Mix question

  • When mixing the bass end of a track I always seem to have the same issue.
    The bass is never consistent over distance - it sounds great at a foot or 2 away but there's always a peak at say, 4 feet distance which disturbs the whole balance of the mix.
    I understand there are physics at play but listening to a commercial release the bass is always pretty consistent over distance with no peaks or troughs on the very same speakers/room that I mix in.
    I eq and compress but can never get it right.
    Any tips or techniques that people use to overcome this?
    Woof!

  • Not to sound arrogant or anything, but if this is a room issue (and it is, if your explanation is correct), then the same problem will also be there with commercial stuff - and thus it's not something that could be fixed with EQ or compression.


    It may be that there are certain notes in your mixes that pop out, but those notes are not in the commercial music you compare to.


    Try using a sine wave generator to see if you can isolate which frequency (ies) exhibit this problem the most, and see if that (those) frequencies are in the music you experience the problem with - and compare to some commercially mixed music that DOES contain this note.

  • Hi Michael,
    Not arrogant at all, glad for the help.


    The main frequencies are around 160-180 and 50Hz.
    I can surgically remove a touch of the 160-180 so it's not that much of an issue.
    But If say, I boost a little 50Hz to get some real bottom end it sounds fine at 2 feet but booms out at 4 feet.
    The same (as far as I can tell) frequency on my commercial reference does not do this. As you say, the frequencies may not be exactly the same but they sound it to me
    and I've stuck the commercial track through an eq analyser to confirm this.

  • Might be easier if I play me against the reference.
    Waketest is me (no vocal)
    catest the commercial track


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    Open for any suggestions.

  • Tell me if this makes any difference. I cannot really listen to it loud as my son is sleeping.


    Original
    Ozone Dynamic EQ
    Soothe


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  • I think it's essential to find out what's really going on in your room.
    I have recently invested in the Sonarworks speaker calibration plugin because I had a similar problem.
    It helped me find out that my room, while not bad at all in general, has a serious spike at about 120 Hz.
    I can dial this out now i.e. compensate for this when monitoring and my mixes have become better.

  • Hi schreckmusic,
    Interesting, I have 2 compressors on the bass already. I have Ozone, can you share the settings please?


    Ingolf, I have the IKMultimedia ARC 2, it didn't seem to help me much (that could be my fault though)

  • Sure no problem. As soon as I am at my PC later on tonight.


    As Michael was saying certain notes you are hitting are giving the booming frequency. If you can, download my example. Watch in real time the frequency response of yours verse the ones I did. Match EQ will not show this, you need to watch in real time.

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    Is this bass/kit more balance?
    Ta.