Bass sounding boomy

Wallengard

Wallengard

Manipulator of energy
So I'm working on a track, which is rather bass heavy and I'm having a bit of an issue with the very low end. Where as all my studio equipment plays it just fine (monitors and headphones), any other reference systems I use (speakers, headphones, earbuds) the bass just seem to have some resonant boomyness (lack of better words) on it which I can't seem to isolate. The bass is also bounced to wav and I've made sure there's no overlapping to the kick at all. It's almost like I've got some compressor swelling up on me even though there's only a limiter on the master with no gain reduction.

I was hoping for some help to try and get rid it and make it tighter in the very lowest end of the spectrum. I've tried EQ, and also experimented a little bit with a multiband envelope shaper to try and get the boomyness away. I will just post a link to Soundcloud for now, if you need higher quality audio just say so and I'll make it happen.

https://soundcloud.com/wallengard/wallengard-simplicity2/s-Odpad

Thanks in advance.

Edit; I think I have managed to get rid of most of the boominess;

https://soundcloud.com/wallengard/wallengard-simplicity
 
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Try to take out some of the hz's out that are causing this, dont low cut, but with a bell. Its probably between 100hz-200hz.

I will be home tonight and listen to it on my monitors, I can't hear the bass very well, its just a guess now.
 
I've tried doing that, have sweeped around the lower frequencies with a bell but can't seem to get rid of it. Also by doing that i seem to lose some of my punch in the bassline. The most annoying part is that I can't actually hear this in my studio, so trying to correct it requires a lot of exporting and listening to my other playback systems..
 
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If its the very lower frequency's just cut it, everything <80-100 HZ, your kick takes care of those hz's. You can leave it there ofc sometimes, but now its causing problems, so just get rid of it..
 
I've got a 12db highpass on the kick, bass and master at around 50-60hz.. If I Cut any higher I feel like I lose all that juicy bass.. I don't mean to be difficult but that just doesn't sound very good to me. I want the bassline to have some deep bass in it as well. :O
 
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Hmm, I listened a few times on earbuds and I didn't really hear anything out of the ordinary in the low end. I'll listen again later when I can use my studio stuff.

Are you using any chorus (or unison) on your bass?
 
Ametrine said:
Hmm, I listened a few times on earbuds and I didn't really hear anything out of the ordinary in the low end. I'll listen again later when I can use my studio stuff.

Are you using any chorus (or unison) on your bass?
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There's a tiny bit of unison on it yeah, but I have forced it to mono afterwards in the chain. It's a patch made up of 2 layers, one square/sine and a saw, only the saw has unison on it.
 
Wallengard said:
There's a tiny bit of unison on it yeah, but I have forced it to mono afterwards in the chain. It's a patch made up of 2 layers, one square/sine and a saw, only the saw has unison on it.
Click to expand...

Try it without any unison and see if it gets better.
 
I think it has something to do with that bass patch actually. Listening to it more closely now I can hear there's some kind of release on the envelope that makes it go all subby. But changing the envelopes doesn't seem to do anything to eliminate it.. It's really awkward. I have used Harmor for the patch.
 
Nice work man, I'm really feeling the overall vibe and I love all of the elements. It's so easy to fall in and get lost in the track! As far as the boominess goes, to me it sounds like it is due to an effect or maybe a compression setting... also, are all of the other instruments other than kick and bass high passed up around 100hz or so? This can clean up a lot of buildup in other instruments which tend to mask themselves as bass buildup. I would say check all the effect and compression settings, or like phibber said maybe try some different bass sounds. Or a crazy thought, as much as it makes you wanna pull your hair out maybe try to embrace it.. personally I don't find it to be extremely offensive and its almost enchanting in a way. Just my two cents, keep up the good work man!
 
Wallengard said:
I think it has something to do with that bass patch actually. Listening to it more closely now I can hear there's some kind of release on the envelope that makes it go all subby. But changing the envelopes doesn't seem to do anything to eliminate it.. It's really awkward. I have used Harmor for the patch.
Click to expand...

Yep, sometimes the patch just aint sittin!
 
RTP3 productions said:
Nice work man, I'm really feeling the overall vibe and I love all of the elements. It's so easy to fall in and get lost in the track! As far as the boominess goes, to me it sounds like it is due to an effect or maybe a compression setting... also, are all of the other instruments other than kick and bass high passed up around 100hz or so? This can clean up a lot of buildup in other instruments which tend to mask themselves as bass buildup. I would say check all the effect and compression settings, or like phibber said maybe try some different bass sounds. Or a crazy thought, as much as it makes you wanna pull your hair out maybe try to embrace it.. personally I don't find it to be extremely offensive and its almost enchanting in a way. Just my two cents, keep up the good work man!
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First of all, thanks and I'm glad you liked it! :-)

I have indeed high passed everything that isn't supposed to ha e a lot of bass in it, some sounds are high passed more than others (like hi-hats). I've only got 2 compressors going on in the track at the moment and none of them are on the bass sound. It only has a volume envelope and a filter on it, and deactivating those does nothing to get rid of the boom in it.

I wouldn't mind having it there if I intentionally put it there and overdid it in the first place, and I like the timbre of that bass, I think I made it pretty nicely and can't just go and pick another one. I'm very picky. :O
 
phibber said:
Yep, sometimes the patch just aint sittin!
Click to expand...

Well, damn it, I like the patch.. Hehe.

Does anyone know his/her way around image-lines Harmor? There is something odd with the envelope and there is some release on it, I'm almost positive it is that. But even when removing the release stage it doesn't go away.


I don't know.. Maybe it's fine the way it is and I'm just nitpicking my stuff.
 
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in the original version you shared I had no issues; I could not even get it to do what you described by turning my sub all the way up

might be resonant features of the equipment you were using and therefore not a mix issue

in fact the 2nd version seems to be slightly less bassy and therefore I think you have mixed to a feature rather than to your vision
 
bandcoach said:
in the original version you shared I had no issues; I could not even get it to do what you described by turning my sub all the way up

might be resonant features of the equipment you were using and therefore not a mix issue

in fact the 2nd version seems to be slightly less bassy and therefore I think you have mixed to a feature rather than to your vision
Click to expand...

I actually thought it was pretty odd that I couldn't hear it in the studio, not in either of my equipment in there. I also tried listening to it on my earbuds that I use for my travels, and just couldn't stand listening to that first version in them. It sounded really off to me.

With that said I actually did have a vision that I would have some more bass in there, but not as much as there was in the first one. I liked what I heard in the studio, not in the living room. So I will still fine tune it and get some of that oomph back without reintroducing whatever it was that I heard in the first place.
 
When I say

bandcoach said:
I think you have mixed to a feature rather than to your vision
Click to expand...

I am using the word feature to mean flaw; it is somewhat cynical but a lot of products are pushed by highlighting their flaws as though they were features
 
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