Interesting Bill, but maybe a bit unusual. I did find that classical had the lowest frequency content when I looked, but it wasn't high in level, like other genres. Can we suppose a lot of that is room tone?
I agree that with a solid bass you get a good sense of the venue in large classical recordings. Almost like the room breathing. Although for me, a lot of fell of the space is in the 100-400Hz range. Not sure why that is.
I agree that with a solid bass you get a good sense of the venue in large classical recordings. Almost like the room breathing. Although for me, a lot of fell of the space is in the 100-400Hz range. Not sure why that is.
Certainly not the norm. Amongst modern redbook classical recording I have most seem to have the same LF roll off as vinyl used to have. But Chandos record everything in 5.1 for SACD now so keep full LF information. I need to look at some other labels to compare.
That's exactly how I've described it in the past. So, for music it doesn't need to go particularly low, but for an accurate reproduction of the event, it does.
What I found is posted here:
Spectrum of Musical Genres
That an average of many recordings. There will be outliers, of course.
Spectrum of Musical Genres
That an average of many recordings. There will be outliers, of course.
Dave Wilson used to do a great demo with watt/puppy/whow with a recording in a cathederal. Now he was steering us on what we would hear, but the illusion was of a space larger than the room we were in. Possibly the only time I have felt really transported to another space entirely. But carefully curated master tape and well rehearsed patter...
Hey guys, looking at the Audacity spectrum analysis for the mentioned Chandos release, I see the window size was 4096 samples.
Is that the favored size to use for checking for bass content?
I see things look quite a bit different as I increase sample size on tracks I've looked at, most often accelerating bass roll-off.
Bit of a newbie here....i get the sample size to freq resolution relationship....but just wondering what folks find works real world...thx
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Good point. I will re do that tonight with a larger window size and see what that changes. Not sure how I missed that at the time.
Yes, my understanding is, the larger the sample size, the more resolution at lower frequencies, resulting in a more accurate representation of what's actually going on down there?
It's window leakage/skirts displayed on a log scale that can fool you into thinking there is something there. A 20Hz tone at 8192.
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I'm comparing with other recordings with nothing there though. Always happy to be wrong though.
Well your plot doesn't look like much I've ever seen, expect maybe pink noise. 🙂 It's an interesting track. Would love to see it with more FFT bins.
I suspect, because dispersions of main arrays and standing on the ground subs do not match, also first rows absorb bass energy, so if they are not shaking by bass, last rows would hear shrill sound.
Speaking of home, I power off Hafler XL600 that is connected to my underfloor sub when listening stereo. When listening organ music, or watch movies, I power it on, to get frequencies below 40 Hz. Otherwise some vintage recordings have some rumble from underground or cars recorded.
Here is a helicopter that I recorder back in 2008, when it flew above my house when I recorded a rain. Sometimes I use it to test or demo my setup.
http://wavebourn.com/rain_helicopter.mp3
Here is a helicopter that I recorder back in 2008, when it flew above my house when I recorded a rain. Sometimes I use it to test or demo my setup.
http://wavebourn.com/rain_helicopter.mp3
Interesting track. Big peak around 35 Hz, but rolls off rapidly below that. First image is an RTA with infinite averaging (using REW) of the contents of the MP3.
As an aside, I've found that most music that sounds "good" on almost everything seems to have a fairly consistent content curve when RTA'd - a smooth slope upwards from 10kHz down to about 200 Hz, then a more rapid increase up to 50~60 Hz, then shelved downwards, sometimes pretty quickly, after that. Music with more content at 40 Hz rather than 50 Hz for example actually sounds like the bass isn't EQ'd right. But that's just my opinion. The second image is an RTA capture of a psy-trance track that sounds good on almost any system I play it back on. I think that there's an untapped market for "content" EQs that EQ the content before it's passed on to the rest of the system to reproduce - PAS Graphic Equalizer Studio 2018 is capable of doing this, and it works quite well.
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Sorry i forgot others can't read my mind, i will try to be more understable.
My point about live or dance club system is that for some kind of music this is the only way to know how the artist want the music to be presented as it is abstract by nature.
Going to a live act of Bassnectar, Kraftwerk or other music produced by non acoustic instruments where the artist make the choice of the system IS the equivalent of going to a concerthall to listen to a real orchestra and have a reference for the sound of real instruments.
So this bring back to the kind of music listened and it's frequency content to determine what is needed as FR for any playback system at home.
I agree for acoustic music (pop,rock,etc,etc,...) and this is what you could find as target curve for PA systems.
I can give a link with example from DB or EV with this kind of curve. I takes into account the 4pi radiation in open space/ outdoor and the need for headroom in the 50hz area where most of fundemental energy is.
Good sounding PA follow almost always this target from my experience.
But for some electronic music this will not work by experience too.
Yes and no. The contractor want a 'smile' eq profile AND running the system for 48h continously so 12/18db only won't provide enough headroom and open the risk for the sub to blow after some hours playing/pounding.
Oversizing allow for 'extreme' eq boost in low end AND safe operating for the sub long term. They probably do not use the full 30db, some part is used for headroom duty for sure.
You may be right about dispersion i had no more info other than the statement about what was used (i think the comment was for Coachella festival but i may be wrong).
In the end i agree with you Pano. As a Drum & Bass Dj (using exclusively vinyl medium) i don't feel the need to go lower than 30hz except for maybe 5 or 6 tracks in my whole D&B collection (300+).
That said i have some cd with 20hz and lower notes. Do i miss them when i play them back? Not really so i can live without them.
I don't agree with the boost the bass level for the club sound though. At home it doesn't 'sound' like played on a soundsystem. This is more a question of overall spl than really a frequency response/eq (this play a role though as the PA i played on were almost boosted in low end for D&B).
Maybe this is headroom related, maybe this is room related i don't know but it is sure some tracks doesn't seems to be the same once they go loud outdoor on a nice PA.
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As an absolute bass freak (ex drummer and bassist) I fought for tight accurate and low bass for years.
I never felt like I got it right until I went to a conference about room interaction.
Now with bass traps in all 4 corners top to bottom and 4 active subs I am finally satisfied.
The room is just as much a part of the equation as is you low frequency target.
I never felt like I got it right until I went to a conference about room interaction.
Now with bass traps in all 4 corners top to bottom and 4 active subs I am finally satisfied.
The room is just as much a part of the equation as is you low frequency target.
What microphone was this recorded on? Helicopters produce very low (single digit) Hz IIRC, so the fact there are the big peaks but then not much below 35Hz makes me wonder if the mic was rolling off.
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