What do you do with the frequencies your monitors won't put out?

  • Thread starter Thread starter paw1
  • Start date Start date
P

paw1

New member
Unless you have a sub, you won't be able monitor the whole audible bass range down to 20Hz. So, what do you do with the frequencies you can't hear? Leaving in the inaudible frequencies sounds like a big risk to me.

My monitors go all the way down to 35Hz, which I think is pretty good. How high up do you think you can cut the bass and still get a good, professional-sounding mix?

-paw
 
paw1 said:
Unless you have a sub, you won't be able monitor the whole audible bass range down to 20Hz. So, what do you do with the frequencies you can't hear? Leaving in the inaudible frequencies sounds like a big risk to me.

My monitors go all the way down to 35Hz, which I think is pretty good. How high up do you think you can cut the bass and still get a good, professional-sounding mix?

-paw
Click to expand...

As high as your lowest instrument goes. ;)

But seriously, if you can accurately monitor down to 35 Hz, most mixes won't have much below that unless you've got some crazy 808s on a metal or hip hop track. The lowest note on a bass guitar tuned to E standard is 42 Hz, if you're in Drop C tuning for metal or something like that, it's still only about 32 Hz.
 
And even then, a lot of times you can cut out pretty high and not really affect the bass. I tend to high pass my bass guitar at 65+ hz and bass drum at 55 or so, and doesn't really affect the sound in a way (granted I can only hear down to 49 on my monitors).
 
paw1 said:
Leaving in the inaudible frequencies sounds like a big risk to me.
Click to expand...

Agreed. One solution is to listen all the way through a tune using headphones. Many phones can play down to 20 Hz and lower. Also, subsonic stuff doesn't come only from the fundamental tones of bass instruments. A more common source is footsteps picked up through a microphone resting on a wooden floor, and breath "pops" that aren't so loud as to make a popping P sound, but still generate infrasonic content. Even the rumble of a truck passing by outdoors can be too low a frequency to hear in most speakers.

--Ethan
 
Yup. Headphones are a complete must for referencing the full audible range.

Saying that, the ears are pretty good at "filling in the gaps" when listening to speakers that are band-limited. That is why we can still perceive bass notes well below the response of a speaker that can't put out much below 100Hz. Psychoacoustics is a strange animal.

And it's not that your speakers can't put out 32Hz. It's just not in the range of the response measurement. Most response charts are measured within a +/- 3dB range. A speaker that has a lower response limit might put out 32 Hz 10 or 12 dB (or more) lower than, say what it does at 1kHz.

In my studio, I have what I call "bass corner". It's actually a little alcove at the entrance of the studio where the sub frequencies are accentuated heavily. If I want to know what's going on down in that range, I simply listen from there. It gives me a great indication of what's going on in the sub range. And my monitors are Yamaha HS80Ms, which, by their specs, don't put out much below 50Hz (from memory).

Anyways. My 2c (ZAR).

Cheers :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top