Modern Dance Music

[Deleted member 60987]

Is it just me or does a lot of modern dance use low frequency to the point of discomfort in most headphones? It is like they are using electronic bass quantized to match a kick drum, but it's boomy to the point of discomfort.

What the hell kind of kick drum is that? And how does it sound good, with speakers? What do Beats do to something already boosting a flabby bass sound? To my mind the kik drum should be a low thud. With a very fast decay. Quick and low. But I've noticed with a bunch of dance tracks I've heard that were uncomfortable on all my headphones.

 

[badspeakerdesigner]

Sounds fine to me, perhaps you just don't like the sample choices here.

 

[Deleted member 60987]

Sounds fine to me, perhaps you just don't like the sample choices here.

They aren't painful now on my computer but then I am wearing Rockville M50. Downstairs through headphone amps and a bluetooth receiver they were painful on MDR7506, M50X, Superlux 681, Sperlux 668B, Beyer 770, Senn 560, AKG 361, Samson R850, Philips 9500 and Shure 440. Maybe the headphone amps or bluetooth boosted bass more than my computer. Or these headphones just don't pump up the low the way others do. But to my ears that is a crap kik drum sound. And I literally had one of those NOW THATS WHAT I CALL MUSIC, with a variety of modern dance and I kept hearing ridiculous bass and kik combos that were literally painful. Which I doubt sould bother me on KRK Rokit 5 but hooked up to my head? Too much.

 

[badspeakerdesigner]

You might wanna see a doctor if you're getting pain in your ears from bass on something like the mdr7506.

 

[Deleted member 60987]

Is it just me or does a lot of modern dance use low frequency to the point of discomfort in most headphones? It is like they are using electronic bass quantized to match a kick drum, but it's boomy to the point of discomfort.

What the hell kind of kick drum is that? And how does it sound good, with speakers? What do Beats do to something already boosting a flabby bass sound? To my mind the kik drum should be a low thud. With a very fast decay. Quick and low. But I've noticed with a bunch of dance tracks I've heard that were uncomfortable on all my headphones.

Examples from NOW THATS WHAT I CALL MUSIC 33 with wet bass:

Keisha - TikTok

Lady - Gaga Bad Romance

Maybe painful is an exaggeration, but uncomfortable

How long before people lose hearing putting that kind of low end an inch from their ears?

 

[Deleted member 60987]

Maybe

 

[Yasuo]

The song you posted sounds bad in the way of being very "crowded" in the low(er) frequency area. Or muddy, too much "bass". Doesn't do any favor to Beyonce's voice.

I noticed this especially on modern pop music. A good example is the 1989 album - Taylor Swift which sounds better on cheap headphones due to excessive use of mid bass. Whenever I listen it on 6xx, DT770 T or speakers I'm adding a notch filter around 80hz.

 

[Deleted member 60987]

The song you posted sounds bad in the way of being very "crowded" in the low(er) frequency area. Or muddy, too much "bass". Doesn't do any favor to Beyonce's voice.

I noticed this especially on modern pop music. A good example is the 1989 album - Taylor Swift which sounds better on cheap headphones due to excessive use of mid bass. Whenever I listen it on 6xx, DT770 T or speakers I'm adding a notch filter around 80hz.

Wet bass, right? There's too much boomy resonance. I think they are not made for good headphones. They are made for massive club speakers to get people to move. Headphones pump that shit one inch form your ears.

 

[Deleted member 60987]

Here's one off that same CD with a dry kik drum. It's punchy and loud but not tied to some electronic bass sound. In fact it could actually be THAT that annoys me.
I have about 15 bass sounds on my Yamaha keyboard and some of them are extreme. Sub Bass, Synth bass. Tied to a kik drum they would really push a lot of low frequency into the ears.

 

[Cuckoo Studio]

Due to different producers, personal preferences, listening devices, and other reasons, even mixing of the same style can be completely different. Many times, for me, due to the use of limiters to increase loudness in modern songs, the problem of excessive high-frequency stimulation often occurs, and it is no less common than excessive low-frequency.

 

[markanini]

Due to different producers, personal preferences, listening devices, and other reasons, even mixing of the same style can be completely different. Many times, for me, due to the use of limiters to increase loudness in modern songs, the problem of excessive high-frequency stimulation often occurs, and it is no less common than excessive low-frequency.

This matches my experience too.
Overall the bassiness of a mix depeneds on the density and tempo. The Beyonce track will work on many systems because it's a sparse song.

 

[robwpdx]

Is it just me or does a lot of modern dance use low frequency to the point of discomfort in most headphones? It is like they are using electronic bass quantized to match a kick drum, but it's boomy to the point of discomfort.

What the hell kind of kick drum is that? And how does it sound good, with speakers? What do Beats do to something already boosting a flabby bass sound? To my mind the kik drum should be a low thud. With a very fast decay. Quick and low. But I've noticed with a bunch of dance tracks I've heard that were uncomfortable on all my headphones.

There are many good ASR-quality comments here and there are some ASR bass in recording topics.

I have not looked at a spectrum of the tracks. I think the OP is correct that the tracks are mastered for the club.

It is common for dance music mixer/mastering engineers to send tracks through a DBX Subharmonic Synthesizer. I have one in my home system.

Combine that and mixer/mastering engineer artistic choices with headphones which boost bass for consumer preference, and that may be what you are encountering. Maybe your system has a real time spectrum analyzer and a parametric EQ?

Though I often argue on ASR against in-home processing I'm 100% for in-home EQ.

 

[Deleted member 60987]

There are many good ASR-quality comments here and there are some ASR bass in recording topics.

I have not looked at a spectrum of the tracks. I think the OP is correct that the tracks are mastered for the club.

It is common for dance music mixer/mastering engineers to send tracks through a DBX Subharmonic Synthesizer. I have one in my home system.

Combine that and mixer/mastering engineer artistic choices with headphones which boost bass for consumer preference, and that may be what you are encountering. Maybe your system has a real time spectrum analyzer and a parametric EQ?

Though I often argue on ASR against in-home processing I'm 100% for in-home EQ.

Yup. If they want a club hit, they must have something in the studio putting out wads of low end. Subwoofers or literally club speakers to see if they shake the floor. The fact is, if you want people to dance, you need to boost certain frequencies in the percussion and bass region. They may not care how they sound on headphones. They want clubgoers to get up and move so DJs keep playing that track. I used to use M40X when I ran a mix onto a CD recorder just to set input volume, not alter a mix and boy, those things kicked out some thump that made you want to move even though it wasn't dance music.

 

[badspeakerdesigner]

As a guy who mixes music for a living in the studio and live venues, I don't really agree with anyones assessment here on the idea that these mixes were made for particular environment.

 

[Deleted member 60987]

As a guy who mixes music for a living in the studio and live venues, I don't really agree with anyones assessment here on the idea that these mixes were made for particular environment.

Fair enough. Do you have any links to a song you mixed on Amazon or Spotify?

 

[badspeakerdesigner]

Fair enough. Do you have any links to a song you mixed on Amazon or Spotify?

You can peruse my soundcloud for my own stuff, but I don't usually share client stuff unless I ask them first. Some of it is also just not interesting to listen to or podcasts.

https://soundcloud.com/melohq%2Fstrings
https://soundcloud.com/melohq%2Fsensor-melo-remix
https://soundcloud.com/melohq%2Fmelo-chital

 

[Deleted member 60987]

Sounds good. These days anyone with a computer and mid interface is a producer engineer. I did something with someone, just adding vocals and sax off a keyboard, that sounds good, but considering he doesn't play an instrument, I think he copied and pasted squares of music into bandlab or something. I am so old school, I play all the instruments and only use computers to convert to MP3. Of course Glow is an exception. It's some contest where they asked us to add things to her guitar and vocals. But thousands enter these contests so I'm not hiding my breath for any prizes. https://soundcloud.com/baronvonlichtenstein

 

[RayDunzl]

 

[Deleted member 60987]

Sheik Yerbutti was great.

 

[Doodski]

Wow! I had no idea what to expect and I'm as usual impressed by Frank. Frank was official demo music at one service shop that I worked at and it was pleasing that many customers thought that was cool. His recording quality on releases is exemplary and so we used it for testing, troubleshooting and speaker demos after repairs.