Bass response while mixing.

[ChristopherDawn]

So I've noticed something while I'm mixing and I was just curious to get some more information about it.

I'm mixing through Yorkvilles and while sitting at my desk mixing the bass response is fine.

Later on when I burned a copy of my mixes to listen to in my car the kick drum was huge. Huge huge huge.

I noticed that if instead of sitting at my desk I walked about 8 feet to the back of my room I could hear the same thing, the kick drum huge instead of in place as it was in the mix when I was up close.

What is causing this bass response to be as unhyped as it really is up close?

My monitors? Standing waves cancelling the bass? Needing bass traps?

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Your room is the culprit in this case.... room nodes can cause frequency "holes" in different areas of your room.......

 

[mrface2112]

bluebear is right. thus, you have two choices.....fix your room or learn your room.

preferably both.


cheers,
wade

 

[ChristopherDawn]

bluebear is right. thus, you have two choices.....fix your room or learn your room.

preferably both.


cheers,
wade

Well I'm pretty much figuring my next g will be spent on some room treatment.

For now I guess I'll just mix, walk to the back of my room, mix, walk to the back of the room, etc.

 

[Gidge]

i think its a matter of learning your monitors......reference CD's are a must with music that has a low end you are looking for......

btw, i go in the hallway to double check my low end.......

 

[ChristopherDawn]

btw, i go in the hallway to double check my low end.......

And I just read an article in TapeOp where a guy goes into his studio's hallway to check his low end.

 

[SubA]

I use a pair of shitty Optimus headphones to check mine... and my car. I've found though that if bass sounds good through those cans, it'll sound good anywhere.

 

[kylen]

Get thee over to John Sayers, SAE, here, and Ethan Winers and spend some time reading, measuring, walking around listening (you've begun that), and putting a little acoustic treatment up as well as putting your speakers in the best spot.

To get a respectable improvement didn't require a lot of money in my case but it did cost some time and planning and thinking. I didn't treat the room so that all spots sound good - just the little zone I sit and mix/master in using nearfields.

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php
http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/titles/Acoustics1.htm
https://homerecording.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?forumid=20
http://www.recording.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=34

 

[HangDawg]

My room sucked bad. I had the same problem. Mix was good at desk, move to couch in back of room and bass was pounding. After $500 of rigid fiberglas (and no more 90Ø corners), the bass is pretty smooth through out the room. I can even hear stereo seperation 14' back from the monitors. It's a narrow, but it's there.

 

[Ethan Winer]

Christopher,

> while sitting at my desk mixing the bass response is fine. <

That's what you think!

You already got good advice - treat the room. All untreated rooms suffer from low frequency peaks and severe nulls. And it's not a matter of finding the right place in the room because no place is accurate. Not where you sit, not at the rear wall, not anywhere.

I'll also mention that "learning the room" is futile because the problem is not an overall lack of bass, or increase in bass. Rather, your room has a series of many peaks and dips that riddle the entire low end.

Equally futile is trying to use a reference track from a good sounding commercial CD. That can sometimes help a little, but only if both songs are in the same key.

For the full story see the Acoustics FAQ, second in the list on my Articles page:

www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html

--Ethan

 

[chessrock]

Obviously, the room has a lot to do with it.

But with that said, I've also noticed that a lot of nearfield monitors are falsely advertised as nearfields, when in fact it would be more accurate to call them near/mid fields.

And I've noticed this even with the really nice monitors in well-treated rooms . . . I just hear the bass better if I back up about 2-3 feet more from where I think the sweet spot is.

Maybe it's just me.