Confused about bass frequencies and studio monitors

[Slough Feg Bass]

I use the M-Audio BX5's and they are great for doing exactly that and they go pretty loud!
They won't fatigue your ears even on hours long listening.
Very reasonably priced.
But hey, just my experience. I had some nicer monitors for mixing, and they didn't really translate so well to the real world of car stereos, iphones, earbuds & smart speakers.

 

[HolmeBass]

Unlike so many audio forum questions, this is one with a definite answer. At A=440, 41 Hz is indeed correct for the low bass E.

As far as bass extension, remember to check the specs carefully. One monitor brand might say it goes down to 40 Hz, but they're using a -6 or even -10 dB standard, while another that says it only goes down to 50 Hz might be using a -3 dB standard, and that monitor might measure at 40 Hz about the same as the others.

In your budget range, I'd forget about trying to get -3 dB or better at 40 Hz. About the cheapest monitors I know of that do that are the Focal Alpha 65s at about $800 the pair. You'd be surprised how quickly your ears will learn to extrapolate bass extension from the information the monitors are giving you. Just get a good, reasonably accurate pair of cheap monitors like JBL 305p's (-3 dB at 49 Hz, -10 at 43 Hz), plus a good frequency analysis plugin (Voxengo SPAN is free and excellent) to make sure there's nothing squirrelly going on below what your monitors are giving you. Use the headphones as a double-check. And remember, 95% of your listeners are hearing your stuff on systems with bass extension no better than yours.

Making Talkbass great! Thanks for this great post.

 

[axelknight]

Thanks to everyone for all the interesting and useful info. I'll figure something out. The cabin is in interior Alaska, about 100 miles south of Fairbanks in a town called Delta Junction. You can get as modern or primitive as you like up here. We're a bit of both. Just got back into playing again. Figure I may as well give recording a shot as well. We'll see how it goes.

 

[bbh]

What you probably meant was a system ‘capable’ of a good solid low end. Lately I’ve been on the 2.1 kick and I must say, you really need 2 subs if you go that route. It’s good to know if you’re producing enough to hit that sub. I used to swear by my JBL lsr28p’s but after listening to my Adam 77ax w 15” sub, well the Adam’s are nice to listen on the newer stuff. My older music doesn’t respond low enough to hit that sub.
I’m sure this is no help, sorry.

 

[Tosh]

another vote for a subwoofer if you can't afford 8" monitors

 

[PianoOfDoom]

Hexagonal rooms won't have the same typical standing wave patterns as rect/square ones, but you should still get a cheap measurement mic and RoomEqWiz to see if there are problem frequencies. If there are, no monitors will give you an accurate representation. I recommend calling GiK to consult on room treatment before looking at monitors.

Also, I'm a big fan of single-driver "mixcubes" like the cheap/active Avantone. I always use one in mono and switch between that and full range monitors to hear how the bass sounds from the midrange (think small speakers, phone speakers, laptops, etc).

 

[andruca]

Quoting myself from another post...

My dream studio system is one that had a "studio monitors/home cinema/car stereo/PA/whatever". I could never rely only on studio monitors, no matter how expensive. They're just one more system. So I tend to have a "rapper taste" on "studio" monitors (big bassy KRK ones currently). At least I have a full range experience. I mean, I see no point in 5" studio monitors, unless you think people on avg. listen to music on transistor radios. A pair of NS10s have less lowend than frggn' Alexa.

 

[bbh]

Hexagonal rooms won't have the same typical standing wave patterns as rect/square ones, but you should still get a cheap measurement mic and RoomEqWiz to see if there are problem frequencies. If there are, no monitors will give you an accurate representation. I recommend calling GiK to consult on room treatment before looking at monitors.

Also, I'm a big fan of single-driver "mixcubes" like the cheap/active Avantone. I always use one in mono and switch between that and full range monitors to hear how the bass sounds from the midrange (think small speakers, phone speakers, laptops, etc).

I run 3 types of monitoring including small near fields, mid near fields, and the all important car stereo.

 

[bassbones2]

The magic is in the mids.......

kali audio, $300 a pair. Then test your mixes on headphones and every stereo you can find

JB

 

[Roland GR 88]

Check out the availability of a pair of Yorkville YSM-5’s. They’re just over your budget but are maybe the best bang for buck out there.
Shipping from L&M in Vancouver might be cheaper than a U.S. distribution source with the exchange rate and all that since they’re made in Canada.

 

[lunarpollen]

Keep in mind that some monitors are more useful for recording, and some are more useful for mixing, mastering, etc. I have a pair of KRK Rokit Powered 8 speakers that, as-is, would be excellent for monitoring tracks while recording, for helping to ensure that I get the best possible sound down on tape (or whatever digital storage medium I might be using), etc. but there's no way in hell I'd use them for mixing etc. without first applying some heavy EQ. But I wouldn't even bother doing that, I would use different speakers altogether or even headphones for mixing/mastering, i.e., something already set up to sound like what I would use to enjoy pre-recorded music in an ideal listening environment. More than once I've been through the misery of a bandleader recording us at a home practice space, and then mixing down the recording using just a pair of studio monitors, and the result always sounded like utter #%!%#$ when listened to on normal stereo systems, car stereos, etc.

In any real recording studio I've been in, the control room had at least a few completely different types of speakers set up (which the engineer could cycle through with the turn of a switch) not just the standard monitor pair. One studio even had a crappy portable mini boom-box wired up as one of the options, just so you could hear how the recording would sound through that... and the engineer would often run off a quick tape dub of a mix and tell you to run out to your car in the parking lot and give it a quick listen through your car stereo so you could provide some critical feedback about how it sounded through your car speakers.

 

[InNoRush]

JBL mkiiis are perfect and the best tbh fam.

you’ll want the 8s for bass or plan on adding the sub if you go smaller but it’s all good

Stumbled on this thread with similar questions as OP, but not the same budget restrictions. Looking for a nice pair of monitors for casual use while practicing and recording in my home studio. Sounds like a pair of JBL 308P would be perfect. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[DirkP]

The elephant in the room is your untreated room. No matter what monitors you're using. A subwoofer would make it even worse. You would be far better off, reading about the positioning of monitors in rooms and the listening position. And invest at least a bit of your money into treatment.
It doesn't matter if you buy the cheapest monitors with the best and deepest bass response while you're getting standing waves and bass resonances at your listening position.
Speakers act and react within a room and not the best speaker-engineer on planet earth can change this. And the better engineers are honest about this. And esp. with bass frequencies, the room is the deciding factor.
The best you can archieve in an untreated room with bass frquencies is to use speakers, who have nearly no bass at all and listen to them sitting as close to them as possible.

 

[Ken Morgan]

Another vote for Kali LP6.5... mine are sonically invisible, so what I’m hearing in the monitors is just the audio, no speaker influence.

If you’ve got an even somewhat treated room, the maligned Yamaha NS10s (and I guess their modern equivalent) can give exceptional results.

 

[Wood and Wire]

I read that the low E of a four string at standard tuning is around 41hz. I've also read that it's around 60. The specs on cheap/small (less than $200) monitors don't get down to 41hz as far as I could see, but sometimes got down to 60hz. This is why the confusion.

1. Forget about that because :

a) it's the instruments overtones you're hearing, not the fundamental.

b) you're not going to be doing any critical mixing in that room.



2. Whatever monitors you get, spend a couple of weeks just listening to lots of professionally recorded music, in that room, at a variety of loudness levels, before you make any recordings, or attempt a mix.

You need to learn how the speakers sound, and how the room reacts.

 

[eliascalles]

+1 for the Kali Audio, solid stuff at a very good price.