Loudness of subwoofer during mix?

[fabz]

How loud are your Subwoofers while mixing? How loud is too loud?

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I used to set them so they were just loud enough to fill in the bass or else I would mix the bass to low in the mix.

 

[2012]

It's impossible to tell without tuning the room first, and then there are ways of tuning the sub to the room.

 

[RKelly]

The only way to set it correctly is to run Pink Noise through your speakers into a cal mic and RTA and adjust the volume of the sub to where it levels correctly with the rest of your system.

 

[fabz]

Thanks guys!

I guess i have to try more possible settings...

Do you think this can be helpful?
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/Main.html?arc/index.php

 

[RKelly]

Looks like that would work, I haven't used it but I saw the booth at AES so I'll see if I can get my hands on it tomorrow.

 

[fatalforce]

I don't mix with a sub. Many people have there subs turned up way too loud or don't even have subs.

 

[The inquisitor]

I think everybody who is serious should mix with a subwoofer, because i have heard some great albums sound like total shit on my 5.1 due to WAYYY to much subwoofing(is that a word?)

Good example is Dark funeral - attera.

 

[RKelly]

Yeah you should definitely check your mixes with a sub and reference them on several speaker sets

 

[csholtmeier]

http://www.abluesky.com/asp/default.asp#

Blue Sky's website has great info on calibrating 2.1 systems. They even have test files to play back through your daw to set levels.

 

[s34nsm411]

buying a sub was probably the best addition to my setup thus far. its absolutely essential if you want to make sure the low frequencies sound right. its like trying to paint through welders goggles, you just cant see everything thats there

i usually keep mine pretty loud because thats how i like listening to music normally so im used to it

 

[462studio]

I have the older Event Tria system, which is 2.1, and I have the sub response just up high enough to hear/feel it a bit.

I use it more to create the vibe of bigger monitors, more than accurate low end monitoring.

 

[ElektricEyez]

I'm not sure how anyone else does it, but I usually turn the subwoofer off, and work mainly on the satellites, until I am ready to work on the bass. When I do turn the sub back on, I reference it with a few different albums, like Mudvayne or Static-x. Sometimes I'll have 2 different tracks for Kicks and bass. One pair of tracks will get sent to a group with a compressor/limiter, and a low pass filter for the subwoofer mix, and just raise the volume of them until it fits in the kicks, while the other pair has a high pass filter, that you can only hear in the satellites. I don't always do it that way, but I like some mids of the bass to bleed through, and it gives me total control of each part of them, so if I want the bass guitar louder in the satellites, it doesn't affect what is going on in the subwoofer as well. I'll also try different plugins and EQ settings on each pair of tracks.

 

[yarrick19]

This was posted by the owner of Real Traps (acoustic treatment) :

Unless you're mixing surround movie sound tracks, it's better to have a single pair of speakers that plays low enough than lesser speakers with a sub. Reproducing bass frequencies in a control room is difficult enough without adding yet more "combining" problems from having three sound sources all active around the crossover point.

--Ethan

 

[ElektricEyez]

This was posted by the owner of Real Traps (acoustic treatment) :

Unless you're mixing surround movie sound tracks, it's better to have a single pair of speakers that plays low enough than lesser speakers with a sub. Reproducing bass frequencies in a control room is difficult enough without adding yet more "combining" problems from having three sound sources all active around the crossover point.

--Ethan

Have you ever tried mixing w/o a subwoofer, and then running your new mix through a sound system that has a subwoofer? Usually those kicks and low end bass are WAAAAAY out of whack. I find that many near feild monitors tend to handle bass much easier than most typical stereo speakers. The reason is that people are fooled into thinking that louder speakers sounds better, which is not true, clairity sounds better, rather than hearing speakers that over exaggerate bass and treble. Mixing with a subwoofer makes mixing soo much easier IMO.

 

[fatalforce]

^ true but what if someone is listening to this in a car with no sub or earbuds on their ipod. I believe if your monitors that you mix on are good, it will give a good representation for someones consumer grade speakers.

 

[ElektricEyez]

^ true but what if someone is listening to this in a car with no sub or earbuds on their ipod. I believe if your monitors that you mix on are good, it will give a good representation for someones consumer grade speakers.

I hear what your saying, and your right, there are a lot of people who just listen to music on their iPod's or Mp3 players (which robs you of the full music experience due to Mp3 compression), but from a mixing stand point, you should aim to make your music sound the best you can on any system. If your your music sounds good on a component system, then it will sound good on anything. If I play a CD on an iPod and it sounds killer, but then I go and put it in my truck which has a nice component system, and the subs are the loudest thing in the mix, I probably wont play it again. Most "consumer grade" speakers (other than headphones) have a subwoofer these days, shoot most of them are using surround sound - but that's another subject.

 

[fatalforce]

You make a good point. Maybe I'll A/B/"C" my future mixes with a setup that has a sub.

I think whenever I hear sub and mixing in the same sentence I automatically think surround. I've heard really bad mixes, music and movies, that just pound out the LFE so thats why I'm so hesitant to use a sub.

 

[nwright]

I have a sub, but I tend to mix with it on and off, comparing the mix with it both on and off. This way, I can reference the low end a bit with the sub (more for feel and overall sound - not surgical low end EQ), but I feel I get a better handle on the overall picture through just the near fields. My sub isn't the greatest and isn't high power, so accuracy is a big problem. Most of the time I use it just to see how much ooomph I'm getting.

 

[HeadCrusher]

Where in the room do you guys place your Subs?

Can anyone say anything about the ESI SW10K?