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low-end rolloff for dance music


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Got a mastering question. All my dancey stuff turns out bass-heavy on a big club system, since I'm mixing on small monitors. I know I need to be rolling off the low-end... what's the general rule of thumb for this sort of thing? 40Hz? 60 is too high, right? Is there any high-end roll-off I need to be thinking about, for dealing with those big horn tweeters? Lucked out, know the soundguy at a big NYC dance club who's gonna let me try my stuff out on the PA while he's setting up so I'mma go there with a buncha different versions...this should help a lot. thanks!
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Why not just play the CD through the club setup, adjust the club mixer's EQ to produce the desired results, then duplicate those EQ settings when you master your tunes? Better yet, improve your acoustic listening space...
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Gotta ask - are you checking with the channel EQ flat, or with a bass boost? A lot of club mixers end up boosting the bass to make up for lower levels on CDs, and if you've mastered to a hyped bass sound, further boosting is just gonna muck it up. My thinking would be a compromise - ample bass, but held back a touch so that it will work well in rotation with a pile of other discs. My 0.01...not quite two cents :D
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[quote] Gotta ask - are you checking with the channel EQ flat, or with a bass boost? [/quote]I always do everything flat on my setup, and it's also what I use to listen to recreationally, so I'm really used to my speakers. They just don't go all that low, I s'pose. Got a cheap little spectragraph thing inline which is helpful though. I always annoy people if I'm riding around with them in their cars. "You're not listening flat?! OMG! Dood, you're gonna screw up your 'ears'!" At the club, I'll have to ask the soundguy to run it with a fairly typical EQ curve, I guess...write down what I did on the different versions, see which sounds best. Repeat.
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Hmm...so is that possibly an issue? That's what I was getting at - if you're mixing to a flat system & making it really fat-sounding, then taking it to a place where there gonna boost the bass even more is gonna result in too much bass. That is, of course, assuming that this is what's going on. Try your mix flat thru the club system & see how it sounds; and/or listen to something that sounds good in the club on your flat system & compare. If this is not what's going on, well...never mind. :D
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[quote] if you're mixing to a flat system & making it really fat-sounding, then taking it to a place where there gonna boost the bass even more is gonna result in too much bass [/quote]Yeah, it's tricky. I try and mix my stuff "not really fat-sounding" 'cuz you're right, if it's fat on a flat system, it'll be over-the-top on a boosted bass setup. Which I think is prob. most of the problem, along with the sub stuff that I can't hear. On the PA, it sounded HUGE alright, kill-yer-intenstines bass but you could barely hear much else, the mids just weren't there at all 'cuz the speakers were so busy with bass. We always have a fight, the guys I work with and I, when we mix... 'cuz I know my speakers pretty well and hear 'em all the time. "Sounds good" I say. "Nah, it ain't hittin'! It needs to really punch!" "It's fine! You can't hear it, but it's probably ok..." sez I. "Trust me!" Eyes roll. The magic phrase isn't working again. "67hz! 67hz!" they urge. (67hz is our running joke. Supposedly the resonant frequency of a woman's private parts. I read it on the Internet.) Trust in the spectragraph, I guess. I also took little snippets of a buncha tunes that sound good in different styles and have them sitting in a folder on my desktop for A-B reference.
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Yea i think i know what your talking about.. i always tend to roll off the lowest frequencies as i feel like the music "drags on the floor" when theres too much of it.... and i boost at around 250 hz to give a pop that i like in a kick drum and have a bass line ,if there is one, fill in the bottom end...
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