frequency response curve of commercial home stereo equipment

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hi_Flyer
  • Start date Start date
H

Hi_Flyer

New member
does anybody know what frequencies are usually boosted in home or car stereo stereo equipment? Is there a curve that is sort of "typical" in mid to low priced home stereo gear??

I ask because one of the problems that I am noticing with my mixes is that they seem to sound muddy on home stereo equipment, and I think this is due to too much energy in the 100-250Hz range... When I cut too much of this out on my monitors, it seems to make everything sound too thin...

Anybody else experience anything like this??
 
I wouldn\'t worry about that man.

Just get it the best you can on a GOOD set of monitors and that that.

But generally the masses will go fir the smiley face on home eq settings.
 
I'd listen to more commercially released material through the monitors you mix on to "learn" them. If you can get to know them, your mixes will start translating better system to system.
 
Hi_Flyer said:
does anybody know what frequencies are usually boosted in home or car stereo stereo equipment? Is there a curve that is sort of "typical" in mid to low priced home stereo gear??

I ask because one of the problems that I am noticing with my mixes is that they seem to sound muddy on home stereo equipment, and I think this is due to too much energy in the 100-250Hz range... When I cut too much of this out on my monitors, it seems to make everything sound too thin...

Anybody else experience anything like this??
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did a recent mix, and I found that my woofers really woofed around the 125 Hz or so. This was really apparent with the bass guitar. I believe it is due to there being a lot of 2 and 3 harmonics from the low notes that all meet around this point.

I used about a 5 db tight cut (High Q value, but not the extreme) to bring down around that, and wallah, nice even bass.

Also, you may really consider seeing what your snare drum is doing around this range of 200 and below. Consider cutting the snare off with a high pass filter around 200 or so.

Additionally, a lot of people have too much bass in their vocals. Treat the vocals the same as the snare. Cut out the needless lows.

Address if any other instruments are eating up low frequency. Keyboards, guitar, toms toms, your drum over heads, etc. Figure out if you need their lows there or not and apply some high pass filtering.

Once you do these things, you will find that your lows are more defined and less muddy. :cool:
 
I have been listening to these monitors for about a year now, in order to "learn" them. I think I'm starting to learn them, or at least I thought I was...

The problem is that I get my mixes to sound great on the monitors, but then they don't sound so good on a regular system.
 
Hi_Flyer said:
I have been listening to these monitors for about a year now, in order to "learn" them. I think I'm starting to learn them, or at least I thought I was...

The problem is that I get my mixes to sound great on the monitors, but then they don't sound so good on a regular system.
Click to expand...

It's more than likely the room you are monitoring in. Do you have kind of bass trapping?
 
Hi_Flyer said:
I have been listening to these monitors for about a year now, in order to "learn" them. I think I'm starting to learn them, or at least I thought I was...

The problem is that I get my mixes to sound great on the monitors, but then they don't sound so good on a regular system.
Click to expand...

Well, what good comercial music sounds good on your regular systems ? Music in the veins of what you are mixing. Then, how do those commerical CDs sound on your monitors ? Find the differences, and compensate on your monitors.

It sounds like you might be using overall mix eq to fix your mudiness, instead of addressing the tracks on their own before you mix. The overlapping and competing low frequencies are STILL there when you are trying to thin it out.

If you try and reduce the amount of overlap by eq'ing each of your tracks to get rid of useless low energy, then you can start to fix your problem and find that your mixes can breath. (i.e., believe it or not, snare drums go down below 100Hz or so and you don't need that, or the tom tom rumble that you can get from o-heads, or the low breathiness on vocal tracks that are more suited for talk radio, etc.)

See my post above for some suggestions.

Sush
 
sushi-mon said:
Yeah, I did a recent mix, and I found that my woofers really woofed around the 125 Hz or so. This was really apparent with the bass guitar. I believe it is due to there being a lot of 2 and 3 harmonics from the low notes that all meet around this point.

I used about a 5 db tight cut (High Q value, but not the extreme) to bring down around that, and wallah, nice even bass.

Also, you may really consider seeing what your snare drum is doing around this range of 200 and below. Consider cutting the snare off with a high pass filter around 200 or so.

Additionally, a lot of people have too much bass in their vocals. Treat the vocals the same as the snare. Cut out the needless lows.

Address if any other instruments are eating up low frequency. Keyboards, guitar, toms toms, your drum over heads, etc. Figure out if you need their lows there or not and apply some high pass filtering.

Once you do these things, you will find that your lows are more defined and less muddy. :cool:
Click to expand...

I have been hi-passing the vox and snare like you said. Maybe not quite up to 200Hz, maybe a bit lower... I'll have to double-check some of my other tracks to see if there are some other places where I can filter some low-end energy...

I think my problem is the low end of the guitar and the bass guitar. I'm noticing this alot with the band I'm recording right now, because their stuff is kinda heavy and crunchy and I wanted to keep some of the low stuff in the guitars, so I'm trying not to hi-pass them too high.

Where do the "lows" typically stop and the "low-mids" begin?
 
HangDawg said:
It's more than likely the room you are monitoring in. Do you have kind of bass trapping?
Click to expand...

unfortunately, no I have no treatment in the room. But the same mix will sound fine on the monitors and muddy on the stereo in the same room. What does that mean?? It makes me think its the hyped low-end in the stereo speakers, and I just can't hear the muddines on the monitors, or just don't notice it as much???

I mix on M-Audio BX8s too, so my monitors have some low-end response...
 
sushi-mon said:
Well, what good comercial music sounds good on your regular systems ? Music in the veins of what you are mixing. Then, how do those commerical CDs sound on your monitors ? Find the differences, and compensate on your monitors.

It sounds like you might be using overall mix eq to fix your mudiness, instead of addressing the tracks on their own before you mix. The overlapping and competing low frequencies are STILL there when you are trying to thin it out.
Click to expand...

No, I know that you have to get at the source, and get the seperation in the mix. I understand that and I'm trying to do it. Maybe I'm just having a hard time hearing the difference in this range...
 
Hi_Flyer said:
I have been hi-passing the vox and snare like you said. Maybe not quite up to 200Hz, maybe a bit lower... I'll have to double-check some of my other tracks to see if there are some other places where I can filter some low-end energy...

I think my problem is the low end of the guitar and the bass guitar. I'm noticing this alot with the band I'm recording right now, because their stuff is kinda heavy and crunchy and I wanted to keep some of the low stuff in the guitars, so I'm trying not to hi-pass them too high.

Where do the "lows" typically stop and the "low-mids" begin?
Click to expand...

Yeah, well crunchy low guitar and low bass I imagine tend to be figthing each other. Low mids I would say are from 200-500 hZ. I would try to shelf a bunch of low crunchy guitar, otherwise where is the bass ? Why even have a bass ?

Electric Guitar can eat up A LOT of frequency !!!! Try finding a better spot for it away from the lows. Just do it !
 
Hi_Flyer said:
unfortunately, no I have no treatment in the room. But the same mix will sound fine on the monitors and muddy on the stereo in the same room. What does that mean?? It makes me think its the hyped low-end in the stereo speakers, and I just can't hear the muddines on the monitors, or just don't notice it as much???

I mix on M-Audio BX8s too, so my monitors have some low-end response...
Click to expand...

Can you post some of these mixes ? Maybe it would help to have some of us listen to them ?

The bx8s are a rear ported speaker. Rear ported speakers push low energy behind the speaker, and they do not do well near walls. I dislike rear ported speakers for this reason, because a lot of low energy air is going away from you. I don't understand how that can be good for nearfield monitoring. This could be a big part of your problem.
 
interesting. I have them a few inches from a wall...

I posted some stuff in the mp3 mixing clinic. Some older mixes, and then some brand new mixes of some of the same stuff at the bottom

http://www.homerecording.org/bbs/showthread.php?t=188302

This tune in particular sounds decent in the low end


These one on the other hand are a bit muddy...



Still fighting the guitar tone and muddines on this one
 
Hi_Flyer said:
interesting. I have them a few inches from a wall...

I posted some stuff in the mp3 mixing clinic. Some older mixes, and then some brand new mixes of some of the same stuff at the bottom

http://www.homerecording.org/bbs/showthread.php?t=188302

This tune in particular sounds decent in the low end


These one on the other hand are a bit muddy...



Still fighting the guitar tone and muddines on this one
Click to expand...


Man, there's a lot of issues that need sorting out in these tunes. Nothing short of starting over will really fix them.
 
Thanks for posting Flyer! I am listening on junky computer speakers, and using a 7 band windows media eq.

Does not sound like you are too far off with these. I am digging it. However, I do note that those crunchy guitars are seriously taking up frequencies from 125Hz all the way up to 8,000 Hz ! The vocal seems to have most of its presence from 1-2 KHz, soften up its lower end starting around 1k.

I could hardly discerene the bass well (my set up here at work). The snare seems to have its hit mostly around 2 k or so and does not seem to be cluttering up the low end.

I will bring in my studio headphones tomorrow and try to give them a better listen.

I guess you need to figure out where you want your guitars. I would seriously consider trying to shelf them from 200-500, and making a valley "below" the vocals and maybe softening their upper registers a little to bring out some more air in the drums and cymbals.

I think I hear a lot of tom work (or is that double bass ?) You might try to fit your toms in the 200-500 shelf area where you cut your guitars, and roll them off to get rid of too much rumble. This should help your bass guitar come through a little, and I would imagine all these things should help unclutter these mixes in the low end.

If you want, I would be more than happy to try my hand at some of these mixes. I have some Event tr8s (similar to your bx8s, but with a front port). Let me know if you are interested, I have a Pro-tools LE rig.
 
This may be one of the reason it sounds like ass. I see you were going for the, louder is better mix.
 
thanks for listening man!

hmm... yeah the bass is in there, but its all mixed up with the low part of the guitar. Its like you don't notice it until you mute the track and then its like you can tell something is missing. but there is no seperation between them...

I was going for a big guitar sound. the band wants the guitars to be dominant in the mix...

I think I have a somewhat better handle on the upper end of the guitar. There was a nasty peak around 2k that I cut out...plus there is some serious fizzy nastiness on the guitar on the right side (poor mic placement) so I tried to make some cuts in the 4-8k range to tame that. maybe I need to cut more?? There are several narrow/deep cuts in that range, should I try one wide/shallow instead??

I appreciate the offer to mix, but I use n-Track, not PT. How would you get the tracks into PT?
 
HangDawg said:
This may be one of the reason it sounds like ass. I see you were going for the, louder is better mix.
Click to expand...

well yeah. isn't everybody?

I could ease off the limiter, but I really don't think thats gonna solve my problem in the low end though...
 
Hi_Flyer said:
well yeah. isn't everybody?

I could ease off the limiter, but I really don't think thats gonna solve my problem in the low end though...
Click to expand...


I might solve the distorted can't tell what the hell is going on mess though.

If you were going for the big guitar sound, you went about it the wrong way. Let me ask you this first, did you let the guitar player set the controls on his amp? If you did, that was your first and biggest mistake.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top