other instruments.  Virtual instruments often have patches that are designed to be full spectrum so they sound good.  Often it helps to thin them out, too, even if they don't include rumbles and other mic noise.  The thinning out includes LPF, too, as well as other forms of EQ.
 
Making music involves collaboration.  Whether it is artist and audience or artist and other artists, multiple lines of feedback make the music better and ... more enjoyable.  You can, of course, choose to be a solo artist and make music only you are interested in and practically no one else other than your mother or long suffering significant other.  But as you have experienced, that is usually a dead end and produces experiments interesting only to you.  Even the most controlling classic composer still depends upon the musicians to add their own expression to the dead notes on a staff.  Modern musicians can play and record everything themselves, and their technical excellence produce the most boring music since it is pushing against air.  If you know a little of music structure, you are likely, w/o feedback, to produce songs that copy the forms and sound generic.  Which is fine, but is no reason for someone else to listen to copies of music they like.
 
I've always used a vocalist or VO artist since I have a voice similar to Leo Kottke, who described his voice as sounding like turkey flatulence.  I moved from soundscapes made with mono synths (w/ VO) to actual songs made w/ polysynths and chords and drum machines.  Audio loops then came along, which added another variable to my music.  Finally, I found a guitarist I like, and he actually likes working w/ my stuff.  A good guitarist.  And it has twisted my electronic stuff into a totally different direction.  It is not just more accessible (using the term loosely), but more fun for me. 
 
So by all means find someone that can help you w/ the things you don't do well.  When you do find someone else, it will be well worth it.
 
@

You raise good points that I am becoming all-too aware of.  Unless you're a complete musical genius composer, it's very difficult to create really interesting songs that have multiple instruments of which you're not an expert on.  At least that's what I've found.  And "canned" drum beats are nice, but they get FREAKING OLD after a while and they result in always playing in the same rhythm on every song.  I am thinking how nice it would be to just play my part and feed off the energy of what other people are doing. . . that sounds awesome. 
 
I've toyed with the idea of collaborating with others in the area but I think I'm going to post something on craigslist to see who's in my area that wants to mess around.  My wife and other people have all said "You really should join a band" but I've had bad experiences before where I show up and people aren't on the same wavelength as me and it's pretty much a waste of time.  A lot of people just want to play cover songs, or they hear my songs and they stare blankly because they can't lay down a strumming pattern over it easily.
My voice is OK. . . probably good enough for backups or an occassional lead but kind of nasaly and off-key.  I started with playing piano for a long time, then writing arrangements on the piano.  Then I learned some guitar and then back to piano.  I picked up a synth (Yamaha MOX8) with the hopes that I'd venture into other instruments and synth-sounds, but it's such unfamiliar territory I still haven't really done much with the other sounds.  As mentioned in my post above, I really am fascinated by production and get a lot of enjoyment with tweaking and arranging.  But they are two separate processes that need to be done separately and not together. . . that's what I'm starting to learn.

Anderton
A couple weeks ago I did a workshop at Sweetwater's GearFest called "Songwriting on the Fast Track." It was all about how the process of creating music requires a different protocol than, for example, recording a band. It got into the way the brain processes information as well, and why bouncing back and forth between creative "right brain" activities and analytical "left brain" activities interferes with the creative process.
 
Although there's no video of the workshop, because it was very well-received Cakewalk wants me to re-create it so they can post it online. Not sure when I'll get around to it, but it's in the "to do" queue. 

That sounds like something that I'd really be interested in seeing if you get around to recording it. I have been experiencing it first-hand for years! I have probably about 8 to 10 songs that I could have laid down by now, yet I've actually recorded none of them because I get caught up in the production.
Probably part of it is that, when I play it live I like how it sounds.  But when I recordand listening back, I hear every flaw. I can play and sing in front of people with no problem, but for some reason having a recording is different. 

rlared
 
The other thing that I think I need to focus on is to just record live takes and not fiddle with everything so damn much.
 

It doesn't help that's there's so much to fiddle with.  It seems everytime I start producing something musical I discover something that I either don't understand or want to investigate further and whatever free time I had is quickly used up.
 

These techniques are general and can be used on anything. However, if you're HPFing your piano and it gets noticeably thinner you're doing too much. Roughly speaking, the point is to make room for each instrument, that means basically you "clean up" frequency areas that are overlapping between instruments. Careful and precise application of EQ and compression should leave each instrument sounding naturally in the mix, because you should (for instance) only take away lows from the piano if the bass guitar is filling that spot.

There are two important aspects to using filters.  On is the cutoff frequency of course but the other is the much less talked about but probably even more important aspect and that is the slope of the filter.
 
You could still use a HPF on piano and retain all the bottom end by simply using a steeper slope eg 24 dB/Oct or even 48 dB/Oct but move the cutoff lower down. eg 80/60 Hz.  Then the bottom end will mostly stay intact but you will still clean up a lot of rumble and other unwanted material.
 
Or you may have a bass that is just too deep and boomy or a synth patch that is similar.  I have a Roland JD800 synth and some of the patches just literally shake the floor.  Great experience on its own but not much use in a mix though.  Here a very mild slope eg 6 dB /Oct works nice but move the cutoff higher up eg 150 Hz or so.  What happens here now is the bottom end is just carved away nicely and slowly and brought back into line with the rest of the sounds you are trying to mix it with.
 
Same filter, two very different applications. You just have to know when to use which approach.