Dubstepforum.com

hutyluty wrote:

skimpi wrote:

drake89 wrote:Fuck, this thread is everything wrong with this forum. It's rather frightening that in three pages no one mentioned that it might be a good idea to layer 1 or even 2 sine waves at higher octaves so ppl can hear on small speakers. Obviously at lower volumes. Or add some low passed distortion if you're feeling crazy.

lol why the fuck would anyone wanna do that, fuck people with small speakers

exactly, i dont get the obsession with making things sound good for other people. Its whether it sounds good to you surely?

It really isn't imo

Maccaveli wrote:

Maxxan wrote:Do you people seriously go this low for your subs? Most people aren't going to be able to hear it, isn't this taking away a lot of energy from the track that would be better spent an octave higher? Anyone know how low the 'pros' go?

No offense dude, but this is exactly why the tune in your sig has absolutely no weight or power to it.

Most of the sub in Kalawanji hits at 61hz (B2):


Then in Breakage - Rain the really deep sub hits at 32hz (C1):


In Mud by Loefah (often called the bassiest thing thing in the history of, like, everrrr) the sub hits at 49hz (G1):


So there you go, pretty much anything between 30hz and 65hz is sub. If you've heard, say, Dutch Flowerz by Skream on a club system you'll note that the higher notes in the basslines (some of them around 80hz) sort of ring around your ears but don't really hit you in the chest, then that burst of ~50hz bass really thumps you. Seriously, having your lowest bass at 80hz in a 'bass music' tune is just silly.

By all means man, thank's a lot for pointing this out!

Yeah it seems some other people've been saying this as well. I'm producing on a pair of pretty cheap speakers and in a poorly isolated apartment (the neighbours believe it or not are not as interested in hearing the same bassline over and over for two hours as me) so if I go any lower it just loses power, and I figure since that's how most people are gonna hear it that's how I'll mix it. That was the first track I ever released though so I think I've got a bit more sub in my later tracks (Don't even know if I layered the bass in that one tbh.. D:).

But yeah, there's no way my speakers could reproduce 31 Hz so I guess it's not really surprising that I'm mixing it too high. Although I'm more into electro than deep dubstep so maybe it doesn't apply as much, dunno.

Either way, I've been experimenting with layering my sub in two octaves a while back but the results didn't come out so good, the lower one would just take away power from the other, but maybe I just didn't try hard enough. Learned a lot since. I still wanna keep my music listenable on shitty(-ish at least) systems, sellout or not, so how could this be achieved best you guys think? Is layering the sub viable, or should I HP my main bass a little lower instead? Or is it just a waste of space and muddying up the track?

Edit: Okay did some digging, in my latest track the sub is usually hitting at around 59 hz and sometimes a bit higher, the track is in A# and that's not negotiable, so if I were to go lower I'd end up at 30 hz which just seems a bit low. So around the 59 hz region should be better I guess?

Maxxan wrote:By all means man, thank's a lot for pointing this out!

Yeah it seems some other people've been saying this as well. I'm producing on a pair of pretty cheap speakers and in a poorly isolated apartment (the neighbours believe it or not are not as interested in hearing the same bassline over and over for two hours as me) so if I go any lower it just loses power, and I figure since that's how most people are gonna hear it that's how I'll mix it. That was the first track I ever released though so I think I've got a bit more sub in my later tracks (Don't even know if I layered the bass in that one tbh.. D:).

But yeah, there's no way my speakers could reproduce 31 Hz so I guess it's not really surprising that I'm mixing it too high. Although I'm more into electro than deep dubstep so maybe it doesn't apply as much, dunno.

Either way, I've been experimenting with layering my sub in two octaves a while back but the results didn't come out so good, the lower one would just take away power from the other, but maybe I just didn't try hard enough. Learned a lot since. I still wanna keep my music listenable on shitty(-ish at least) systems, sellout or not, so how could this be achieved best you guys think? Is layering the sub viable, or should I HP my main bass a little lower instead? Or is it just a waste of space and muddying up the track?

All fair enough, but surely your system can produce around the low 50s, yeah? Most electro house tunes that I've looked at with a frequency analyzer tend to hit around there. Use a lot of Gs and G#s in your sub and you can't go wrong, really. Anyone with proper headphones or a cheap 2.1 computer speaker system will be able to hear that. Basically, trying to cater to people listening on laptop speakers is pointless, because they won't be able to hear 82hz any better than 41hz. If you want your music to sound good to them, focus on making your mids sound good rather than taking away the sub bass that will make your tune hit hard for people with subs or even decent headphones. If you're using naked sub, add some higher harmonics to it so it can be heard by people with shit speakers.

drake89 wrote:Fuck, this thread is everything wrong with this forum. It's rather frightening that in three pages no one mentioned that it might be a good idea to layer 1 or even 2 sine waves at higher octaves so ppl can hear on small speakers. Obviously at lower volumes. Or add some low passed distortion if you're feeling crazy.

This forum baffles me - it's either all midrange brostep is everything that's wrong with this forum or people not layering midrange bass (...?) so people on small speakers can hear it is everything that's wrong with this forum

Maccaveli wrote: All fair enough, but surely your system can produce around the low 50s, yeah? Most electro house tunes that I've looked at with a frequency analyzer tend to hit around there. Use a lot of Gs and G#s in your sub and you can't go wrong, really. Anyone with proper headphones or a cheap 2.1 computer speaker system will be able to hear that. Basically, trying to cater to people listening on laptop speakers is pointless, because they won't be able to hear 82hz any better than 41hz. If you want your music to sound good to them, focus on making your mids sound good rather than taking away the sub bass that will make your tune hit hard for people with subs or even decent headphones. If you're using naked sub, add some higher harmonics to it so it can be heard by people with shit speakers.

Just broke out my DJ-ing headphones and had a listen to some of the tracks posted here, holy shit that's like, PURE bass. It's worlds away from the stuff I'm making/listening to when it comes to bassiness. Maybe they don't go lower but there's so much more emphasis on the bass.

But yeah you're right, my speakers do go down there, and not even I would try to mix for something on laptop speakers. I guess I must've not been paying enough attention to it is all, after all electro is a lot more like brostep in that regard. I'll be sure to put some more focus on my subs, and I also noticed they sound a lot better in my latest track.

Thank's a lot for all the help to those of you that've replied to me. Really appreciated!

No worries mate, good luck!

Thanks! Just noticed something that's a bit funny though, and this isn't meant as shitty excuse for screwing up my mix, more an interesting observation. But this tune in my sig, the one without subs, is by far the most popular track I've produced to date, and also the worst one in terms of mixing. It bounced around a few fairly big blogs and it's got the majority of my plays and downloads. Could be a coincidence of course but still. I guess one shouldn't underestimate the shittyness of people's listening systems haha.

lol yeah, the first dubstep tune I ever produced sounds fucking awful to my ears 8 months later, but between the two Soundclouds it's uploaded on it has about 900 listens and it got reposted a few times. That's more than any of my other tracks (although some of my later ones have been picked up by podcasts and such).