do i have to cater for "bass boost"

[sandwiches]

hi

recently, i played my song through a friend's really good stereo system which can handle a lot of bass.

naturally, he has bass boost on. anyway, my song sounded really weird. like it was sorta too bassy, and sorta a little muddy.

it didn't sound like it on most speakers i've played out of. probably becuase the bass was set on the volume i wanted to be.

so i was thinking, to be a good mixer, do i have to cater for this bass boost? cause i don't know how to? do i remove the bass from all the other instruments except for the bass, so that when the bass frequencies are enhanced it doesn't sound muddy?

anyone got any tips?

thanks

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

You shouldn't have to cater to it... if your low-end balance is good, it won't sound "weird," even with the bass-boost on (although it may sound bass-exaggerated...)

Getting the low-end to sit properly is always a challenge -- this is why the monitors and the listening environment can make or break you when you mix.

 

[knightsy]

Do other CD's sound like muddy crap on his system as well?

 

[Recording Engineer]

This is a tough one... One I'm currently experiencing myself.

I've been at a point for a while now where my mixes translate very well. That is, everything but the bass guitar volume. Not bass guitar tone or frequency response, JUST bass guitar volume.

By the way, kick drum translates just as well as anything else, so we're talking about bass guitar volume with me here.

For the most part, if it's a decent pair of speakers, bass volume is fine and still translates well. If the speakers are just plain crap and the system is made to be bass-heavy (such as your typical car stereo system), this is where I have the problem with the bass guitar volume not translating... It's significantly too much bass guitar volume a lot of the time.

Sometimes I'll have the problem with little boom boxes that have some-sorta bass boost scheme going-on where the high lowend is extremely heavy with the bass boost scheme on and completely no lowend with the bass boost scheme off.

However, for the most part, the problem occurance with bass guitar volume not translating is in cars, where if it doesn't translate, it's significantly too much, just before almost being a tiny bit overwhealming).

Oh, I should also mention in these cases with little boom boxes and car stereos, most of the time, the bass guitar volume is fine until listening at a somewhat loud volume. Loud enough where you're still very comfortable, but very loud for what the system is capable of outputting; just to a point where the speakers can still handle it. Anything more though and everything just turns to complete crap all of a sudden.

So now when I'm mixing, I'm always unsure what to do... Should I mix the bass guitar volume significantly lower than what I like it on my monitors (2 COMPLETELY different pairs where mixes translate completely, including the bass guitar volume, but you can still hear the character imprints of one vs. the other; which is to be expected.)? However, I sure don't want the bass volume to not be enough when people listen on a decent pair of speakers and certainly don't want it to sound like not enough in my own control room!

Part of the problem has to do with mastering. If I knew everyone or even most would go have it mastered, then I probably wouldn't think twice about it and keep doing what I've been doing. The problem is that most people I get don't; dispite how much I encourage them to. Idiots!!!