Does anyone mix/ produce with a subwoofer?

[46and2]

Feeling the bass is really my main concern here as I love to listen to tracks in my car and I notice how with lots of stuff like burial, boards of canada etc you can just feel those subs right in your stomach when driving around with the system cranked..... Do you think in the case of those producers (who never play in clubs) they are using sub woofers while they produce?

What do you all think of this? If bass is my main concern/ weakness when it comes to producing, would investing in a sub be a good priority?

[Simulant]

Investing in room treatment would be a good idea first. You may find that with treatment, you'll be able to hear the bass better anyhow as things won't reverberate as much.

Most producers use monitors and get by just fine, which is mainly why I've never bought a sub. I like to emulate what the most successful in any field do. A combination of monitors and checking details on headphones is the best way to go.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

i think it could be the fact that board of canada and burial dont necessarily use sine wave subs, the earthier sounds with more harmonics they use probably just feel more powerful in your car because of your system or the acoustics.

[bassbum]

I would say get a sub. A track can sound competently different when played on a sub. Some people would say a good pair of headphone will get you by. IMO though there is a big difference between feel sub in you ears and feeling it in the whole room/body. I only have a £50 sub but I find helps to crank it every now and then so you can hear the track when all the focus is on the sub, like it would be in a club.

Buy yeah like it was said by Simulant... you should uses both a sub and headphones. You might want to invest in treatment though, depending on your room.

[Genevieve]

Even with a sub in your studio, it will never sound or feel like a club system. 909 kicks sound tight on regular 5 - 7 inch woofers, on when you include a sub and MONSTROUS in a club system. Like night and day.

THO, I'm not saying that you shouldn't monitor your sub. The best possible full range monitoring setup should always be your goal. Those big subs may sound different in a club, but when you can make them sound GOOD in your studio, they will sound EVEN BETTER in the club.

[titchbit]

I smell round 2 coming....

[ThisIsSovereign]

I've got two KRK Rokit 8 monitors and a KRK Rokit 10S subwoofer. I absolutely love the 10 inch subwoofer. The monitors only go down to 45hz so if you want to monitor anything below that you'd be shit out of luck. If you're making deep dubstep or anything that involves lots of sub-bass it just makes sense to get a subwoofer. But that's just my opinion.

On a side note I can't even listen to music without the subwoofer now, you just can't feel the sub-bass and its absolute shit. Headphones just don't do it, I gotta feel it!

[Icetickle]

You can't get your windows shaking with headphones.

[Harkat]

I have M-Audio BX5s, the'yre pretty good. Apparently they go down to 50hz only, but that feels pretty decent when the volume is up, definitely feel it a vibration in my ribcage. I still really want a proper sub though, if only a common "entertainment" one.

[skimpi]

I've got two KRK Rokit 8 monitors and a KRK Rokit 10S subwoofer. I absolutely love the 10 inch subwoofer. The monitors only go down to 45hz so if you want to monitor anything below that you'd be shit out of luck. If you're making deep dubstep or anything that involves lots of sub-bass it just makes sense to get a subwoofer. But that's just my opinion.

On a side note I can't even listen to music without the subwoofer now, you just can't feel the sub-bass and its absolute shit. Headphones just don't do it, I gotta feel it!

nah mate, 8 inches will go lower than that, it may start rolling off at 45hz, but you can still hear the sub, I can hear subs perfectly on my HS80s, I do like to check sub area on in ear earphones too though. ALso like the technique of just feeling the driver for sub.

[elyhess]

I do, but i like having the option to turn it off and just use my monitors.

I don't think it's really necessary, sometimes i use mine sometimes i don't

[NinjaEdit]

Get a sub. Even if it's at the low end of pro, it'll feel like getting off. The music gains 3D depth as well as solid deep shit.

[MaZa1]

Sub really gives that deep 3d-ish feeling since you can really feel the bass and shaking windows

I produce with headphones, but i always check how the track sounds in my car where i have some decent speakers and 2x10" woofers and the feeling is so different

[SunkLo]

I smell round 2 coming....

You can't get your windows shaking with headphones.

You don't need shaking windows to make intelligent mix decisions.

A shitty pc speaker sub in a room without a lot of bass trapping isn't going to elucidate much regarding your low end. It'll be fun though, which might help you get the vibe going in the composition stage. Useful as a reference point, probably. As far as getting an accurate picture of your track though, I'd probably mix without it most of the time.

However a matched sub with properly tuned crossovers in a studio quality control room is a different story. I'd easily trust that through most of the mix process. But we're talking more than a 50 dollar walmart logitech sub here. Some arbitrary sub added to an arbitrary set of monitors in an arbitrary room will harm more than help most of the time.

[SlayTen]

its all preference. I know a studio who uses 3 different pairs of monitors, and activates/deactivates the sub . its whatever works best for the track

[Icetickle]

Does anyone know anything about Altec Lansing ATP3 when it come to sub and speakers in general?

[ThisIsSovereign]

Does anyone know anything about Altec Lansing ATP3 when it come to sub and speakers in general?

Anything such as that which costs $30-$100 or whatever is gonna be trash and not give you anything remotely accurate. The thing is 30 Watts total and the woofer is only 3". It's basically a toy, not a subwoofer .

[Maccaveli]

I produce on a hi-fi system with $300 speakers and a $300 sub, and although it sounds great, it's not exactly accurate. I tend to just put headphones on during mixing to get things sounding right.

[dca]

I have a big sub in my system with my KRK 8's but I only turn it on when im actually mixing and composing my sub and/or kick track. other than that it stays off till the full track is ready for a listen. I think it helps though, especially when you have very precise attack and release times interacting with your kick, its hard to do on headphones properly imo

[darkshadows7]

I have a krk sub and I'd say that there's much fun to be had here. I think the sub goes a bit lower than 45 hz and I know see what the person above was saying about properly tuned crossover...makes a big difference.