When I turn my track up loud the low frequencies resonate with my speaker. How to stop this?

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jamestomlinson
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When I turn my track up loud the low frequencies resonate with my speaker. How to stop this?

Post by jamestomlinson » Thu Jan 20, 2022 2:01 pm

Hello,

Using Ableton Live 11, my audio interface is a Behringer C1-U microphone although this isn't relevant to the question as I'm referring to an instrument on Ableton. I use Windows.

So I'm using one of Ableton's instruments called 'Harp1 Hollow' (in 'Collision' under 'Guitar & Plucked'). I've played some quite low notes on it (between D1 and A2) and when my speaker is on a low volume it sounds fine but at full volume I think the sound resonates with my speaker or something. This is something I don't think I've ever experienced with any professionally produced music (as far as I can remember) so I would like to make sure this doesn't happen. I tried using EQ Eight and getting rid of the frequencies that seemed to cause the problem but that changed the sound too much and I didn't like the way it sounded anymore. If anyone has any ideas I would be very appreciative. Thank you :)

Fizmarble
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Re: When I turn my track up loud the low frequencies resonate with my speaker. How to stop this?

Post by Fizmarble » Thu Jan 20, 2022 5:43 pm

Maybe resonant frequencies? Try using Operator and set an oscillator to fixed. Then you can sweep through the frequencies with a sine wave on the low end to see if any pitches sound louder. If the speaker/monitor is poorly constructed, I suppose it could be the speaker cabinet resonating. That would signal time for new monitors, I think. Unless you have some screws you can tighten on the monitor or something. Is the speaker rattling on a desk? You could put some foam under it if so.

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Re: When I turn my track up loud the low frequencies resonate with my speaker. How to stop this?

Post by [jur] » Mon Jan 31, 2022 4:32 pm

Use concrete? :?:
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Pitch Black
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Re: When I turn my track up loud the low frequencies resonate with my speaker. How to stop this?

Post by Pitch Black » Mon Jan 31, 2022 9:08 pm

OP, what model of speakers are you using?

When you say you’ve never heard this on a professional production, a way of thinking about it is you would have at least 3 more steps to go before this particular sound got to that point.

1. Further sound design
2. Mixing
3. Mastering

All those steps would be utilized to make a sound fit or translate well on a record. I mostly work in genres that are very bass-heavy (dub/roots/reggae and their electronic offspring) and it’s always a challenge to get the low end to a point where it’s as loud and heavy as you want to perceive it, while having it reproduce on as many different systems as possible. Low-end is the hardest to get right as it interacts more with its environment than other parts of the spectrum. Low-end carries, and requires, more energy to reproduce, it’s just a fact of physics. It’s a never ending journey/learning experience - the art of making music sound good in as many places as possible.

As a practical suggestion, try using a multi band compressor or dynamic eq on the sound so that it only suppresses the “outta control” frequency when that freq is actually playing. This should leave the rest of the frequencies in the sound intact, with the result of not changing the overall perceived colour of the sound too much.

HTH

EDIT: I played around with using Live's Multiband Compressor here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/fm1ycfum ... t.zip/file

Unfortunately there's only so much you can do with this sound as it has a HUGE sub frequency on each note, then an octave jump up to the next main frequency. Supressing the big sub freq does, as you say, change the character of the sound a great deal. You might also try cutting or supressing that freq on the Collision instrument, and then copy the MIDI clip to a new instrument channel and have that MIDI clip play a straight sine or triangle wave in Sampler to replace the lowest frequency. Kind of split the duties of the two instruments: one to have the character of the Harp, and one to provide the weight.

FWIW, Collision is notorious for being quite a volatile instrument, with the ability to make earth-shattering subs very quickly :D
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