moffdnb
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Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
Hi all,
Ok how do I fix this? Mix is full and well balanced on my KRK RP5's but when testing on smaller hifi speakers and laptops etc the bass is almost gone. Now I have tried a few things to help. Such as:
Duping the bass track and adding harmonic distortion. Then blending that into the mix
Dupe and heavy compression/limiting and again blending in.
and finally tried Waves Maxbass
Now I just can't get it translating on small speakers. Only if I really push it and thereby destroying the normal RP5 mix.
Has any1 any ideas of how to get the best results for such an issue?
Thanks for any reply
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ChuckC
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Re:Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
2011/12/17 14:15:06
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Are you getting the kick but not the bass guitar or just no low end at all? You should be able to get your mix to translate to any system. It sounds like you may have a combination of things going on here.
1) I had also checked out the KRK5 G2's. To me they seemed to have a hyped low end/lower mids and I didn't like the boomy sound of them.
2) If your room is having acoustic issues that are enhancing the low end sound it can make it impossible to mix accurately. Room treatments like studio foam and bass traps would help alot. Check out Aurelex for these. Also look at room mode correction software/hardware like ARC from IK multimedia or the KRK Ergo.
ADK Built DAW, W7, Sonar Platinum, Studio One Pro,Yamaha HS8's & HS8S Presonus Studio/Live 24.4.2, A few decent mic pre's, lots of mics, 57's,58 betas, Sm7b, LD Condensors, Small condensors, Senn 421's, DI's, Sans Amp, A few guitar amps etc. Guitars : Gib. LP, Epi. Lp, Dillion Tele, Ibanez beater, Ibanez Ergodyne 4 String bass, Mapex Mars series 6 pc. studio kit, cymbals and other sh*t. http://www.everythingiam.net/ http://www.stormroomstudios.com Some of my productions: http://soundcloud.com/stormroomstudios
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moffdnb
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Re:Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
2011/12/17 15:07:17
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thanks chuck. I have some bass traps alright and yes i agree the KRK's can hype slightly in the low end but mix translates well most other places but very small speakers and laptops ect.
The kick comes through but the bass line is very hard to pick out.
I check on headphones AKG's and again it sounds spot on.
Its just this very small speaker/laptop/iphone translate i can't suss. ;<
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bitflipper
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Re:Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
2011/12/17 15:22:23
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On a playback system with no bass response below, say, 100Hz, your perception of the bass guitar and bass drum is derived entirely from their harmonics. There is a curious pychoacoustic phenomenon in which your brain actually synthesizes the attenuated fundamental frequency from those harmonics. This effect has been exploited in plugins, the best of which (I am told) is Waves' MaxxBass product (never used it myself as I don't do dongles).
My usual technique for getting bass to cut through are adding distortion (I like the free Voxengo Boogex plugin for this) and/or adding a midrange boost in the neighborhood of 800-1000 Hz if the bass already has enough dirt in it.
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Alegria
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Re:Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
2011/12/17 15:25:35
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How does your mix sound in mono? Are all instruments still well defined or your lows come across muddy? What about phase issues? Do you use a correlation meter? Just a thought about some things to check.
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ChuckC
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Re:Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
2011/12/17 16:07:15
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Alegria - this was my thought too.... Checking mono compatibility, may have some phase cancellation going on in those upper harmonics if it works in the cans but not smaller speakers due to the phenomenon Bitflipper mentioned.
ADK Built DAW, W7, Sonar Platinum, Studio One Pro,Yamaha HS8's & HS8S Presonus Studio/Live 24.4.2, A few decent mic pre's, lots of mics, 57's,58 betas, Sm7b, LD Condensors, Small condensors, Senn 421's, DI's, Sans Amp, A few guitar amps etc. Guitars : Gib. LP, Epi. Lp, Dillion Tele, Ibanez beater, Ibanez Ergodyne 4 String bass, Mapex Mars series 6 pc. studio kit, cymbals and other sh*t. http://www.everythingiam.net/ http://www.stormroomstudios.com Some of my productions: http://soundcloud.com/stormroomstudios
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Jeff Evans
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Re:Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
2011/12/17 17:13:58
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Dave has basically nailed it but you don't have to use distortion at all though. (Unless the bass sound is already a little dirty as Dave mentioned then you can add more harmonics which will help) You should have the option of a total clean sound if you want it. This is another reason why the 3" speaker in mono at low volume works so well. If the bass sound is lacking in mids and highs then it disappears in the small speaker. It makes you keep an eye on that. Just go back to the bass sound and make sure it is well balanced and the same applies to the kick too. I mean nice distribution of energy across the spectrum. Of course you can still create a warmer bass (and kick) sound if you want it but you will still need to leave some mid harmonics in there. The small speaker in mono at low volume is also great for setting the bass level too. Many have the bass way too high as well. You need less than you think.
post edited by Jeff Evans - 2011/12/17 17:23:23
Specs i5-2500K 3.5 Ghz - 8 Gb RAM - Win 7 64 bit - ATI Radeon HD6900 Series - RME PCI HDSP9632 - Steinberg Midex 8 Midi interface - Faderport 8- Studio One V4 - iMac 2.5Ghz Core i5 - Sierra 10.12.6 - Focusrite Clarett thunderbolt interface Poor minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas -Eleanor Roosevelt
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moffdnb
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Re:Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
2011/12/18 10:16:30
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Very interesting folks. 3" spk mono is smth worth trying especially.
Thanks y'all. Will see how I get on.
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montezuma
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Re:Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
2011/12/19 00:57:34
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My laptop doesn't play much bass at all...from any song...from my own stuff to Dark Side of the Moon...
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derFunkenstein
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Re:Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
2011/12/19 12:43:10
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montezuma
My laptop doesn't play much bass at all...from any song...from my own stuff to Dark Side of the Moon...
This is kind of what I was thinking, too. I'd be more interested in how my mix compared with similar genres on the same set of speakers. When I burn a mix to CD to listen to in the car, I always burn another well-mixed song that I like and that matches the genre somewhat to compare to. That's to remind myself of what a "good" mix already sounds like. If other mixes sound top-heavy, I'd be probably somewhat un-concerned.
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batsbrew
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Re:Mix won't translate on small speakers (No Bass)
2011/12/21 11:56:22
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A GOOD TRICK HERE... is to clone your track, and treat the two tracks as "high" and "low" tweak them individually. the low track, keep it clean, and low. roll off high end, way on down into the lower midrange. make sure the low, is super tight. take the high track, and add something like the Voxengo Boogex..... i use it, it's great. roll all the low off of it, up to the point where you rolled off the LOW track at the high end. so they overlap. you can treat each track with it's own amount of compression and/or limiting, to get it as punchy as possible. now, mix the two together, until you find the sweet spot in the low end, and the sweet spot in the high end. buss these two tracks to ONE BASS BUSS. mix your bass from your buss.
post edited by batsbrew - 2011/12/21 11:58:07
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