How do i stop my kick from rattling the car speakers?

karif hyder

New member
I Made Some Good Kicks With A Lot Of Low End That Thuds.
How Can I Keep The Kick Thuding Without Rattling The Car Speakers.
 
Last edited:
happens to me time to time. EQing that rattling freq. will help. Or u can go multiband for the feq. your choice

^^^^^^^ actually multiband would help more.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Multiband compression isn't going to do anything. Reduce the offending frequency. Most likely too much subsonic information (usually the result of an improperly treated mixing space -- Fix *that first* next time and you won't have the problem from the start).

Geez - *anything* but compressing it (turn the rattle permanent instead?)...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
MASSIVE Mastering said:
Multiband compression isn't going to do anything. Reduce the offending frequency. Most likely too much subsonic information (usually the result of an improperly treated mixing space -- Fix *that first* next time and you won't have the problem from the start).

Geez - *anything* but compressing it (turn the rattle permanent instead?)...
WHAT FREQUENCIES SHOULD I CUT, 40Hz AND BELOW?
WOULD A BIT OF REVERB HELP OR NOT? BECAUSE I CUT THE LENGTH OF THE KICK REAL SHORT.
 
The offending freq would be somewhere in the 30, 40ish range.

If you "built" your drums, and still have it on a file, open that up and cut the offending freqs there on certain layers.
 
a surgeon should cut without using his eyes to see.

Do just start cutting frequencies without finding subwoofer (to use with your monitors), you dont wanna lose that lowend boom.
 
MASSIVE Mastering said:
Multiband compression isn't going to do anything. Reduce the offending frequency. Most likely too much subsonic information (usually the result of an improperly treated mixing space -- Fix *that first* next time and you won't have the problem from the start).

Geez - *anything* but compressing it (turn the rattle permanent instead?)...

So i guess i should stuck with the first advice I gave with the EQ. Massive if he would multiband compress it what would actually happen? And sorry for the wrong info I gave. U seemed pretty aggravated
 
JerzHittaz said:
So i guess i should stuck with the first advice I gave with the EQ. Massive if he would multiband compress it what would actually happen? And sorry for the wrong info I gave. U seemed pretty aggravated


Compression only makes the problem worse. Just EQ the lowend, but it risky cause you may not have good monitoring system.
 
subsonic frequencies are those below 20 Hz. In my experience stuff around 40 Hz causes a lot of rattling in all different kinds of speakers, including boomboxes. EQing kicks for car speakers is really tricky though. A lot of car systems are really really bass sensitive at specific mysterious frequencies.

You may even want to experiment with rolling off the lows gradually from say 70 Hz on down.

One thing you could do is take a bunch of your different kick drum sounds, index them, and burn them to a CD. Then go out to your car and listen to which kick drum sounds distort and which ones don't. Mark down the good ones. This will help a little bit for a start. But remember that it all changes as soon as you add EQ to a sound.

I recently used this technique to get rid of my whack sounding kicks. Some kick drums sound great in headphones but totally weak on other speakers. Then you have some kick drums that sound very deep and powerful on big speakers, but are almost mute on small boomboxes.

A good powerful kick drum will have a wide range of frequencies or will sweep down through frequencies, or both. In other words, a good kick drum will have just enough treble and midrange to be heard on small boomboxes, and enough bass to be heard on big speakers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
well...i used to use a multi band compressor...but that takes away too much from the sound i'm trying to maintain. instead...when it comes to bass...you can just lower the 50 khz range somewhat, and this should take care of the problem. 50khz is the range where it will make some things sound too muddy...so...just lower that range, and then listen to it, and take it from there. may take you a couple of tries to get the exact sound you're looking for...but it should be straight after that!
 
P10 said:
well...i used to use a multi band compressor...but that takes away too much from the sound i'm trying to maintain. instead...when it comes to bass...you can just lower the 50 khz range somewhat, and this should take care of the problem. 50khz is the range where it will make some things sound too muddy...so...just lower that range, and then listen to it, and take it from there. may take you a couple of tries to get the exact sound you're looking for...but it should be straight after that!

Its gonna take him more then a few tries to get it just how he wants. Rolling off the lows will help but also might take away all the kicks presence. I suggest getting a monitoring system and an adequete monitoring enviroment. Instead of doing the ol car test.
 
First off, is this rattle only on your music or all music? I'm much more into cars than music and have done more than a few systems. IF it rattles with all music, then obviously you want to deal with the pannels first and any treatment. I'm guessing this isn't the case though.

So if it isn't constant, that means that their is clipping so you either need to turn it down or deal with the fequencies giving you trouble. Compressing has been brought up a bunch, i would defineatly avoid that. Almost every hobbiest i've heard with distorted kicks (as well as other problems) had huge jumps in quality when they stopped using it, including myself. Not that it's bad when used properly, i just think it's the most over used tool in audio, especially hip hop.
 
^^^This is why you need a good monitoring chain. Lots of cars have shotty systems, trust the room you mix in, not the stuff you play it back in. I never cutoff nothing below nothing, no compression or EQ. All I adjust when making beats is the volume and Pan. I never run into any of these problems.

When I used to EQ, Compress, use bass enhancement, cutoff frequencies, ect. I had these types of problems. Mainly because I did all that when I didn't know what I was doing. Now I'm aware of what I'm doing, aware of the way compression works, understand eqing, and that your low freq should be at 79.7hz(or whatever, forget the exact #) and only adjust vol and pan. The volume of a kick(especially 808) or bass being lowered can fix alot more than most people will ever believe. Sometimes making them quieter gives you the low end you're looking for that bleeds when you turn them up for more presence.

My mixes sound better than ever before simply because i use my monitoring to find the perfect kick, place in the mix, and volume to begin with.
 
Last edited:
I like to play all my songs on different sound systems and cars too, 'cause I have sh!tty headphones and sh!tty speakers to try to "mix". I've come across the same problem and I've used a little eq to go back and fix a few beats to get some more experience with post productions but everything can be fixed in the original mix, which I never do since I use an sp-303 and don't have the option to save all my sounds on different tracks. Now I just play the beat on different systems in the house, if I can hear the kick on my little macbook speakers, if it doesn't sound distorted on my computer speakers and sub, and finally if it doesn't get washed out on my 10 year old Aiwa stereo then I'll go with it. Way to hit or miss and too time consuming but I'll take what I got. Fvck I need some monitors.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top