Can hear bass in headphones, but not in monitors - is this a problem?

Production
1

Hi!
So I am working on a track, and I can hear the sub bass when I play it in headphones (audio technica ATH-M50) and even in iphone earbuds, but not at all when I play it on my yamaha hs-80 monitors. My room isn’t the best acoustically, but most professionally mastered tracks sound as they should in the monitors. Do you guys think this is a problem or just my room not translating sub bass very good?

Here is a link to the track: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mnfra6uiq9vi44p/silica%20gel%20mix%206.aif?dl=0

2

Just noticed that I can hear the bass (way to much) if I stand to the side of one of the monitors…

3

Your frequency of the subbass is lower than your monitors can handle. Most modern headphones can produce upto 20 hz. most monitors wont produce anything above 40.

Your track is in too high/too low key.

Options: play your sub octave higher.

Point.blank and myself have cut down a full fletched track from being released because of that reason, no point in bass music without bass haha…

1 BigUp
4

Ok thanks, how low do club systems usually go? because if it sounds ok in headphones, on regular speakers and on a club system, is it really necessary to change the track? These monitors are recommended to be bought with the yamaha hs8s subwoofer after all…

5

If you have a car system with a sub or home system with a sub, might be an idea to play your track like that to get an idea. Won’t necessarily be accurate but that way you can see how it translates

6

The freq. response on those is 42hz to 20khz - If you cant hear your bass on them it likely wont translate well anywhere else. Depending on what type of bass it is, an old episode of mixing with the masters may be relevant. The one where they show how to add a bit high end to sloppy 808 basslines to make them translate better in smaller devices. Google for it if you care I cant find it rn.

7

You cant make a sound over 30 hz sound better with no engineering technique.

The best you can do is distort it, but it will sound really shit on home setup.

No body will like a tune that doesnt sound good on home setup… its not like djs would go for a dare trial run on live…

But it is simple. If setup cant produce 20 hz, it still wont, no matter what tweaks you do.

8

Is English not your first language or are you just not able to articulate your thoughts? I dont get what you’re on about, even your first response isnt very clear tbh… link one of your production videos or something.

9

He’s from Israel, give the guy a break.

He’s got some pretty dope stuff out on some very reputable labels, i’d definitely listen to what he has to say.

10

Im not being a dick, im saying I cant understand what he’s trying to say.

11

It is the crux of bass music that there are only a handful of notes that sound (well, feel) really heavy.

I can’t think of any tunes really that the root is lower than D or higher than G#.

G# - really high IMO, only a couple tunes I know are this high, oddly enough Fire Hive by Knife Party the root is G# and they manage to make it sounds good. I would use little to no saturation (on the sub) when using this key.

G - Still pretty high, wouldn’t need much saturation to come thru. Survivors by Zomboy & Must Die! is in this key. Although, I think it works because they go lower than G in some parts of the drop, probably to incorporate some lower bass notes.

F# - I always think of this as the trap bass note. Super popular key for festival trap, bit of saturation gives it that dirty 808 drone without pushing it too high. Overall nice key. Tunes in this key: Threat - Laxx, Digital Gangsta - Space Laces.

F - Most popular by far, sort of the sweet spot between being really deep but not too low that it drops out often. I think this is around where some systems begin to drop off in terms of sub. Too many tunes to count in this key.

E - My favorite key personally, I think it sounds the best when a system can properly produce it, and these days most can. Very popular with 128 and 110 bass music for some reason. Might be because E is sort of low and lets the kick punch through on more 4x4 stuff.

D# - Getting down there now, might have to saturate a bit to get it to come thru on systems that aren’t top notch. Jump Ya Body - Kill The Noise is in this key.

D - IMO, the lowest I’d ever write a tune in unless I was just experimenting. Useful to use sub pitch bends to get some higher sub frequencies incorporated. Definitely would need some saturation. Step One - Laxx is in D and I think it sounds fucking amazing. So D is totally doable, just gotta be mindful that it is very low.

3 Likes
12

Oh sorry, must have read your post wrong, came off a bit snarky but hey its the internet lol.

1 BigUp
13

D# is the sweetspot for club system sub weight according to a bunch of relevant producers in different styles (deadmau5 + lazy rich i’ve personally seen talk about it online) but it wont translate well to normal systems because of how low it is. Thats why you see so many popular edm tunes in the F/F# minor area on baitport, that spot gives a better presence to the lowend in laptop/multimedia speakers.

14

My production: https://www.soundcloud.com/firepowerrecs/obscenity-ehde-our-power-1

Im saying you should not mislead the guy. Theres no thing on earth that will make a 20 hz sound come out threw a monitor which cant handle it.

15

I meant link your production videos, you were claiming some type of affiliation to point.blank up there, I follow dubstep, and i’ve been on soundcloud. Thx.

[quote=“ObscenityDubstep, post:14, topic:2929, full:true”]
Im saying you should not mislead the guy. Theres no thing on earth that will make a 20 hz sound come out threw a monitor which cant handle it.[/quote]
I never said any of that… How am I misleading him? He asked why he cant hear his bass, I told him the low end cutoff of his monitors is 42hz… and that if he cant hear his bass at all, on speakers that go as low as 42hz, more than likely people wont hear it elsewhere.

You didnt really understand anything that I said I think because I didnt mention anything about 20hz in any of my posts. Im puzzled, you seem to be having an argument with yourself about 20hz in monitors and saying you need engineering techniques that dont distort 20hz if you want to modify that spectrum of the sub for whatever reason…

You’re perfectly entitled to doing that if you want, its everyones internet but dont front like im part of that conversation lol, I have nothing to do with whatever you are saying.

1 BigUp
16

Hey stop fighting guys, it’s only music! :wink:
And thanks for all the answers!
Well no monitors really “cut off” at a certain frequency, as you can see here, these have a peak at about 70hz and then taper off with a curved slope. What I’m wondering is basically if I should disregard that I barely can hear the bass on the monitors when I can hear them in all headphones and earbuds I have tried, and if anyone here know how low the sound systems in clubs usually go?

17

depending on what party and what system, 45-60 hz subs are usually best on all systems as some systems tend to lose power any lower than that. what happens is you can feel it really low rumbling around but there is no real pressure anymore unfortunately. barely experienced systems that were able to translate a proper 35 hz sub

18

If you can hear the bass in your headphones but not the monitors it could also be a physical problem.
-Loose connector
-Soundcard issue

  • In the back of the monitor, do you have the low end set to -2db or -4db? Those monitors you can roll off or up the low/mid/high to adjsut for the room
  • It could also be your room, in certain cases, if the room has the proper proportions, a soundwave can leave the speaker, and bounce off the back wall and head back to the source and recombine with the output which can cause certain frequencies to cancel themselves out if the phase happens to be exactly oposite at the right time. You can do a few tests to find out if this is the case recording pink noise/test tones through a mic in your room and comparing the recorded wave to the broadcasted one. This will actually tell you accurately how your room affects your output. You will know exactly where you need to compensate, boost, or dampen.
    -Also on those monitors, the bassport is in the back, this can cause havoc if they are up against the wall (but usually jsut drowns the room in bass so probably not the case).
19

Haha its all good bro, i meant the other guys who were misleading…

I had a couple releases with point blank, my babe <3

20

Yeah I’m also suspecting it being the room, since I can hear the bass loudly if stand by the side of the monitor. Guess I’ll just have to try it out in a club sometime…