Nov 12, 2009 10:48 am Have you listened to your mixes on other sources...in your car, on headphones, your entertainment center, portable radio, etc...does the low end have the same problem everywhere, or just in your studio?
Low freqs killing me
Posted on Nov 12, 2009 10:42 am
crux
Typo Szar
Member Since: Jul 04, 2002
My mixes for the most part r at a level im happy with and r responding well to some final compression and stuff im doing just to bring the levels up, on my monitoring system however i dont have a good grasp of the bass freqs and when i listen to the mixes in my car or in other bass heavy systems i can hear the low end punching out the high from when i limit the track.
The low freqs r really giving me a headache coz i just cant hear them fix them in the mix. I use Harbal and ive adjusted the spectrum until everything else sounds great and the eq looks good and i even just copied a bunch of other songs eq diagrams but the lower stuff is just overpowering most of my mixes. Its mostly just the kick drum and bass guitar and nothing else but its really driven me up the wall
any tips on how i can fix the low end even with my shoddy monitoring system? its mostly an annoyance when im limiting to bring up teh level and it punches out the whole song, wat if i just used a shelf to tame the entire low end?
anyhow, this post is getting long so ill leave it as is for now, but all comments r appreciated
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Nov 12, 2009 10:48 am Have you listened to your mixes on other sources...in your car, on headphones, your entertainment center, portable radio, etc...does the low end have the same problem everywhere, or just in your studio?
Nov 12, 2009 11:14 am in my car a bunch, low ends r kind of extended in my car to begin with, so it just accentuates the problem. in my friends studio same problem.
its also pretty clear as when i start to limit my music, if it gets a bit heavy i can hear some snare hits n things that come right after the bass drum losing their punch as if the compressor hasnt released in time
my ear just isnt solid enough to be ablet o listen somewhere else and realize oh ok i have to go back to change this. I know its in the low end.. but i cant narrow it down enough to solve the problem
Nov 12, 2009 11:49 am With 5" monitors I have to make my mix pretty thin sounding for it to sound good on a consumer stereo. Probably has plenty to do with my room along with my monitors having no low end.
Nov 12, 2009 12:37 pm Reminder of two of the only real "rules" in audio --
1) You will only ever be as good as your monitoring chain allows you to be (period).
2) Your monitoring chain will only ever be as accurate and consistent as the space allows them to be (period).
Low end is always the problem. Every room - basically EVERY room - has moderate to severe low end issues. Trying to make the low end translate in such a space is always a crap-shoot. You might nail it, you might fail it. But if you can't hear it - accurately and consistently - you're not going to know it.
Nov 12, 2009 12:49 pm i figure as much, but this albums gotta drop, should i just go thin rather than have boomy bass?
Nov 12, 2009 02:29 pm Try to meet it in the middle.
My room is crap, I know this and that is why I mix thin at my desk. When played in my car there still seems to be plenty of bass.
Then I found myself not making things bright enough as when mixed thin everything else seemed so darn bright.
So for me in my room, on my monitors, I must make my mix sound somewhat thin and pretty darn bright to sound good on my other systems.
Nov 12, 2009 06:03 pm I take a cd/song that I know sounds good on my various systems and play it in my monitors. Now I have a reference point to what I want my mix/master to sound like on my system.
Nov 28, 2009 06:18 pm The only other thing you may want to try is to look at the tracks that are taking up the lowest frequences. Do they overlap?
A pointer that was given to me once, which seemed pretty valid then and still does (forgive me if this is something you've already thought of): only one thing can be the lowest thing.
What this meant is that the lowest frequencies of EVERY track but one were cut completely via EQ (at least as completely as EQ ever cuts anything). That left the kick, bass, synth, etc to be the lowest thing in the mix and prevented a lot of muddy overlap.
This may not be an issue in your mix, but if you have time to, it may be an angle worth investigating.
Nov 29, 2009 10:14 am thanx a bunch man i never knew that, i think i do that kind of already but i didnt know it was a tip like big thanx
Dec 05, 2009 03:07 pm It may prove to be overkill, but the guy who taught me that technique never had muddy low end in his mixes.
If nothing else, the perk of it being one of the first steps he undertook in a mix probably made it less likely that something would slip through the cracks. That he had a process meant it wasn't something where he'd mixed everything only to go "Ugh... That sounds like crap... Why didn't I EQ this track?"
Dec 06, 2009 04:18 pm Hi crux,
I agree with Massive Master. You should hear the low freqs correctly. Cutting all of them means a weak thing. I suggest to use reaaly linear head phones, if you have no way to work in a good mixing room. I could help you with a multi layer mastering., that is an in-between solution. Don't make a demo if you can have the real thing.
Cheers,
www.mastering7.com
Dec 06, 2009 10:01 pm Headphones? For accurately hearing low end???
Dec 07, 2009 01:02 am Depending on the room, it may be one of the best resources one could have in checking their mix - aside from cross-checking in car stereos, boomboxes, etc.
In my experience, nothing sounds more thin and anemic than a mix that someone made with a sub on hand, so anything else (provided you have a frame of reference for the bias of whatever you're listening on) immediately wins points for NOT being that. ;-)
Dec 07, 2009 02:35 am Headphones? For accurately hearing [i]low end???
No! But useing good headphones is a better choice, than listening to car speakers, and bad quality rooms with crap monitors... Headphones can never substitute a well ballanced mastering room.
Dec 07, 2009 01:15 pm That's sort of my point... But headphones are inherently as inconsistent.
Dec 07, 2009 03:34 pm All right. But let the overtones live!
Dec 08, 2009 08:39 am I was just checkin back to say to Runicen that ur tip TOTALLY WORKS, not that im monitoring any better, but i picked a lowest instrument (kick) and just really focused on clearing everything else around it up
i also took it a step further and kind of went ok kick lowest, bass 2nd lowest and would cut other things accordingly in sequence
really cleared up my mixes a ton despite the the shoddy monitoring. also since i know that i cant really hear stuff below 100 hz, ive focused on making sure that my mixes r as well done and clear as possible above that point. So my bass guitar HAS to have a good presence around 200 and 400 and such, its helped my mixes translate from system to system way better
but yeah, thanx for the tip
Dec 08, 2009 07:22 pm i guess in a way, you wanna make sure that your instruments dont have any frequencies that they dont necessarily require, ie guitars lower than around 100hz, hats and O/H's bass rolled off, keys and most samples etc. Leaving the bass area for the bassy things.
I guess thats why people always put a little click on the kick because the bass guitar sits in around that same low end area and has the potential to smother the clarity.
im still having some issues with kick and bass guitar and sort of marrying them up a bit. i guess i need to read up more on bass guitar mixing tips.
Dec 09, 2009 02:22 am Try side-chain compressing. You can trigger bass guitar with the kick. It can bring some air if applied properly.
Dec 09, 2009 05:42 am sidechaining is something i have not got to as yet, so im not really in the know with it.
i guess its time to learn.
Dec 09, 2009 07:46 am Read this about side chain compressors:
sonictransfer.com/side-ch...-tutorial.shtml
Dec 09, 2009 08:45 am thanks man, will do.
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