Originally Posted by Bydlo ➡️

There is another way of considering mud...

If you were to record a solo guitar or a solo piano, lets say for a classical or any kind of acoustic pop, would you remove 250hz? No, probably in a solo situation you wont remove anything of it unless it is not properly recorded (bad room, bad mic positioning etc...).
So mudness is also a relative concept, it depends on which instrumentation you have goin on at the same time.

In an electrical bass, and in full a band situation, you certainly DON'T need things goin on between 250hz and 600-700hz.
But if you were to hear the bass solo you would need it.

Mudness and low mids are alittle like **contrast** setting on video, everybody uses this kind of analogies: bright, warm, cold, dirty, clean... well to me removing low mids accentuates the contrast in a image (blacks are blacker and white whiter), or in sound terms it accentuates the high harmonics and the extreme low ones. Not a natural sound, mudiness is in nature and real life, but in pop we want higher contrasts.

Originally Posted by Bydlo ➡️

There is another way of considering mud...

If you were to record a solo guitar or a solo piano, lets say for a classical or any kind of acoustic pop, would you remove 250hz? No, probably in a solo situation you wont remove anything of it unless it is not properly recorded (bad room, bad mic positioning etc...).
So mudness is also a relative concept, it depends on which instrumentation you have goin on at the same time.
.

Originally Posted by joeq ➡️

exactly
One reason that the mud "builds up" is because almost every instrument has a lot going on in that range. But none of my microphones are smart enough to know what other instruments I will be using in the song when I am recording with them.

If only there was a signal processor that could boost or cut certain frequencies.