Preventing bass-heavy mixes (via monitoring EQ)?

I put an EQ on my master bus, with a preset called "Room Tuning" (in your case it would be "headphone tuning" and I remember to turn it off before I bounce a final mix to WAV file.
 
 

I keep meaning to pick up that Sonarworks system for my ATH-M50's. I couldn't do without ARC2 on my monitors so why am I denying myself the possibility of flat cans as well? It would also make my VRM box way more useful. 
 
ARC2 is like putting contact lenses on my monitors, the effect is incredible. I have all of my system audio wired through it via Virtual Audio Cable and Pedalboard2. Spotify goes through it, YouTube, Netflix, everything. I'd love to be able to slap Sonarworks on for my headphones as well. 

Forget mixing on headphones. Music is nearly NEVER heard in ideal conditions. Compare your mix to professional recordings on ALL systems, ESPECIALLY terrible ones.

a. Boominess can come from the most unexpected sources, not just bass and bass drum. Check each track.

b. Mastering tools like limiters, iZotope Oxygene, etc. can hide problems. Listen with them on and off, especially those on master busses.

c. If you can, take your DAW to the non-ideal location and listen right there to each track.
 
d. Mixes should be tested, yes, with very good monitors, but also on car hi-fis, ghetto blasters, earbuds, headphones AND in boomy, resonant rooms.


*** MY OWN PAINFUL JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY ***

I mix on Yamaha HS8 monitors in a well-damped 3x4m room. (I also switch between cheap computer speakers, Neumann KH120, Adam A5X, a butchered mono transistor radio, the matching Yamaha HS8S sub and Logitech gaming speakers with their own subwoofer - just to make that clear.)

A client complained my mixes were too bass-heavy. I disagreed. I went to his home and he has the SAME SPEAKERS I USE (HS8s) in a small echoey study with a large window down one side. One speaker is on a metal shelf, the other behind the door.

He played my mix and yes, it is boomy and bass-heavy.

I protested the poor acoustic conditions. He put on some commercial rock and pop CDs and perplexingly they sound good! (by comparison). He looked at me with a look that said, "You are clueless".

I moved around his study and found areas where the booming is worse, but I had to agree, my mix suffers far more. Back in my studio everything seems OK. I have no particularly boomy areas in my room.

I asked if I can bring my laptop and interface to his study for a test and he agreed.

What I discovered is most amazing:

1. The electric distorted rhythm guitar has a bass component. Switched to solo, it sounds warm and powerful - just the way one would want. But it had a resonant frequency that coincided with one in the client's boomy study. I had to crank HP rolloff all the way up to 250Hz to get rid of it. I found out that in the total mix this resonance hit the compressor and caused the bass guitar to duck. In my studio, all I'd noticed was a tonal shift. No boominess.

2. The bass guitar (recorded DI and mic'd) had a note where only the fundamental was present, hardly any harmonics. This made that note sound weaker so the bass player unconciously played it louder. Again, this found a boom frequency in the client's study, but seemed fine in my studio.

3. Finally, the floor tom also boomed. I'd shortened the decay with an envelope shaper which sounded fine in my studio, but again, it picked up a boom frequency at the client's room, so suddenly it rang longer than I'd shaped it to.

Fixes?

1. With the guitar rolled off so extremely it sounded thin on its own, but it worked in the total mix. So I left it like that.
In fact, it was here that I learned, like MondoArt has stated, that it is good practice to trim away frequencies from instruments that encroach on those of others, especially in the lower frequencies, but also higher frequencies, because they can also mess with mastering tools in unexpected ways.

2. Bass guitar was not fixable. I personally replayed all bass tracks, taking care to hear out the fingering positions of the original bass player and plucking nearer the bridge to create more harmonics and always watching the audio as I recorded to avoid peaks.

3. I replaced the toms manually with samples. Fortunately tom rolls only happened occasionally so it was only a day's work. Today I would just use the drum replacer.

*** RESPECT ***

I have enormous respect for mixing engineers. It is a huge amount of work with lots of gotchas and little thanks.

I also understand why the bands get thrown out when the final mix is done. The talent would be horrified to discover what really happens in there.