sound design / mix problem: bass drowns out rest of mix

[twitterytom]

i've been working on a song / remix recently which has a kind of low/subby hovering bass that comes in. on my monitor speakers and headphones at home it seems fine but when i play it in a club i have the feeling the bass drowns out the rest, especially on crappy soundsystems.

the waveform and meters show that the bass is one of the loudest sounds in the mix. the problem is judging by ear it seems wrong to turn it down more.

here is the audio:
http://soundcloud.com/djthomash/belledu ... semangling

the bass i'm talking about comes in at about 30 seconds.

i've tried several approaches.

1) cutting the low end i.e. everything under 100 hz helps a little but i lose that nice warm subby feel.

2) sidechaining the sub frequency part with the kick work ok to give the kick more energy but doesn't help the rest

3) changing the waveform of some of the oscilators of the bass sound. i was using a sine wave for a big part of the sound which seems to create a high amplitude on the meters but isn't that audible. i'd prefer to stick with a sine wave because i like the "warmth" of its sound.

any ideas? i'm still pretty amateur in terms of mastering / mix.

[djshiva]

Have you tried using Ableton's Spectrum Analyzer to see what frequencies the bass is topping out and then comparing to other elements in the song? I am at work and can't listen, but sometimes clashing frequencies can cause some problems that just "turning it down" won't necessarily fix.

Plus it's good to get used to checking the Spectrum Analyzer, especially if you're not as well versed in the mixing/mastering areas, just to get your head around where things are sitting in your mix.

[twitterytom]

yes. i've been learning to use the frequency analyser and have been using eq8 to try and remove some frequencies but i can't seem to get a satisfactory result.

the problem really is that it sounds good at home. i guess i could try and do part of the mixing process on a club system.

[fishmonkey]

if your monitoring environment at home does not have good acoustic treatment then judging bass levels is notoriously unreliable...

[knotkranky]

I wouldn't chase a sound system in a club as the reason to make changes to your track. P.A. systems are f'd with on a daily or hourly basis, room, booth, yada yada. Simply get it right in three good speaker systems/rooms that are trusted. The rest is about 'on the fly' club tweaking. imho

Hi-pass filter set to 6pole tipping at 120hz. Gently bring it down to taste. It won't be much. Yer pretty close i think.

[beats me]

if your monitoring environment at home does not have good acoustic treatment then judging bass levels is notoriously unreliable...

Mixing is voodoo. My roommate gets better mixes on his $150 computer speakers than I get on my $600 “pro” monitors.

If you don’t have the fortitude or money to properly treat a room then it sometimes comes down to stupid luck.

[knotkranky]

if your monitoring environment at home does not have good acoustic treatment then judging bass levels is notoriously unreliable...

Mixing is voodoo. My roommate gets better mixes on his $150 computer speakers than I get on my $600 “pro” monitors.

If you don’t have the fortitude or money to properly treat a room then it sometimes comes down to stupid luck.

amen

[The Carpet Cleaner]

Actually, try a lpf. And filter the bass so the higher instruments and voice can breath.
Play with the filter until you find the right balance.

[Dan13LP]

I think the way to go is to use a Spectrum analyzer on your bass track to find out which frequencies are the loudest, then use an EQ 8 to lower those frequencies. It would be worth looking into other tracks to that have sounds that fall in this same frequency range and adjust them accordingly as well. Chances are you just have too much sound in the same frequency range that in turn makes it sound all distorted/muffled.

[Sage]

The bass in terms of its level seems fine to me, but you could try making other elements of the mix brighter/more midrangey so they cut through stronger in their place in the mix.