WHY does bass cause more problems than mid/high reflections?

[briefcasemanx]

what is it about bass waves that make them worse than those higher up in frequency? What will a bass wave do when reflected back into a microphone and mixed with the original signal that doesn't happen when mids/highs reflect back in. I'm speaking about tracking, not mixing/control rooms.

Why is there such an urgency to control bass above everything else?

[Kiwiburger]

When you hear a car stereo from two blocks away - is it the highs or the lows that you hear first?

What takes more power and has bigger, heavier speakers - a guitar amp or a bass rig?

Bass just takes more energy to be percieved by the human ear to be at a similar volume. And it travel further - like AM radio in the kHz range travels further than FM radio in the MHz range. The longer bass wave forms can travel around bigger obstacles - or, the smaller high frequency wave forms are more easily stopped by small obstacles.

Let's say somebody had a brick on a rope, and they were going to swing it around and then let it fly into your path - would you prefer that it be swung very fast on a very short rope, or swung slower on a very long rope? Same mass, same power source, just a different frequency ...

[bpape]

As you move up the spectrum, the modal spacing in a room gets closer and closer together. So, in the mids and highs, you don't get the severe frequency response swings that you do in the bass.

Also, air, carpet, etc. are wonderful upper mid/HF absorbers but lousy in the bottom end (refer to previous car stereo analogy). So, the upper frequencies tend to police themselves to a certain extent where the bottom end will ring on for a LOOONNNGGG time if unattended.

Lastly, due to the strength of the bottom end waves, if uncontrolled, it can tend to swamp and mask a lot of other sounds. This is also true in the playback environment.

I don't think it's so much doing bass above all else, it's doing it as well as everything else.

Bryan

[u b k]

bass doesn't cause more problems than mids/highs. it may be easier to perceive bass issues when you're ears aren't as clued in to problems in the upper registers, but that doesn't mean the other problems aren't there and wreaking havoc on your tones and, ultimately, on your ability to mix them into something coherent.


gregoire
del
ubk
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[bendecido]

sorry to hijack the thread but what material is best for absobing the bass frequencies.

Thanks

[DeepSpace]

Originally Posted by bendecido

sorry to hijack the thread but what material is best for absobing the bass frequencies.

Thanks

Absorption of of bass requires bass traps - structures build in a variety of sizes with permeable surfaces and damping material, so that the bass can enter but become dispersed (and therefore significantly reduced) before exiting.

The design of the bass traps is, in a sense, more important than the materials they are made of (although the materials must be appropriate to the chosen design). Fabric, wadding, ply (or various particle boards) and timber frames are the most common materials.

If you do a Google search you'll find a number of sites where designs for various bass traps have been published.

[trigger]

Originally Posted by bendecido

sorry to hijack the thread but what material is best for absobing the bass frequencies.

Thanks

Thick fiber glass boards placed in corners of the room.