Distortion between 100Hz & 300Hz occurring on some speakers with my tracks, why?

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dude7691

New member
Hi Guys,

I was just sat in my car which has a boombox in the back and was checking one of my tracks. Noticed that on my track the lower end seemed to be distorting a hell of a lot. Thought it might be my track, so I loaded some of denzel curry's stuff up and it seemed fine. Also tried a frequency test with the speakers and they distorted a bit in that range but not too much. Went home to check on a smaller speaker I have and that also seems to distort. However on my KRK 8's and my headphones the track sounds really clean. Any ideas why? It's just frustrating because I like to use pads and low end ambience to give my tracks a bit of atmosphere and then it sounds like s**t. Here's the track I'm on about, just want some feedback on how it sounds and if it distorts. (Not my main sc account hence the layout :D)

I know it's not perfect it's still work in progress xD

Testing Distortion Unfinished by Donald Thomas | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Thank you :)
 
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KRKs and headphones generally have a built-in 'smile' EQ curve (enhanced bass and treble), which might be fooling you on your tracks.
 
I see, never knew that. So basically you're saying I should reduce my bass and high mids down a few db in the mix? (I have Audio Technikas so they're pretty well balanced as far as I know)
 
Maybe I'm misunderstanding where you are in the process, but that mix is pretty slammed, so not too surprising that you hear some distortion. While the overall loudness may seem moderate, the wide dynamics cause it to smack up at 0dB all throughout, and that's one thing I'd suspect is contributing to the distortion.

I'd consider a bit of overall gain reduction and make sure your limiter is set closer to -1 than 0, then bounce it down to 24-bit wav and listen to that.

Screen Shot 2018-04-27 at 5.05.59 PM.png

P.S. Make sure the individual track peaks are well below 0dB too!
 
Thank you for your analysis, I'll have a go at some limiting stuff now, I'm guessing those peaks are mostly from the kicks I used, and the distortion I'm talking about is coming through right at the start from the pad. I think it might just be a problem with my speaker system to be honest, because everywhere else it sounds fine.

Many thanks :)
 
I just listened, that 'kick' sound and the low bass pad are both the problem. Way too loud in the mix. Did you record them too loud? Or just boost them in mixing? You should try using reference tracks with your KRKs and headphones - music similar to your own that you are familiar with - so you can see how they sound in comparison to your mixes. Throw a spectrum analyzer (like Voxengo Span) on both and see how they look in comparison, because your room can fool you too.
 
Hi mjb,

That is a kick drum just quite EQ'ed to fit with the track better, it's like a really chill hip hop thing, being used for a music video set on a beach so I wanted it to flow better, a big heavy kick doesn't really suit the track I think, but it still needs to come through and make and impact hence why it's quite boosted in the mix. I boosted the low pad up a bit little bit, but cut out most of the frequencies below 100Hz so it shouldn't be interfering with the kick too much which is sidechained to it. Are you talking about the synth bass or the synth which plays from 0:00?

The two images here show how the track looks in that spectrum analyser you recommended on the default settings. The one with less output is the start. The other one is when the track reaches its peak. I'm guessing if the output is above that 0db line it's too much?

My main problem is I set my fruity limiter to -0.6db to make sure this problem doesn't occur and on my headphones & KRK's it's not clipping at all, but purely on my car speaker it is. Most other tracks don't do that, it just seems to be this one. If it sounds good everywhere else other than my car's boombox is that a problem? It might just be a limitation of the speaker, it's not a particularly high end one anyway and it does distort on some other commercial tracks.

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Listened on my system. There is quite a bit of sub low end going on there with the kick. It could be the speakers that you hear distortion from are just farting because they can't reproduce those frequencies adequately. Just like back in the day, crappy speakers couldn't handle Metallica 'And Justice' record. Overall the mix sounds good but I can feel that the subs are a bit hot.

KRK 8's can reproduce most of those lows. The goal is to get enough of them in there to make the mix work on all systems. That can be a tough thing with music that has 40hz punchy kicks. Fine tune the level of those subs and see how much you can get without breaking up the speakers on the smaller systems.

It really comes down to what any system can handle. And trust that someone with a huge car stereo with huge subwoofers will still be able to reproduce the low end. I think you may just be pushing it a bit far. The KRK's are lying to you a bit because they can handle the lows. But also are not reproducing them accurately. I assume you don't have a subwoofer on your recording setup? I would recommend one so that you can have a realistic idea of how your recordings work on the systems with such.

In my control room it is obvious when I have too much sub stuff going on. When pens, beer cans and controllers rattle on my desk, I know it is too much. lol
 
I suspect the problem here is that there isn't any distortion, but the content is too complex at the bottom end to reproduce apart from on well balanced and tuned speakers. Testing in my studio sounds OK, no distortion, but on all my less good speakers, like in my edit suite and on the home hifi the bottom end has very specific notes that combine and the harmonics created get out of control. On the crappier speakers, I hear 'new' notes that are NOT there, and they're being created by mixing of those potent notes and rumbles at the bottom - the worst system I have has limited bass, and it can't reproduce the low notes, but it does reproduce the new phantom notes. Dropping the overall level seems to help a bit, but the bottom end is just really too busy.
 
dude7691 said:
Hi ecc,

If you click "more" on Soundcloud, then download it should download? Not sure why it's not :(
Click to expand...

Where does it say "more"? No matter, I find if I r/clck on the cloud, Properties I can find the URL, 'select all' copy and paste into IE11, Robert's y mum's brother...NOT doing all that bugger too often!

Dave.
 
Holy MOG! THAT is well'ard. I am only really deaf beyond 1kHz so that clip REALLY hit me! Not used to hearing music at those levels.

To me the bass seems completely 'disconnected' from the quite nice melody, almost as if it should not be there? Whatever, there is far too much of it.

I continue to be impressed with my AKG P92s, that bass is like a sledge hammer in the brain...Oooof!

Dave.
 
Hi Rob,

Yeah I get you, think that might be the problem. I like low pads and stuff but I acknowledge lower end speakers can struggle with reproducing those frequencies. Thank you for your feedback, I will implement it as best as I can. :)
 
Hi Jimmy,

Yeah the KRK 8's are great for low frequencies, sounds really clean on there. Why can't everyone have them eh? ;) The kicks are hitting around 100Hz I think, with some sub in there as well. I don't have a sub no, they're the 8's so I can get good low end anyway and I have neighbours who get mad already at 20% monitoring volume so I don't need them to file a complaint xD Haha yeah I know what you mean :D Thank you for your feedback, it is very much appreciated!
 
Hi ecc,

I mean it's definitely in tune, and I think it sounds quite nice to add atmosphere, I used a synth bass & an 808 in there at different points. Thanks for your comments about the melody :) I'll turn them both down a bit, I was just trying to get it on par with other tracks, the 808 especially seems a touch too loud thinking about it, my room fools me though, it's a small room with big speakers so :/

Haha glad your speakers are serving you well ;P

Thank you for your response & feedback :)
 
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