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Why does my music sound terrible when I connect my Subwoofer?
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Djones
IsraTrance Senior Member
Started Topics :
267
Posts :
1766
Posted : Jan 4, 2007 01:05
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I still have a pair of Tannoy reveals passive (waiting for the Alesis M1 Active MK2), and today I connected my Tannoy TS-8 subwoofer.
All cd's were booming, real hard and beefy.
I then started CUbase to listen how my tracks would sound with the Sub, and everything sounded awful.
I mean real bad, there was no punch in the bass, although there seemed to be enough lowend to it.
Also the the kick/bass combination sounded real muddy, not tight at all.
Why is this?
Is there something wrong with my speakers?
Is it because my tracks weren't mastered and mixed?
Or am I just such a terrible producer? |
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PoM
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
162
Posts :
8087
Posted : Jan 4, 2007 01:39
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maybe something is wrong with your studio acoustic and the sub crosshover , i don t know how you can set up the sub but if your cd's were sounding ok it s your tracks! if the reveals don t go very low i understand you have a bad surpise but now you can fix it! |
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Freeflow
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
60
Posts :
3709
Posted : Jan 4, 2007 01:52
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if all other tracks sounded good its probably your production..
consider this, strap a multiband ccompressor on the track and tame the lowend, it will probably do lots of difference.. and cut the lowend with a FFT filter or some good EQ, some mastering EQ. and limit the track, you will notice difference.
if its not your acoustics its the truth, though there is probably a mix of both.....
mastering does alot to a track...
dont worry. a unprocessed track will sound a little muddy if its not tamed with FX, if you dont consider this from the very begining and process you sounds with mastering plugs.
there is lots of ways to do things...
now go and tame your sounds 
Subwoofers is a bitch, but bitches can be good aswell if you know how to treat them 
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sy000321
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
46
Posts :
1142
Posted : Jan 4, 2007 17:57
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maybe you have a lot of low freqs you couldnt listen properly with the reveals.
are you using the 5\" ones?
 roll a joint or STFU :) |
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Axolotyl
Started Topics :
9
Posts :
96
Posted : Jan 5, 2007 16:34
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Does your sub have a crossover? If so, turn it down as it could be handing frequencies too high for it. I have a tapco sw-10 sub and if I set the crossover too high (usually above 80Hz) then it tends to reduce the punch of the kick since its playing frequencies that usually come through the woofers . Sub cones just dont travel fast enough to deliver much punch (well cheap ones anyway)
Also, more than likely your room acoustics and sub placement are playing a big part. Subs can be notoriously picky about where you put them. Find another spot for it, turn it down or invest in some bass traps perhaps?? |
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Colin OOOD
Moderator
Started Topics :
95
Posts :
5380
Posted : Jan 5, 2007 17:11
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Quote:
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On 2007-01-05 16:34, Axolotyl wrote:
Does your sub have a crossover? If so, turn it down as it could be handing frequencies too high for it. I have a tapco sw-10 sub and if I set the crossover too high (usually above 80Hz) then it tends to reduce the punch of the kick since its playing frequencies that usually come through the woofers . Sub cones just dont travel fast enough to deliver much punch (well cheap ones anyway)
Also, more than likely your room acoustics and sub placement are playing a big part. Subs can be notoriously picky about where you put them. Find another spot for it, turn it down or invest in some bass traps perhaps??
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his problem is that his own tracks sound worse than released tracks, with the sub connected - so not a placement or crossover problem (although it's possible that both of these could be tweaked to improve the overall sound).
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Contact for bookings/mastering - colin@oood.net |
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xaBBu
xaBBu
Started Topics :
8
Posts :
161
Posted : Jan 5, 2007 17:34
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Quote:
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On 2007-01-05 17:11, Colin OOOD wrote:
Quote:
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On 2007-01-05 16:34, Axolotyl wrote:
Does your sub have a crossover? If so, turn it down as it could be handing frequencies too high for it. I have a tapco sw-10 sub and if I set the crossover too high (usually above 80Hz) then it tends to reduce the punch of the kick since its playing frequencies that usually come through the woofers . Sub cones just dont travel fast enough to deliver much punch (well cheap ones anyway)
Also, more than likely your room acoustics and sub placement are playing a big part. Subs can be notoriously picky about where you put them. Find another spot for it, turn it down or invest in some bass traps perhaps??
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his problem is that his own tracks sound worse than released tracks, with the sub connected - so not a placement or crossover problem (although it's possible that both of these could be tweaked to improve the overall sound).
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If he were to tune his monitors/sub for just listening purpose I would try optimizing the room / crossover settings. But I guess what he wants to achieve is a "clean" and "honest" picture of how the sound changes when he does something in his progress of producing, so I am joining in with the others... Actually this effect can happen if you put tooo much sub in your sound by accident. Mostly the reasons for this is working only with studiosoundcard and not checking back on "normal" or "hifi" equipment. Also too loud subbass does not necesarily mean that you percieve it that loud with your ears which could be reason why you dont percieve it at all when only using the tanoy monitors without sub. (depends also on the masking effect of different frequencies which relies on way "wider" frequency ranges being masked in the bass region)
I would put my first emphasis on learning on how to tame sub / bass with eq and correct mixing, cause this is the reason for his tracks to sound muddy if other stuff sounds allright.
So basically I am just repeating the other guys opinion  ... |
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Akousma
Started Topics :
8
Posts :
69
Posted : Jan 7, 2007 04:22
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just one thing bro ...using subwoofers for music prodution is generally not a good ideia ,,i mean its a speeker especially conceived for reproducing low frequencys only and ind trance its not adviseble to use anything below 30Hz..so a sub is really not that usefull and it messes things up!!a pair of stufio monitors is tjust tha thing 
peace...
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AvS
Started Topics :
9
Posts :
464
Posted : Jan 7, 2007 16:08
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Having frequencies under 30hz makes no sense i any type of music. Using a sub with small studio monitors make lots of sense. I think the tannoy reveal only goes down to like 60hz i think (right...?) so a sub is indeed a good idea to have so you can hear the really low freqs of you production.
It seems like your monitor setup is really working well since professional produced cd'es sounds great and your stuff sounds bad.
What doesnt make any sense is that you plan to replace your reveals+sub with some Alesis M1 Active MK2! |
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mubali
Mubali
Started Topics :
71
Posts :
2219
Posted : Jan 7, 2007 20:53
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as for having frequencies under 30 hz for any type of music making no sense, take a look at drum & bass....
I definitely would suggest you look at a frequency analyzer for some of your tracks and definitely try using a combination of eq maybe some multiband compression.
Mastering can do wonders, but no amount of polish will make a diamond out of a turd. Just keep checking things out and make sure you a/b compare to a track in the style that you are writing or with an artist who's bass you really like.
An Eagle may soar, but Weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. |
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