Shaking "the jeep"

[Jules]

IS car system low end a criteria you think about while mixing?

[C.Lambrechts]

My car is allways my first reference to check out a mix. nothing fancy in there ... just the stuff it came standard with. But I do drive up and down to the studio every day for about 60 minutes in total.

Also the number of people listening to the radio on their way to work .... maybe even the only time they do listen to music makes the car system very important. Inevitably I think one 'adapts' certain things to those kind of systems ... especially the low end. Car systems / cheap bedroom stereo's / boom boxes / little transistor radio's ....

[Teacher]

My car is also my main reference system for the same reasons as CL...i even find myself only listening to music either when i'm tracking/mixing or driving my car

[LTA]

Originally posted by Jules
IS car system low end a criteria you think about while mixing?

You are referring to subwoofers with the 40Hz bump, no?

Would there be anything besides instrumentation that would go towards that competition "boom car" sound?

[Dave Pensado]

There are 52 cards in the deck, if I play poker, I want to use all of them. In music, I have got to hear from 10hz to 30khz! I just love finishing a mix, and cranking the piss out of my mains and feel my body vibrate. (Isn't that an Olivia Newton John song?) It gets tuff down there, because the octaves are only 20-50 cycles wide. Use plenty of tube and class A electronics to avoid phase shift, and the lo-end will be clear.

[LTA]

Originally posted by Dave Pensado
There are 52 cards in the deck, if I play poker, I want to use all of them.

Hmm, didn't make as much sense as I thought it did when i typed it.

Some music has low frequency pads and basslines that live completely in the range of a subwoofer. Its a big thing in hip hop and electronica. If you don't have subs, you probably won't even realize the content is there. It tends to be an element unto itself, without necessarily doubling anything, but is competely manipulative towards the feel and pulse of the track.

It also shows up doubling drum parts. I'm sure you are familiar with the illustrous 808 kick sound, that will have the sustain of the kick manipulated to control the pulse of the music. Some of those kicks can sustain for a half measure or more, depending on the intentions of the programmer.

But, since car audio systems tend to have mismatched components, would there be any particular attention paid to keeping the sub-bass parts confined to the common frequency response range of a sub? If it goes over the crossover frequency, there will be a possible level mismatch on the part, and a definite timbre shift. It would be like loosing the low B on a 5-string bass with the full range speakers, only in reverse.

I just mentioned 40Hz because that seems to be the most common tuning on ported boxes. My question, based on jules' question, i believe, is "Are you mindful of the various frequency responses of the car audio components while mixing and producing?"