How do you mix your low end without subwoofers?

[steffenJade]

Hello folks,

 

I'm not brand new here, despite what my join date and post count might imply. I used to frequent these forums a few years back; but I can't access my old account.

 

I am working on what is basically a re-master project. I have an EP my band recorded about 5 years ago and never released. I am now touching up the tracks and plan to have a few CD's printed. My issue is this: About half of the tracks have a hideous low end when I play them over my car stereo (and subwoofers). I have no subs in my mixing room, and my efforts to tone down the booming bass leaves a thin mix when subs are not in use.

 

Any advice folks?

 

I've linked one of the problem tracks.

 

thanks guys.

 

[onelife]

Do what you are doing. Take the mixes out to your car - and play them on other systems too. You should also listen to some other tracks (even some commercial music you know/like the sound of) on the other systems so you can compare them to your own work..

 

You could try putting a HPF (high pass filter) on your final mix and, again, listen to them in your car until you find the cutoff frequency for your HPF that works.

[WRGKMC]

As far as your speakers go. Adding subs is going to add bass, and you'll wind up having thin mixes if you boost the amount of bass you use for mixing. Your playback system has to be flat to have a reliable reference to work from. Using A/B comparisons against other commercial recordings may help. .

 

I use a Program called Har Bal which is a frequency analyzer/EQ program that scans the wave file and shows you an static frequency analysis. You then take the waveform produced and drag it to change response which is much better then only having say a 5 or 10 band parametric filter for EQing. By manipulating the waveform you have thousands of bands you can drag and pull to fix bad peaks and valleys in the frequency response and you leave frequencies that are good alone.

 

The program is especially good for identifying and correcting frequency response issues when you're having problems with masking and you have two responses very close to one another where you boost or cut one instrument and it winds up boosting or cutting another you didn't want.

 

The program also lets you EQ the center, sides, left or right to get the stereo field balanced, and it has a built in limiter that lest you boost the response without crushing peaks. It also lets you loudness match songs based on a reference file or even match the frequency response of a reference file.

 

Its and amazing tool well worth the cost over any other program or plugin I have found for mastering to date and the tech support is excellent. In fact you cant buy the program unless you demo it first. They issue you a temporary code for 30 days and if you don't specifically tell them you want to keep the program and download a permanent code, the temp coder expires and they refund your money. Pretty amazing in this snatch and grab society we live in today.

 

 

Here's their site

http://www.har-bal.com/

 

Here's the manual that shows the features.

http://www.har-bal.com/help/tutorials.html

 

Check out these videos using the actual product to correct bad mixes.

http://www.har-bal.com/product-information/har-bal-videos

 

I will add the program does have a learning curve. You do learn over time what can and cannot be done with frequency responses. You cant boost frequencies that doesn't exist for example, and going back to the mix or even re-tracking a part is often times the only solution for getting a professional sound. As you learn more you'll actually find your mixing skills improve. I open many of my mixes within the program just to be sure there isn't anything weird going on I'm not hearing that may cause a problem and over time I'm having to do less RX to fix problems and I'm just verifying my ears did their job right.

 

Loudness matching alone makes the program worth its cost. When you get one track mixed and mastered properly, you scan it as a reference file and you can use it to make sure all your tracks on a CD are of equal loudness by hitting CTL>M and the limiter matches the reference. No more guesswork whether one tracks going to be too loud or soft. You can also use it as a basic template to compare the high/low end responses of your tracks, and make sure the end user isn't going to be tweaking their EQ or volume every time the CD changes tracks. The visual response and shaping can really help to aid your ears and zero in on areas you may have otherwise overlooked. Plus the overall volume of the track is automatically maintained when tweaking the EQ. Using a normal EQ boosting and cutting frequencies affects the over all volume which you have to constantly tweak.

 

All good stuff you should look into. I'd say this one program is the most valuable tool you can own if you do your own mastering besides the knowledge to use it properly.