Bass too boomy in recording

[JLW]

Hey guys,

I'm having this problem where if the bass is forward in my mix, the bass gets really boomy and there's this weird sound happening on the beginning of the attack of each note.

It's fine with headphones on, but as soon as I take my headphones off and listen through my laptop's speakers it sounds horrible.

I cut most of the super low frequency out (see attached image showing my EQ), so I don't think that's the other problem.

I can play other tracks that have lots of bass and low-end without this distortion even at the highest volume of my laptop.. It only happens on my tracks and I'm trying to figure out why.


I attached a short clip of the song. Once again, it sounds perfectly fine on big speakers or with headphones, but it sounds like garbage on smaller speakers.

 

[lz4005]

"Horrible" and "weird sound" doesn't really tell us a lot.

To me it sounds like it was recorded on a banjo. No sustain. No low end.

Is that what you're talking about?

 

[seamonkey]

Try a demo of Waves Maxxbass or Renaissance Bass
This is how it works, it actually cuts the low and fundamental frequencies where you get "boom", it adds in stronger harmonics so the brain hears the lows that are missing.
It saves a lot of power in the low end, so the bass can actually sound louder.
Listen to your mix on headphones, earbuds, laptops, cars, home theater, ... anywhere music will be played. Somewhere there's a balance that all the good music seems to hit.

 

[JLW]

To me it sounds like it was recorded on a banjo. No sustain. No low end.

i intentionally muted the strings to get less sustain. If you're listening through good speakers or headphones it probably won't distort.

What I'm talking about is really bad boomy-ness and distortion on smaller speakers, but it doesn't happen with other bass tracks that have similarly loud bass through the same speakers

 

[JLW]

Try a demo of Waves Maxxbass or Renaissance Bass
This is how it works, it actually cuts the low and fundamental frequencies where you get "boom", it adds in stronger harmonics so the brain hears the lows that are missing.
It saves a lot of power in the low end, so the bass can actually sound louder.
Listen to your mix on headphones, earbuds, laptops, cars, home theater, ... anywhere music will be played. Somewhere there's a balance that all the good music seems to hit.

I'll try that. Thanks seamonkey.

 

[lz4005]

i intentionally muted the strings to get less sustain. If you're listening through good speakers or headphones it probably won't distort.
What I'm talking about is really bad boomy-ness and distortion on smaller speakers, but it doesn't happen with other bass tracks that have similarly loud bass through the same speakers

You've isolated the problem to the speakers. It isn't in the recorded track.
The solution is to not monitor with bad speakers.

 

[JLW]

You've isolated the problem to the speakers. It isn't in the recorded track.
The solution is to not monitor with bad speakers.

i intentionally muted the strings to get less sustain. If you're listening through good speakers or headphones it probably won't distort.
What I'm talking about is really bad boomy-ness and distortion on smaller speakers, but it doesn't happen with other bass tracks that have similarly loud bass through the same speakers

In other words, unless someone is listening through high quality headphones or speakers, they will hear distortion. That means a huge percentage of the people listening to the recording will just hear weird boominess and mud. Doesn't seem like the best solution.

 

[lz4005]

In other words, unless someone is listening through high quality headphones or speakers, they will hear distortion.

That is not the case. I listened through laptop speakers, stereo speakers and an inexpensive tablet.
It is not boomy or distorted through any of those. In fact it's tinny and thin sounding.

 

[J Posega]

Why are you even bothering to listen to your mix over laptop speakers? If you are going to mix for that listening medium, it'll sound like hot, liquid dog sh** on any other system. Yes, check your mix elsewhere, but don't waste your time trying to make it sound good on portable devices. Headphones, earbuds, car stereos, home stereo... it'll never sound 'good' over laptop speakers.

 

[Biggbass]

sounds like the problem may be with your smaller monitors.

 

[PluffMudQueen]

Before even reading other's replies, it stands out to me as a speaker issue, mainly because laptop speakers are horrible in gauging a mix.

After listening to the track provided, it seems to be with your laptop speakers because I'm not getting any BOOM. Best of luck!

 

[InhumanResource]

It sounded good on my headphones, I did not find it "thin" but it is hard to tell without the other tracks present. I think you will just have to normalize your levels a bit when you export from .wav to audio format. You will probably have to export/publish a few times before you get exactly what you want.

 

[Whump]

Just going to chime in and say that IMO the ~5 dB boost in the 250 Hz range, with a pretty wide Q, might not be helping your laptop speakers. They may well have a resonance somewhere between 200 and 600 Hz, seems common in 'desktop PC' speakers. 5 dB is quite a bit of gain actually. Try a smaller boost with a narrow Q, and then sweep the center frequency around. Try sweeping frequency with your eyes closed. Try to decide what it is you want to hear, really isolate the frequency range you are trying to bring out. A hefty boost from ~100-500 Hz might not be your friend when it comes time to mix down, regardless of what you are monitoring on.

I would suggest disabling that boost for now, and instead lowering the cutoff frequency of the highpass filter. If I am reading this right, you are at something like -12 dB at 50 Hz? 40 Hz is around -20 dB? Seems like far too much cut at too high a frequency. You are correct that you want to cut off the really subby stuff like 25 Hz and down, but if this is a recording of a bass guitar I would attempt to leave the 40 Hz region untampered. A 34" scale E string doesn't have that much of a 40 Hz component, mostly it has a large 80 Hz component, but it is nonzero and you still want it. If 5-string, same goes for 30 Hz, though the 30 Hz component of a 34" B string is quite small. Anyway, you may be able to recover some lost fatness in the tone by adjusting your HPF frequency.

I would also think that no matter what you do, rough mixes on your laptop speakers are never going to sound very good, at all. Commercial music tracks might sound tolerable on them but they have a *lot* of preparation to get that way. Get some monitors!

IMHO! And good luck.

 

[Shabz]

"weird sound" and "boomy" through the laptop speakers sounds more like some nasty resonance/rattle of the particular laptop rather than anything else.

 

[noagreement]

I hear zero boom. Stop the bass cut - and let your bass ring. I hate those stupid small computer speakers, and the need to be "heard" over a laptop. Blow it through a nice stereo system and if it punches you in the gut, then you're good!

 

[Lonnybass]

Just going to chime in and say that IMO the ~5 dB boost in the 250 Hz range, with a pretty wide Q, might not be helping your laptop speakers. They may well have a resonance somewhere between 200 and 600 Hz, seems common in 'desktop PC' speakers. 5 dB is quite a bit of gain actually. Try a smaller boost with a narrow Q, and then sweep the center frequency around. Try sweeping frequency with your eyes closed. Try to decide what it is you want to hear, really isolate the frequency range you are trying to bring out. A hefty boost from ~100-500 Hz might not be your friend when it comes time to mix down, regardless of what you are monitoring on.

I would suggest disabling that boost for now, and instead lowering the cutoff frequency of the highpass filter. If I am reading this right, you are at something like -12 dB at 50 Hz? 40 Hz is around -20 dB? Seems like far too much cut at too high a frequency. You are correct that you want to cut off the really subby stuff like 25 Hz and down, but if this is a recording of a bass guitar I would attempt to leave the 40 Hz region untampered. A 34" scale E string doesn't have that much of a 40 Hz component, mostly it has a large 80 Hz component, but it is nonzero and you still want it. If 5-string, same goes for 30 Hz, though the 30 Hz component of a 34" B string is quite small. Anyway, you may be able to recover some lost fatness in the tone by adjusting your HPF frequency.

I would also think that no matter what you do, rough mixes on your laptop speakers are never going to sound very good, at all. Commercial music tracks might sound tolerable on them but they have a *lot* of preparation to get that way. Get some monitors!

IMHO! And good luck.

I gave it a listen at home and I would definitely agree with the EQ recommendations above. There's a lot of energy in the midrange - which is good because this is where your bass really can fill out a mix - but too much of it, or in the wrong spot, just muddies things up a bit.

To that end, you may want to do a bit of surgical finessing with a narrow Q to try and identify where in the lower mids you can pull back somewhat, without losing the power.

In my live rig, I use a parametric to notch out a narrow Q somewhere between 100 and 200 Hz. Cleans things up a lot.

 

[BasementWarrior]

In my experience boosting in the 200-300 Hz range can sometimes make a track muddy. If you boost between 800 and 2000 somewhere it can help bring the bass out front in the mix.

Also, are you using any type of compression?

 

[MNAirHead]

is there a version with full context of the full instrumentation?

It's really really tough to judge just a single track without the other instruments.... some basses tracks sound fantastic isolated and horrid in a mix.. some sound horrid alone and play well with others...

It sounds like you're using a pick and trying to emulate an upright bass... if a pick is necessary, flip it around and use a "rounder" side to remove some of the click...

 

[Rip Van Dan]

You've isolated the problem to the speakers. It isn't in the recorded track.
The solution is to not monitor with bad speakers.

This!

Also, I'd put the low frequencies back near flat in your mix. Your slight hump at the low-mids looks and sounds good. Boost of the highs sounds OK as I don't really hear any string noise from it.

My guess is you're trying to imitate the original, which was done on an Upright Acoustic Bass. You may want to "slightly" boost the 40 to 60Hz (not as much as the mids) and then add a touch of reverb to the track to help get that more hollow upright sound. I think your string muting is good. A foam strip on the strings at the bridge will probably eliminate the need to hand-mute every note.

But you really need new monitor speakers if you're going to depend upon them for your mixing.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

is there a version with full context of the full instrumentation?

It's really really tough to judge just a single track without the other instruments.... some basses tracks sound fantastic isolated and horrid in a mix.. some sound horrid alone and play well with others...

It sounds like you're using a pick and trying to emulate an upright bass... if a pick is necessary, flip it around and use a "rounder" side to remove some of the click...

Or pull the frequencies from 2KHz - 10KHz back to flat or even cut slightly to tame the attack. You may need to do both.