Bass Question

[ryderhartman]

Hi guys.

I'm curious about the difference between the kind of bass that makes a sub-woofer go boom vs. the kind of bass line there is in an electro house song such as Dada Life's Red Meat/White Noise.

Thanks!

[TheNobleNemesis]

Bass; simply put is a general term for the frequencies in and around the 20-250Hz range.
Does that help at all?

[JoshG567]

There's a point in that range where auditory thresholds for low frequencies increase and tactile thresholds decrease. When I think sub-bass it's more something I feel as much as I hear, but hear less the lower it gets even though things in the floor or ceiling will start resonating.

Before I got more serious about making music I listened to songs on shitty computer speakers (2.1 with crappy sub and crappy little satellites). It wasn't until I invested in nice monitors that I realized I hadn't really been experiencing auditory bass; I hypothesize that those sets put out an excess of sub-bass to make up for the middy response of the satellites.

In practice, right now I've got a set where the highpass filters on the kick, bass, and rhythm guitars are at about 50-60 Hz, 80-90 Hz, and 120 Hz respectively to keep the low end focused while I flesh out the rest of my arrangement (i.e. it'll probably change when it gets mixed). The kick and bass I definitely feel, the guitars are present and still meaty without being muddy.