Visashi
Hi,
I would like some help. When mixing down my project I have a problem in getting my bass guitar to punch through when listening on different platforms like a cellphone.
The bass sounds nice and full when listening on a bigger sound system, but as soon as I listen to it on a mono device like a cellphone speaker, the bass falls away completely.
Any tips on what I can do to get my bass to punch through on different devices?
briang-telkomsa-net
Get a Samsung? ?
Interesting question to which I would also like to know the "answer"
Some thoughts-which you may have already tried, so apologies if you have;
Are you doubling up the Bass line?
One of the things that I have seen is through the use of EQ where everything other than Kick and Bass are cut with a High Pass Filter up to, say, around 200Hz.
Then create an EQ "space" around 80Hz for Kick and around 120Hz for Bass, or the other way around depending on the song or taste.
There is also a technique, which I cannot now remember how to do, using a tone generator and a noise gate in such a way that every time the Kick plays the tone, say at 60Hz, is also played. This enhances the Kick, which should be following the Bass closely, but in a separate "space", so would presumably help with highlighting the bass?
Check out the Recording Revolution web site which has some really good video tutorials on a whole range of topics
doc-phil
The low end is always the most difficult to control, and you won't find any concrete answer.
Any number of factors and mix decisions could be influencing your mono sound, but as a starting point, try mixing in mono and use reference tracks to see how a professional mix translates from big stereo systems to small mono speakers.
Briang mentions some mixing techniques that can be useful. Generally speaking, any mix can be a good one with good use of EQ and compression.
It may be that your bass is being masked by other instruments dominating the low end frequency, so as briang says, consider applying some hipass filters to instruments that don't need to take up room in the low end, and create a space for your kick and bass to work together. You do this by boosting and cutting frequencies of each element, and possibly using some side-chain compression (I normally use this to 'duck' the bass every time the kick hits).
Your bass should generally sit in the centre of your mix, and assuming your bass is sitting in the middle, what might be happening is that your other instruments panned hard left and right are competing and masking the bass when played in mono.
Mixerboy
Your cell phone speaker won't be able to reproduce anything below 500hz at best so you'll never hear any low end even with a perfect mix.
It's basically a crappy mono tweeter.
babbalute
Is the bass sound ok when you listen to earphones from the cellphone ? If ok there is nothing wrong with the mix just that you did not spend 10K or so for a good speaker when you bought the cellphone. External speakers on a cellphone also sound bad because you need a decent amplifier to play a good bass sound and volume, doubt your cell phone is a good hifi amp.
Visashi
sweet, thanx for the info. I'll definitely try what you guys suggested.
I think mixing in mono and using reference tracks
Should make a big difference already.
?
