Modern Dance Music

[RayDunzl]

The music is on CD:

The Yellow Shark - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[markanini]

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.

I always took is as a given, that the goal is for the mix to work everywhere.

 

[hege]

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.

Maybe try some better gear, do you even EQ? The Beyoncé track sounds fine to me, balanced and smooth with good body. There shouldn't and isn't that much difference between good speakers and headphones when properly tuned.

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

Keisha - TikTok
Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

For my tastes there isn't any bass in these tracks, just some thud thud that doesn't make you want to even move. Not that I'm target audience anyway, but it makes me like the tracks even less. Also that Lady Gaga sounds especially shrill.

Some actual bass:

 

[andymcbain]

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.

It's the evolution of the Roland TR808 kick. Very popular across many electronic genres now. They have a long tail that usually sustains at a particular pitch, so it's essentially like the kick drum and bassline combined into one. In this example there's also a bass guitar fighting for room in the mix - so having an 808 that's just a subsonic rumble might have been to leave some room for the bass guitar to sit on top. Maybe someone who works on this genre regularly could chime in here?

The track isn't really my cup of tea - but it sounds ok in my Airpod Pro 2.