bass mixing?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nathan1984
  • Start date Start date
mixsit said:
That's a pretty big leap.
All that's happend so far if tossing around a bunch of generalities and unknown cause and effects' to try to explain the what and why of this as yet undifined 'less bass.
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The 'generality' of the fact that no monitor can even represent itself properly in an untreated room, is the bottom line. $10,000 monitors in a shitty room, will not translate any better than a $500 pair. That is not to say that you cant 'learn' what your monitors tell you in a crappy space, but you will be doing a bunch of guessing and wasting time. Giving advice on someone else's room and their monitor choices, is the biggest generalization possible. It is not possible to tell someone what monitors they need, without knowing the sound of the room and..........hell, I won't even try to generalize that. It just gets stupid to try to give advice, if the steps are not taken to make the room worthy. Even then, to what degree is it worthy? That is up to the one using the space, and his/her own subjective opinion.
 
grimtraveller said:
... But both Gekko Zzed and Mixsit implied that the monitor in question and by extension, monitors could be hyped in the bass area, which rather blows open the whole monitor debate again.
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Ah no not at all. I was just trying to rephrase and play around with the implication. :D
 
grimtraveller said:
So is the idea that monitors are supposed to offer a greater degree of accuracy than stereo speakers a load of rubbish then ?
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Not really.

'Monitors' are supposed to be accurate. 'Monitor' is a term used to appeal to home recordists because it sounds more professional than 'speaker'. But monitors, like speakers, come in varying degrees of quality (and therefore accuracy). So listening to something through 'monitors' does not necessarily nor automatically guarantee accuracy of reproduction.

Having said that, you can be fooled by even the most accurate monitors. For example, if the monitors are placed in corners, the corners will reinforce the bottom end. If you are mixing in a situation like this, you will tend to drop the level of the bass accordingly. When you play the results on another system, you could find that bottom end to be poorly represented as a consequence.

The other point made elsewhere is that many other systems (e.g. home stereos, systems in cars etc) have hyped bottom ends. This really makes no difference. If the bass is light on in your mix, it will still be under-represented in these systems, specially compared to tracks that have been mixed on accurate systems (where 'system' means room and speakers).
 
gecko zzed said:
...The other point made elsewhere is that many other systems (e.g. home stereos, systems in cars etc) have hyped bottom ends. This really makes no difference. If the bass is light on in your mix, it will still be under-represented in these systems, specially compared to tracks that have been mixed on accurate systems (where 'system' means room and speakers).
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That.

The 'generality' of the fact that no monitor can even represent itself properly in an untreated room, is the bottom line. $10,000 monitors in a shitty room, will not translate any better than a $500 pair. ...
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This is fine, but my point is Nathan has not explained or perhaps figured out what 'bass fading (or whatever) is.
Some simple a/b comparisons will go a long way to indicate to him is it a bass quality' issue?, level differences?, mud/boom/masking? Which system has more (or less) of what?
 
gecko zzed said:
'Monitors' are supposed to be accurate. 'Monitor' is a term used to appeal to home recordists because it sounds more professional than 'speaker'. But monitors, like speakers, come in varying degrees of quality (and therefore accuracy). So listening to something through 'monitors' does not necessarily nor automatically guarantee accuracy of reproduction.

Having said that, you can be fooled by even the most accurate monitors. For example, if the monitors are placed in corners, the corners will reinforce the bottom end. If you are mixing in a situation like this, you will tend to drop the level of the bass accordingly. When you play the results on another system, you could find that bottom end to be poorly represented as a consequence.

The other point made elsewhere is that many other systems (e.g. home stereos, systems in cars etc) have hyped bottom ends. This really makes no difference. If the bass is light on in your mix, it will still be under-represented in these systems, specially compared to tracks that have been mixed on accurate systems (where 'system' means room and speakers).
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Ah, thanks. That makes sense too.
 
mixsit said:
That.


This is fine, but my point is Nathan has not explained or perhaps figured out what 'bass fading (or whatever) is.
Some simple a/b comparisons will go a long way to indicate to him is it a bass quality' issue?, level differences?, mud/boom/masking? Which system has more (or less) of what?
Click to expand...

To a degree, I agree. But I see a problem comparing 'professional' mixes, to the home ones in a less than ideal environment. The professionally recorded/mastered recordings, are going to show less issues in the room, due to the level of quality in the environment that it was recorded in. The old 'apples and oranges' analogy works here. IMO, it comes down to the room, before anything else.
 
Trying to be clear, and not doing so well here :)
The comparison is some known commercial reference mix on the two systems. This as a learning/discovery tool.
He should also (if he hasn't yet) as an additional discovery tool check out the bass qualities/levels in different spots in his room..
A room/system can be... whatever. But at least one can begin to get relative information.
 
Ok, so I have come to the realization that bass traps are a definite need. I do move around in my room when mixing to get my mix from different angles, it's just that with an untreated room, my mixes aren't coming out even close to accurate. Tax time is upon us, I may snag up some treatments, as long as the landlord don't care, that was one of those things that stopped me from doing it already.
 
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