Can someone please tell me if my songs have any bass

Performance & Techniques Music Production
1

Can someone please tell me if my songs have any bass

I always thought my songs had bass that was at about a level where I wanted it, and then I tried listening to a couple of my songs in the car (with subs) and… NO BASS HARDLY!?

:eek::eek::eek::eek:

I’m kindly asking that those of you with decent sound set-ups have a listen to one or more of these tracks below and tell me if there is a substantial amount of bass (not enough, too much, none at all).

I’m freaking out. I thought I had this down. I need studio monitors!!!

(And no, this is not me shamelessly plugging my music or trying to get my playcount up on Soundcloud, which I could not care any less about :roll_eyes:slight_smile:

https://soundcloud.com/lambox/4-strings-take-me-away-lambox-dubstep-remix

https://soundcloud.com/lambox/faithless-insomnia-lambox-remix

2

Sounds OK to me through my KRK 10S sub and Rokit 5 system. I only test in Traktor, as iTunes always sounds a bit thin…

The bass is right there where it should be in the mix and appropriate for the song (Insomnia has a LOT of sub going on, YEAH!).

Maybe your friends crossovers are not set right?

With the opinions you’ve had around here, I’m sue someone would have pointed out that your bass was low if it really was.

Keep up the good work!

Phil.

3

The Bass is somewhat low on my system. However I am not running a sub.
Otherwise the tracks sound great.

4

Thanks guys. I really, really need some decent monitors!

5

The subs sound good to me, coming out of some Behringer MS20’s…which sound very well, and are pretty affordable too. Love your stuff man, keep 'em coming.

6

Thanks man!

7

bass sounds good to me
but I’m listening on headphones

How do you mix your tracks since you don’t have monitors yet? On headphones? Cause that’s what I’ve been doing cause I’m traveling…but I’ve been told its not good to mix on headphones..

P.S did you record vocals yourself? Really liking insomnia

EDIT: Nevermind, just realized they were remixes :stuck_out_tongue:

still great!

8

Thanks man. I kind of do this stupid runaround where I listen to my tracks on a home stereo, then on headphones, then I take my laptop out to my car… Basically I try to get my tracks to sound good on all of them. Thankfully all of that will change this Friday when I go out and buy my first studio monitor (and then in two weeks when I buy the second one after I get paid again :roll_eyes:slight_smile:.

Cheers!

9

Laidback Luke mixes and masters on headphones, and he seems to do alright. If you know how your headphones sound compared to a club system then I imagine you’d be able to do just fine without monitors!

That being said, I definitely prefer my monitors to my headphones.

10

Only checked out one track, but i’d say subs are fine.

…however!

You need more energy(or volume, whatever you wanna call it) in the 100 - 200 hz regions though. and less energy between 300 - 600 hz. A bit more top wouldn’t go a miss either… check this cheeky example out :wink:

You could have more earth shattering bass in the track by making some of the sub notes an octave lower, you def wouldn’t hear them on most monitors but in a club or car they’d shake things up!

A good way to get levels more accurate WITHOUT proper monitoring is to run a spectrum analyzer on your master output and watch the levels.

If you run some tracks you like the sound of through the analyzer and watch what is going on with the frequencies, you’ll gain a better understanding of what your track should look like through the analyzer (…once mixed, it should look the same or very similar!)

:sunglasses:

11

I’m interested in how this works, since all I have is headphones. What should the levels look like ideally? balanced and even? I know it would be different for every track, but how would you mix using these visual cues as an aid?

Sorry if its a dumb question, but I’d like to know

12

not a dumb question at all!

1> Play a track you like (pref wav) that’s already done finished mastered released whatever.

2> Set the spectrum analyzer to give you an average reading of the track. If it’s set up for fast response you’ll see the frequencies jumping around in realtime. you dont want this, set it for a slow (and therefore averaged) response to see the general shape of the mix

3> Watch what’s happening on the spectrum analyzer (I use Ozone 4’s E.Q section for this quite often). let the track play though to get a good average (i often skip though to the loudest sections to get my curve)

4> At some point it’ll stop jumping around so much and pretty much settle on a reading. Notice the general curve of the mix

5> I usually find for club tracks the bass is obviously louder than the highs*.

6> So, got the curve of the track you want to copy? Make a mental note, or sketch it down or grab a screenshot snapshot or whatever so you can reference it in a min.

7> Now load up the track you’re working on. with the same analyzer set up the same way on your master channel.

8> run the track and watch what happens with your curve.

9> Now try and match the curve of your track with the one you analyzed before. They dont need to be exactly the same, but in the same ball park - if that makes sense?

I use the spectrum analyzer to help with e.q decisions on individual parts, and by using it on the whole mix it can help you get the tonal balance of your mix correct (by comparing it to a track that you KNOW sounds right)

“Have I got enough sub?”
Compare the freq response of your track with one you know has enough sub and see!

Hope that’s not too much of a confusing explanation - i’m happy to try and clarify it a bit more if needed!

*How to draw a simple example curve
Get some graph paper. mark a line for 0db horizontally across the middle of the page. mark the start of your line 20hz. the end of it 20,000hz.
Now make a vertical line at the side going from -12db at the bottom to +12db at the top with your 0db line in the middle.

make a dot at 50hz : +6db
make a dot at 20,000 : -6db

Join the two dots. That’s your basic curve ( i know its a line here, it’s simplified :stuck_out_tongue:)

13

Thanks man, that actually helped a lot!

If you’re anything like me, and don’t really have a decent spectrum analysis vst, you might want to check out Blue Cat’s FreqAnalyst. It’s free, it looks pretty, and most importantly it seems to work well.

Actually I just ran some notes through it using my synth setting that I usually use for basslines. Knowing that sub-bass runs in the ballpark of ~40-60Hz, and being able to see which notes/octaves hit which frequency ranges is immensely helpful.

Thank you!

14

bass sounds weak through my headphones :disappointed:

15

ur sig reads u have MR5s…arent those studio monitors?
Gianmarco

16

I tried that spectrum analysis thing

Worked out pretty well!

The only thing I’m still having trouble with is getting my track to match the levels of other songs…

17

They are, but I just ordered them yesterday. Lol got a little excited when I ordered them and my first thought was “oh man I gotta put that in my sig!”

Should be here on the 13th!

18

Check out the article on here about mastering. It’ll give you some great tips and plugins recommendations that should help you out.

19

awesome!

i was seriously considered getting these…before i found out they arent for mixing!

but i wll invest in montors later down the road when i get produciton gear, let us know how they are!

-Gianmarco