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Bass too boomy in recording

#21
Hey guys, just so it's clear, I was not monitoring with the laptop speakers. I was monitoring with studio headphones. Then, when I unplugged the headphones and played through my laptop's speakers, it sounded muddy and awful. So I cut out some of the sub-bass, and it helped, but it still was super boomy and it was a bit thin sounding too when the headphones were put back on.

Now that I have all this super useful advice and input, I was able to put it to use and it was very useful.

@BasementWarrior suggested not boosting in the 200-300 HZ range. So I isolated frequences in that range, and sure enough there were some REALLY weird overtones happening in the 200 Hz range which was causing the boominess. There was also a really weird boominess right around the 100 Hz range too, so as @Lonnybass suggested I did a narrower boost around the 150 Hz mark and that did the trick.

That helped the boominess problem a lot. Now I have to solve the thin sound.

I think I may need to re-record with the tone rolled off on this one. It's played fingerstyle up by the neck, but I think that because I just put some newer strings on my bass (that are steel roundwounds) it sounds a bit too bright for what I'm looking for.

I'll put it all together in a mix and report back. Thanks everyone!
 
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#22
How does it sound in headphones? You should have less than zero concern for how your recording sounds over your laptop speakers. They suck.

IMO, it's better to capture a too-bright sound than a too-dark one. Subtractive EQ is best, as adding in a lot of treble later can enhance noise and just plain sound weird.
 
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#23
lz4005 said:
You've isolated the problem to the speakers. It isn't in the recorded track.
The solution is to not monitor with bad speakers.
Click to expand...
When you are recording/mixing/mastering on high end speakers ONLY, you can end up with a mix that will only sound good on really high end speakers - and because most listeners are going to be on car stereos and cheap ear buds, you really want your mix to translate well to cheaper systems. This is one of the reasons those awful Yamaha NS-10 speakers became so popular for mixing - the legend is that if you can get your mix to sound good on those speakers, they will sound good anywhere.

When I'm mixing and EQ'ing tracks, I will do comparisons between high end speakers, low end speakers, boom box, car stereo and try to find a balance where it sounds good on all of them. "Real Bass" (i.e. 20-30hz) can really distort most of the equipment that the average listener has. So you usually have to do trickery on bass tracks (and bass drum tracks) to make them seem to be really deep and punchy when you are actually boosting harmonics and frequencies much higher than the fundamental. The brain can be tricked into hearing things that aren't actually there.

I hacked up an old boom box by putting a line input in place of the CD player - I keep it on my mixing desk and switch back and forth between pro monitors and the boom box when monitoring to see if the bass sounds punchy or like distorted mush.
 
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#25
I would also start with a HPF and LPF on the bass track before getting too far into the EQ. HPF around 40Hz and LPF somewhere between 5-12KHz just to trim off excess information. Set the filters at frequencies where you just barely notice them and then back them down/up a bit. No need processing information the ears cant hear and the speakers cant reproduce.

BTW - thats a lot of signal up at 20k according to your graph, at least to my amateurish eyes.
 
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#30
JLW said:
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.
Click to expand...

c69.jpg
 
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#31
JLW said:
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.
View attachment 943715


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.
Click to expand...

Looks like your HPF is set too high, and you're boosting what are generally "boomy" or "boxy" frequencies.

Something like MaxxBass or RBass can also help the bass sit more present in the mix on smaller speakers.
 
#32
i know my laptop speakers have some type off bass enhancement going on ... maybe it doesn't wanna play nice ..!? or , is there an internal EQ buried deep in the laptop ..??

have you play the track thru some decent studio monitors ..?? or someone else's laptop .??
 
#33
AndyPanda said:
When you are recording/mixing/mastering on high end speakers ONLY, you can end up with a mix that will only sound good on really high end speakers - and because most listeners are going to be on car stereos and cheap ear buds, you really want your mix to translate well to cheaper systems.
Click to expand...

This is an interesting point because it reminds me of an article I read about vintage receivers compared to modern ones. Compared with high-dollar ones today, vintage receivers went for what sounded best and wasn't as concerned with appearing better on paper or being feature-packed (dual-zone, 8 HDMI ports, 2 subwoofer outs, etc.). It seems like cost, side features, and other factors come into play before actual sound quality in new equipment.

I'd imagine it's done with more success by pros than me, but the point with studio monitors is having a flat reference to mix with so you are making unbiased adjustments to the mix. Trained ears will likely be able to anticipate what needs to be done so it sounds decent on earbuds or a car stereo. While you don't want to alienate the average listener, you also don't want to disappoint people who may spend $99+ on a quality set of headphones and have them utterly disappointed. One of the best sounding albums I've heard on multiple types of stereos/headsets is Third Eye Blind's first album...very high quality recording.
 
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#34
JLW said:
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.
Click to expand...

Do you mean other bands music? If so, then mastering has a lot to do with having tunes sound good across different listening media.
 
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#35
J Posega said:
Do you mean other bands music? If so, then mastering has a lot to do with having tunes sound good across different listening media.
Click to expand...
Mastering will certainly be the final finessing that helps it sound as good as possible on a range of systems. But a good mix should translate well too--you shouldn't count on mastering entirely. I'd be careful with things like MaxxBass--easy to overdo it and have it sound weird on certain systems if you don't have accurate monitoring while you're mixing (unless of course, you're truly mixing specifically for small speakers and don't care about how it'll sound elsewhere).
Headphones are far from an ideal way to mix but if you A/B with other material back and forth enough it can be done. Also give this a look: Overview - Sonarworks
I use Sony MDR-7506's which are pretty much an industry standard, very affordable too, but they're not exactly flat. I don't mix on headphones unless it's an emergency while I'm traveling or whatever, but I just tried this software the other day and it's pretty cool - at the very least it reminded me of the way the MDRs are hyped a bit in the highs and lows so I can compensate. See if your headphones are listed and give the free trial a go.
 
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#37
Do you play a bass that has hot pick-ups? if so, that could be the trouble. some basses with hot pick-ups have certain difficulties with home recordings such as wolfe tones(or bad distorted signals). if anything, try a compressor to reduce the wolfe tones you're having. also are you using a multi-effects processor like the zoom b3 for when you record? if that's the case, try adjusting the settings on the patch you're using to reduce unwanted distortion.
 
#38
Crystalman85 said:
Do you play a bass that has hot pick-ups? if so, that could be the trouble. some basses with hot pick-ups have certain difficulties with home recordings such as wolfe tones(or bad distorted signals). if anything, try a compressor to reduce the wolfe tones you're having. also are you using a multi-effects processor like the zoom b3 for when you record? if that's the case, try adjusting the settings on the patch you're using to reduce unwanted distortion.
Click to expand...

There isn't any distortion in the recorded file. It's coming from his laptop speakers.
 
#40
Hey guys, I was able to get rid of the distortion that came when played through laptop speakers by cutting back to 0 db in the 200-300 hz range and boosting in the 150 hz range. Before, I had a wide boost in the 100-300 hz range and this is what caused the muddiness/distortion. Thanks for the suggestion! Much appreciated.
 

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