Opinions Sought: Is this too boomy?

Guitar techniques, music theory, recording and anything to do with actually playing your guitar

Moderated By: mods

User avatar
Bacchus
Whatever's handiest
Posts: 23430
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:10 am
Location: wandering

Opinions Sought: Is this too boomy?

Post by Bacchus »

I'm recording a track for the charity my wife works for and I'm hoping I'm near finished....

I'd be super-grateful if some of you could run your ears over this

Every time I mix using my headphones, the bass ends up crazy boomy because I must be compensating for that. So I've tried to tame it a fair bit. My hifi system at home is fairly bassy. To me, it sounds like it's booming a bit on my hifi, which probably isn't a problem.

Also, have I fallen for the trap of compressing everything and then turning everything up louder than everything else?

Thanks.

Image
User avatar
gusman2x
.
.
Posts: 4198
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:01 pm
Location: Manchester U.K.

Post by gusman2x »

Listened on cheap dell powered monitors.

Bit boomy.

On the flip side though, I'd be signing up if I could.
www.lowrisemusic.com

uugh, another Manchester alt/indie band
User avatar
Freddy V-C
NOD FLANGERS
Posts: 5562
Joined: Sun May 17, 2009 4:55 pm

Post by Freddy V-C »

Sounds alright to me. Maybe a little bit boomy but not enough for it to be a problem imo. If you want to tidy up the low end without faffing about loads with individual aspects of the mix, I often shove a master EQ on my whole mix with a high pass filter somewhere between 35 and 80Hz (depending on the track) and take out around 3 or 4dB at 350Hz. You could give that a try and see if it neatens things up a bit.
User avatar
NickS
.
.
Posts: 13524
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:08 am
Location: Close to the edge, down by the river

Post by NickS »

Sounds fine on my Plantronics foam-pad headset, so maybe it is a bit bass-heavy; what are people going to be listening on (what media is it going out on?)

A good job IMHO, but if you re-record the vocals, put more stress on the first syllable so that it sounds less like hoss piss care. I found the mention of skin slightly surprising but I guess you need to stress the inclusivity.
User avatar
BearBoy
.
.
Posts: 6998
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:27 am
Location: Strung up to the lemons

Post by BearBoy »

Sounds a little bit boomy to me (PC connected to Tannoy monitors) but not sure how much of that might be down to you saying it was boomy and putting the thought in my head. :lol:

Nothing I'd worry too much about though tbh.



Disclaimer - my mixes often sound fairly shitty so I'd ignore me and listen to Freddy.
Fran wrote:I love how this place is basic as fuck.
ekwatts wrote:I'm just going to smash it in with a hammer and hope it works. Tone is all in the fingers anyway.
User avatar
Bacchus
Whatever's handiest
Posts: 23430
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:10 am
Location: wandering

Post by Bacchus »

lol.

I imagine this is mostly going to be used on social media. We're not anticipating a push for Christmas Number 1 but you never know.....
Image
User avatar
BearBoy
.
.
Posts: 6998
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:27 am
Location: Strung up to the lemons

Post by BearBoy »

NickS wrote:hoss piss care
haha
Fran wrote:I love how this place is basic as fuck.
ekwatts wrote:I'm just going to smash it in with a hammer and hope it works. Tone is all in the fingers anyway.
User avatar
Fakir Mustache
.
.
Posts: 4362
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 5:23 pm

Post by Fakir Mustache »

Doesn't sound boomy to me, I'm using a boom box with lots of bass connected to my computer. I have the bass on 3 and the mid and treble on zero. Zero is middle, it gets into negative the other way.
User avatar
Concretebadger
.
.
Posts: 2111
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2012 5:29 pm
Location: Leeds Leeds LEEDS
Contact:

Post by Concretebadger »

It sounds fine through my hi-fi speakers, but the commonplace technique for recording acoustic guitar seems to be to send it through a high pass filter that completely obliterates everything except the upper mids and treble. That's often acoustic guitar being mixed with other instruments though, where you're going for the percussive jangle more than anything. A bit of Nick Drake or something similar might be a better yardstick for solo acoustic, where you need the "body" of the sound to still be there.

The way I approach mixing in general is similar to Freddy's: set the eq to cut anything below 50-80Hz. Frequencies lower than those don't get reproduced by most home hi-fi speakers and headphones, and it's probably out of human hearing range anyway. If you want to tighten up the bottom end and get rid of the mud, that might be a good thing to try.

This tune really does sound okay to my ears though.
User avatar
Doog
mid-century modem
Posts: 23024
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:49 pm
Location: London

Post by Doog »

There's a lot of lows for like a, top 40 song, but it doesn't sound out of place for something more rootsy.

Maybe more low-mids on the bass, so you can afford to back-off the lows a bit without losing presence of it in the mix.
User avatar
George
.
.
Posts: 20953
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:52 am
Location: UK

Post by George »

Too boomy imo.
User avatar
Doog
mid-century modem
Posts: 23024
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:49 pm
Location: London

Post by Doog »

I've had hosspiss stuck in my head all day