poor low-end

  • Thread starter Thread starter apostle13
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apostle13

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Whenever I finish mixing down a track I try it out on every system I can find, from my home stereo to portable headphones and car stereos. This last one is the one giving me the problem. Most of the time I'm pleased with the sound I get, but on two tracks I recorded I cannot seem to get the low-end sound right. It sounds fine when I listen to it on any home stereo or anywhere else for that matter. The problems occur when I listen to it on any kind of factory car system. If the system in the car has any kind of bass(ie:any speaker 8" or larger) it sounds OK, but on a standard system where the biggest speaker is 6X9 it sound terrible. The low end distorts as if it were clipping. The wierd thing is it sounds fine on a portable boom-box with 4" speakers, or even a computer with basic speakers. Can anyone help me with this, I've tried everything I can find to read about mixing down tracks, I'm hoping someone has come across this before. Thank you.--Apostle13.
 
Well Was it just one car stereo. because maybe the speakers are blown out on it. persons who crank up thier speakers in thier car tend to get them to distort resulting in distortion in the low end.
 
No, actually it seems to be any car stereo.(I've tested about 5 now) And the volume doesn't even have to be turned up for it to distort. I understand that this is probably just on of those problems that's just a chance occurance, but in any event I would like to avoid it happening again. I'm already in the process of laying down the 2 songs again. I'm hoping that maybe it has something to do with the initial mix from the board.Thanks for any help you can give.--Apostle13.
 
You have to much deep bass in mix - 80 Hz and lower.
Big speakers ( subs ) reproduce deep bass well, small sistems can´t reproduce nothing under 100-120 Hz ( low cut ).
Car system full-range speaker will try to follow bass envelope, but because big signal amplitude will end in distortion.
Try to balance mix by bass and kick EQing - is bass over-boosted at 80 Hz or cut at 200-500 Hz ?
In mastering, low cut final mix at 40Hz, or use Waves MaxBass - lower original low bass and increase MaxBass.
 
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