11-02-2015, 08:32 PM
Usually for a rock mix I wind up highpassing the whole thing around 50 Hz at mastering anyhow... not much need for sub in this genre. Tempo is a good point, too... sub waves take a long time to propagate because of their size, and that can give a sense of "drag" to the tempo. Low end monitoring is really, really hard on headphones, or in any untreated space, so download Voxengo SPAN or something similar. SPAN has a high resolution low frequency inspection preset that can give you a really good idea what's happening.
Try Room EQ wizard if you get some monitors, too. Corrective EQ only works well if you've already applied as much acoustic treatment as you can tolerate (cost, space, etc), so I'd just focus on grabbing a measurement mic and getting a waterfall plot so you can see how your room is messing with what you're hearing. Lots of times there's plenty of bass in the mix, but you can't hear it because the decay time of bass frequencies in your room is so long that it's phase cancelling itself before you ever wind up hearing it. If you have any control over this, try firing your monitors down the longest wall of the room, and sit about 38 percent from the front wall, centered from left to right. Sounds obsessive, but supposedly that's where room modes in the bass are going to have the least impact.
Try Room EQ wizard if you get some monitors, too. Corrective EQ only works well if you've already applied as much acoustic treatment as you can tolerate (cost, space, etc), so I'd just focus on grabbing a measurement mic and getting a waterfall plot so you can see how your room is messing with what you're hearing. Lots of times there's plenty of bass in the mix, but you can't hear it because the decay time of bass frequencies in your room is so long that it's phase cancelling itself before you ever wind up hearing it. If you have any control over this, try firing your monitors down the longest wall of the room, and sit about 38 percent from the front wall, centered from left to right. Sounds obsessive, but supposedly that's where room modes in the bass are going to have the least impact.
I'm grateful for comments and suggestions. Thank you for listening!