sub bass

[CNVKT]

hey guys! so I've been wanting to add some sub bass to a track I've been working on but I'm having trouble hearing it after I've made a sub loop. I have a pair of yamaha HS5's and and i was wondering if there was a certain method for EQing sub bass without turning up the volume too loud. thanks

[WildOak]

Hey so Yamaha HS5's frequency response does not really go low enough to properly hear sub bass. As far as EQing sub bass i generally just do a low pass cut at around 60-100hz, and a high pass between 20-40hz. To make your sub bass stand out in your mix you really want to focus on EQing the other instruments in your track so they don't have much going on in the low end so your sub is not being masked by other instruments.

In summery you could simply not really be hearing the sub because your speakers are not producing those frequencies. (The yamaha HS monitors are great speakers in my opinion, i just got a pair of HS7's, but if you want to really hear that bass your going to have to invest in a subwoofer.)

Also try EQing your other instruments so your sub has its own space in the frequency spectrum.

I hope this helps!

[jlgrimes]

hey guys! so I've been wanting to add some sub bass to a track I've been working on but I'm having trouble hearing it after I've made a sub loop. I have a pair of yamaha HS5's and and i was wondering if there was a certain method for EQing sub bass without turning up the volume too loud. thanks

Sub bass can be difficult to mix due to monitoring. You probably have monitoring issues if your mix sounds good in the room you are mixing in but sounds substandard in other rooms. It could be a combination of things. I'll start with the least expensive.

1. Reference mixes. Find a song that has good bass response that you like. How does it sound on your system? Can you hear the sub bass? Do you hear harmonics? Your reference tracks should be your standard to help get levels in the ballpark.

2. Get some headphones. Headphones often can do a better job of producing lower freqs than Speakers. Problem is bass is perceived a little different with them but they can be a useful tool if you learn to use them. They don't have to be the most expensive headphones of the bunch but some decent ones can help give you a different perspective.

3. Get some better monitors. 8 inch monitors usually does a better job producing those low freqs you want to hear. Its still good to check on weaker systems but 8s will probably give you a more accurate reference for bass.

4. Room treatment. Most rooms have a lot of issues when dealing with monitoring bass. You could have peaks and nulls. Nulls can really throw you for a loop. Since you have Live, I actually found a good way to test your system using Ableton's CPU test. It generates a sine wave in preferences for the CPU test. Turn the frequency down low. Once you get to like 50 hz or so (depending on your speakers), sweep the frequency up to 300 hz. Does the bass level stay the same? If it does, buy a lottery ticket because you are lucky. Most likely you will hear some peaks and at some parts you probably will barely be able to hear some frequencies. This is what you are working against. Try the same test with headphones. It is an eye opening experience. It all comes down to proper speaker placement and placement of bass traps to help reduce the peaks and nulls. You won't most likely be able to completely fix them but you can make them more manageable.



But what are the mixing tricks for Sub Bass. In my experience, for processing sub bass it is mainly simple stuff. A little filtering like the post above said. Distortion also helps especially if you want to hear it better on weaker speakers. It is also making room for the sub with the other sounds in the mix. It is much easier mixing sub on a sparse mix than a busy one.