Making your mix sound good on any system

[konway]

Hi, I've recently made a tune and it sounds heavy through my monitors and sub. I've compared it to other tunes through the same sytem and it doesn't sound much different concerning balance, weight and punch. The thing is I've played it through my girlfriends little shitty computer speakers and when played above a cirtain amplitude the bass just distorts the fuck out of the speakers. I've also compared with simalar tunes through these speakers and the bass starts to distort at a much higher amplitude. I understand that most loudspeakers will register frequencies below their cut-off and this can cause problems. I need to maintain the weight of the sub without distorting the speakers. I've applied a low pass filter to the sub and draged out some nasty sounding frequencies which has helped a little. Can anyone ginve me any advice on bass managment please? Not sure whether I'm venturing more into mastering here?

Cheers

[futures_untold]

You've started on the right lines by filtering some of the unneccesary higher frequencies.

Something you could try is to use an EQ to attenuate any frequency above 80Hz, that isn't harmonically related to the fundamental frequency of the bass. In plain English, if your bass is 50Hz, then filter out 55Hz - 95Hz, then 105Hz - 145Hz etc etc. My math is shit, I'm smply trying to demonstrate the concept.

After EQing the bass, apply light but constant compression. a threshold of -30dB with a 2:1 - 4:1 ration, fast attack and long release shold help you pump the volume up slightly within the available headroom.

The more you compress the bass, the louder you can get it. Eventually you may be accused of propogating 'the loudness war' with all that compression.

The bottom line is - EQ & compress to get things louder. Whether this is artistically good is a different debate.

Or consult a mastering engineer!

[lojik]

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=74832

This thread is what you need to read all the way through. It is honestly the most useful thread I've read in terms of mixing and making tunes sound good.