big bass big problems

hudempka · 26th January 2007

hello board, I am working on a minimal techno song in my home studio that i got to sound just perfect. the low end kick has a great slightly pitching sound that booms without overpowering the mix. I worked on it on my dynaudio bm6/9s and headphones and it sounded great.

After finalizing the song and going to play it back in my third reference system, the mighty mazda protege cassete deck fed with an ipod cassette/minijack thing, the kick sounds like complete shit, hardly audible at all with only the attack and a faint hint of it doing it's thing. I have taken it to a few other shit computer systems and it seems fine....i have never had this problem with a song before and am at a complete loss as to anyway to resolve it. if it sounds shit in the most dead space i have, this is a problem no? the ipod/crap cassette/standard car stereo could also be the cause, but i doubt this as i have used it as a reference for the last 3 years and it's never been this off before.........

the sound in the car is like moving into the middle of my acoustically flawed room where everything cancels itself out, instead of the sweet spot where i monitor from

can someone explain what kind this phasing problem and if there's anything i can do?

here is a link to a sample of the song in question
http://tinyurl.com/yt57t9

also if anyone else can let me know how the low end sounds on their home system it would be much appreciated

MASSIVE Master · 26th January 2007

"Running it to the car" is almost always indicative of a lack of sufficient bass trapping. Fix the room, fix the problem.

bmanic · 26th January 2007

Listening to your clip reveals that the bass is basically a single sustained note with a gentle little transient "pluck". Have you considered the possibility of this particular note being canceled out in the drivers position in the car. Try moving to the back seat of the car or passenger position?

Also, on my little stereo here at home I would say you have too much bass. You need to enhance the transient a bit somehow and not just that "pluck". A compressor with a fairly long attack that clamps down after about 40ms or so.. after the "pluck" sound. This way you get "pluck+thump+oooomf" instead of "pluck+oomf". The "thump" part is very important to get that chest pounding feeling.

sorry to confuse you with my silly words but I don't know how to describe it better.

Cheers!
bManic

joshelevator · 27th January 2007

it sounds good to me. the kick doesn't have much punch to it but thats common enough in some techno. the subs are there on my system. perhaps your car doesn't get very subby and you're other mixes had kicks with a bit more punch in the low-mids ie 909ish ect...

hudempka · 27th January 2007

cheers all, will re-do the bass, just a weird issue of that particular freq in the drivers seat of the car, gonna retweak the kick.

much appreciated

matucha · 27th January 2007

maybe you should attentuate a bit of the sub and boost the harmonics... maybe it could be done on 2buss quite well...

my S3A are playing it well, but there is a lot of wind out of the ports too early

Sensater · 28th January 2007

I tend to agree with this....your kick is too low for your car stereo to reproduce, but the transient isn't so you hear that but not the low meat of the kick. Cool song!

Quote:

Originally Posted by joshelevator

it sounds good to me. the kick doesn't have much punch to it but thats common enough in some techno. the subs are there on my system. perhaps your car doesn't get very subby and you're other mixes had kicks with a bit more punch in the low-mids ie 909ish ect...

26th January 2007	#1
hudempka Gear interested Joined: May 2005 Posts: 29 Thread Starter	big bass big problems hello board, I am working on a minimal techno song in my home studio that i got to sound just perfect. the low end kick has a great slightly pitching sound that booms without overpowering the mix. I worked on it on my dynaudio bm6/9s and headphones and it sounded great. After finalizing the song and going to play it back in my third reference system, the mighty mazda protege cassete deck fed with an ipod cassette/minijack thing, the kick sounds like complete shit, hardly audible at all with only the attack and a faint hint of it doing it's thing. I have taken it to a few other shit computer systems and it seems fine....i have never had this problem with a song before and am at a complete loss as to anyway to resolve it. if it sounds shit in the most dead space i have, this is a problem no? the ipod/crap cassette/standard car stereo could also be the cause, but i doubt this as i have used it as a reference for the last 3 years and it's never been this off before......... the sound in the car is like moving into the middle of my acoustically flawed room where everything cancels itself out, instead of the sweet spot where i monitor from can someone explain what kind this phasing problem and if there's anything i can do? here is a link to a sample of the song in question http://tinyurl.com/yt57t9 also if anyone else can let me know how the low end sounds on their home system it would be much appreciated Last edited by hudempka; 26th January 2007 at 07:38 PM.. Reason: adding url link

26th January 2007	#2
MASSIVE Master Lives for gear Joined: Mar 2004 Location: Chicago (Schaumburg / Hoffman Est.) IL Posts: 2,709 Verified Member	"Running it to the car" is almost always indicative of a lack of sufficient bass trapping. Fix the room, fix the problem. __________________ John Scrip - Massive Mastering, LLC - www.massivemastering.com Spoon-feed a newb some answer and he'll mix for a day - Get him to think about it and figure it out for himself and he'll mix for a lifetime --- JS

27th January 2007	#6
matucha Lives for gear Joined: Dec 2002 Location: Prague, Czech Republic Posts: 2,952	maybe you should attentuate a bit of the sub and boost the harmonics... maybe it could be done on 2buss quite well... my S3A are playing it well, but there is a lot of wind out of the ports too early __________________ Matous Godik www.soundcloud.com/zka4t

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26th January 2007	#3
bmanic Lives for gear Joined: Oct 2005 Posts: 843	Listening to your clip reveals that the bass is basically a single sustained note with a gentle little transient "pluck". Have you considered the possibility of this particular note being canceled out in the drivers position in the car. Try moving to the back seat of the car or passenger position? Also, on my little stereo here at home I would say you have too much bass. You need to enhance the transient a bit somehow and not just that "pluck". A compressor with a fairly long attack that clamps down after about 40ms or so.. after the "pluck" sound. This way you get "pluck+thump+oooomf" instead of "pluck+oomf". The "thump" part is very important to get that chest pounding feeling. sorry to confuse you with my silly words but I don't know how to describe it better. Cheers! bManic

27th January 2007	#4
joshelevator Gear addict Joined: Feb 2006 Posts: 486	it sounds good to me. the kick doesn't have much punch to it but thats common enough in some techno. the subs are there on my system. perhaps your car doesn't get very subby and you're other mixes had kicks with a bit more punch in the low-mids ie 909ish ect...