Bass sound problems

OnCourse

New member
Hi All,

Joined today and hoping someone might be able to help.

I've recently moved and am using a spare room for my home studio. At my previous place I had a separate outbuilding which to me sounded really great. However, I'm now confronted with a bass problem. Certain bass notes almost disappear and at first I thought it was my bad hearing but I asked a couple of friends to listen with their 'good' ears and they confirm the same. So I'm assuming it's something to do with the room, but I have no idea what to try to alleviate the issue.

The room measures 5.7 metres x 2.7 metres and my pc and speakers are set up at one end with my desk going across the 2.7 width, if that makes sense.

Recording is only a pastime for me. I'm 70 years young and totally deaf in one ear and have to wear a hearing aid in my working ear which probably only has about 50% hearing, so I'm not looking to achieve acoustic treatment to a professional standard. I would just like to be able to hear all the bass notes.

Any ideas would be much appreciated

Stay safe

Dave
 
Hi OnCourse....and welcome to the forum. You don't mention the dimensions or details of your previous room.......so it's hard to say whether or not what's happening is that the last room was causing too much bass build up....and you liked that or were used to that.......and your new room is possibly more accurate. What are you using for playback / monitors? What do your headphones tell you about the bass?What was in your last room.....furniture....etc? And the same for your current room. Moving along the length of your current room.......does the bass response change? Not saying a room can't reduce some bass..........but it's not terribly likely. All that being said........we need more detail.
 
Hi Mickster

Thank you for your reply. I think you are correct in saying my previous room probably had too much bass and I always had to compensate in the mix to ensure it sounded okay when played elsewhere. The room was quite large, measuring 7.5 metres x 4 metres. It was fully carpeted and only had a small sofa to one side of my seating position. I don't have any soft furnishings in this room but it is carpeted and of course has curtains.

When I listen with headphones the bass is absolutely fine with a fairly even volume on each not withing the octave (C1 to C2). I should mention I'm not using a real bass but Spectrasonics Trilian, but I've tried other bass instruments with no luck. It's almost as if the keyboard is naff on certain notes, but I have 4 keyboards here and they're all the same. If I play C2 then C1 the volume on each is roughly even. If I play F, G, A between the two the volume of those notes is considerably reduced. When I first noticed it I really thought my hearing had deteriorated but as I say I played the same thing to a couple of musician friends and they went "Wow, what's wrong with the keyboard?".

I'm convinced it's a room issue. There's nothing wrong with the sound of the bass on those notes that play with what I consider to be the correct volume but the other notes make you want to hit the keys as hard as you can to compensate for the loss of volume, but that doesn't make any difference.
 
What do you use for playback? What monitors specifically? And what headphones as well. If your headphones are not bass heavy (as many today are) but you feel that the bass they deliver is fine then what are you playing back with that sounds bass light? How does it sound with commercial mixes?
 
Bass Traps. almost every room needs bass trapping, good ratio rooms need less but the typical room in a house needs bass traps. If the room has uneven bass frequencies nothing will fix it except fitting some bass traps to even it up.
Alan
 
What do you use for playback? What monitors specifically? And what headphones as well. If your headphones are not bass heavy (as many today are) but you feel that the bass they deliver is fine then what are you playing back with that sounds bass light? How does it sound with commercial mixes?

My monitors are Samson Media ONE 3a and phones are Sony MDR-7506. It's the same with commercial mixes... the bass doesn't seem to be a consistent volume.
 
Bass Traps. almost every room needs bass trapping, good ratio rooms need less but the typical room in a house needs bass traps. If the room has uneven bass frequencies nothing will fix it except fitting some bass traps to even it up.
Alan

Thank you Wizendoz. I guess it's not a easy as buying a couple of these traps and trying them in various positions is it? As mentioned in my OP this is only a pastime.
 
My monitors are Samson Media ONE 3a and phones are Sony MDR-7506. It's the same with commercial mixes... the bass doesn't seem to be a consistent volume.

Well, there you go. I couldn't find an online frequency curve for those speakers, but being that they have 3" drivers, they have NO frequency response below about 90Hz is my guess. When you are hearing 'bass', you are actually hearing the harmonics (higher frequencies), and not the low fundamental notes. A bass guitar, recorded, will have some harmonics. A sine wave at the low frequency would just disappear (no harmonics).
 
What he said ^^^^^^^

You have monitors that don't reproduce accurate bass enough for most rooms....even small ones. If you're using them as your playback.......then I'm not at all surprised that your bass response is erratic at best. The Sony's will give you a more accurate view of the bass......along with an expanded high end as well. I'd consider getting some decent monitors it it was me.
 
Ah right, thank you all for your replies... much appreciated. Could you recommend any reasonably priced monitors that would be better than I have?
 
Many use the JBL305P series monitors. They're currently on line at around $109 each. That's a great deal. For the room size you have......they should work fine.....with plenty of bass extension.......but that's not to say that you will not need some room treatment if or when you encounter any playback sound issues. All in all.....your 3" speakers are CERTAINLY at least part of your bass issue.
 
I have the first generation of those ^^^ JBLs. The only issue with them (and many other low-priced studio speakers) is that they are rear ported - meaning you need to have them away from a wall, or have acoustic trapping behind them.
What's your budget?
 
Thank you Wizendoz. I guess it's not a easy as buying a couple of these traps and trying them in various positions is it? As mentioned in my OP this is only a pastime.

The best position will be the corners behind the monitors, a little bit of DIY and you can build some bass traps very easy. Lots of info about building some simple bass traps here on the forums and on youtube. Even for a past time home studio makes all the difference.

Alan
 
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