when bass sounds out of tune

ikeaboy · Post by **ikeaboy** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 1:37 pm

The Finn wrote:I am talking about single notes here.
I am pretty sure it is a psychoacoustic issue
Not sure how to correct or handle it.

Thing is: knowing it ain't out of tune is no help if it it sounds out of tune.

I hear when I am using a sampled electric bass, or a simple Operator sub bass.

I am tempted to tune the bass a few cents lower just so it sounds right, as per Sibanger says... but I worry about what if the problem is mostly a room effect / effect of how it is 'mastered' (such as it is) ... so that if that is sorted, the bass will now be too low.

Check it on your headphones, all this second guessing will seriously drain time and energy. You need to figure out if it's your room messing with your head

re:dream · Post by **re:dream** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 2:15 pm

The couple of times when I have checked it out on me cans, the issue persisted.

Next time it occurs, instead of irritatedly looking for another bass sound, I will record and upload & share example.

mrobare · Post by **mrobare** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 3:44 pm

hi

i have this problem with the open g string on
the guitar it always sounds wrong to me
even after using a tuner
so i try and avoid playing it
its just that one note

"I agree that is is a perceived issue."

devobtch

OJ KARDASHIAN · Post by **OJ KARDASHIAN** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 3:46 pm

JuanSOLO · Post by **JuanSOLO** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:45 pm

I use a lot of sub bassy sine wave sounds in some music I make, I generally like it overwhelming and boomtastic.
I run into this problem a lot.
Sometimes I think I got it sounding "in tune" even if it's really not, yet when another day goes by and I listen with fresh ears it sounds all wrong again.
I walk around my room and it gets really different,
I walk outside my room and it changes,
headphones all the way on or half off the ears, all different.

So I started doing this trick I feel like gets me a lot closer of the bat.
I add a wee bit of distortion, and pull my headphones half off both ears.
Tune to taste, then delete the distortion.

plus 1 on Angstrom's point.

H20nly · Post by **H20nly** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:50 pm

*bookmark* for later reference.

Sibanger wrote:He's probably too busy selling bass traps to hang around hear Ethan rocks!

laughing because i know that you know that i know that you know that wasn't intentional.

footsy · Post by **footsy** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 8:10 pm

There could be multiple things.

Are you in the right root key? Are you cutting off the the right frequencies for the bass and kick??

When you EQ your bassline does it look almost like a sine wave? You shouldn't be boosting and tipping up much. I usually try and do very little notching and boosting.

What I've heard and I've tried is to just mix it down. More or less it's the level or it's out of key.

Sibanger · Post by **Sibanger** » Wed Jul 24, 2013 6:40 am

H20nly wrote:*bookmark* for later reference.

Sibanger wrote:He's probably too busy selling bass traps to hang around hear Ethan rocks!
laughing because i know that you know that i know that you know that wasn't intentional.

LOLs!!!

antandra · Post by **antandra** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 4:45 am

One reason that can happen is that when you have headphones or your speakers are too close, the very low sub bass doesn't physically have enough room to fully express the waveform as I understand it. Adding some higher harmonics with shorter frequency waveforms can help make it sound more in tune, but moving the speakers away may help, or I hear subpack is great if you have headphones. I haven't tried it yet, but I'd like to feel what it's like.

fishmonkey · Post by **fishmonkey** » Sun Jul 19, 2020 11:10 am

djstory wrote: ↑
Sun Jul 19, 2020 4:45 am
One reason that can happen is that when you have headphones or your speakers are too close, the very low sub bass doesn't physically have enough room to fully express the waveform as I understand it.

nope, what we hear as sound is a pressure wave moving through the air. you can sample the pressure wave at any point as it passes by you (which is also what most microphones do).

there's a bunch of reasons why bass can sound out of tune, including:

- humans suck at reliably perceiving bass frequencies
- instruments with strings and reeds suffer from inharmonicity whereby the upper harmonics are not accurately produced (look up stretched tuning)
- resonant notes in bass drivers or speaker cabinets
- bass notes are the most problematic in terms of acoustic treatment (it takes more energy to generate a bass sound, and the energy bounces around for longer, tripping over itself)
- the root note and upper harmonics of a bass note will decay or interfere with each other to differing degrees, shifting the balance of harmonics as you move around the room or listen with a different playback system

leajoncov · Post by **leajoncov** » Mon Jul 27, 2020 5:56 pm

Inside Live in Audio effects there is app called Tuner that might help you .

when bass sounds out of tune

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