There’s also the effect of psychoactive drugs. Cannabis is correlated with an affinity for heavy bass (think reggae and dub), and apparently cocaine can cause sound engineers to push the treble up, resulting in a harsh, brittle mix.

I love bass sounds

am I just high all the time? It would explain a lot

1.4KHz.

Source?

1.4KHz 😔

Okay, okay. I'll admit it: Occasionally it's 2.3KHz. It depends on what I'm doing with resonant all-pass filters at the time.

Around 532 nm is pretty nice.

Oh, wait, did you mean audio?

I like drum and bass so it'd have to be bass but subbass under 200Hz plays a very important supporting role.

Depends on what I’m doing with it.

If it’s a vocal input, I’m probably boosting the 2k-5k a little, because that’s where lots of the vocal clarity and intelligibility comes from. A small boost somewhere in that range (exactly where varies slightly from one vocalist to the next) usually keeps the audience from straining to hear. Unless it’s a true bass singer, they’re getting a high pass filter, probably around 160Hz-180Hz. Anything below that will just be mud for anyone except a bass. Lastly, most people sound a little less harsh with a small shelf cut around the 8-10k range. Not a lot, you just want to take some of the harsh squeakiness out of things. Maybe a de-esser too, but that’s a different topic.

And if it’s an instrument, I’ll probably consider cutting a little bit out of that same 2k-5k range if it’s stepping on the vocals. Too much noise in that same range will make the vocals sound muddy, because they’re getting steamrolled by the instruments.

Basically everything on the drums (except the kick, and maybe the floor tom) gets some sort of high pass filter. Especially the cymbals. I don’t need to hear kick drum in my ride cymbals. And inversely, basically everything over ~2k gets rolled off of the kick, because I don’t need to hear the cymbals sizzling in my kick mic.

A stringed instrument like a violin or cello will EQ very similarly to a singer in the same range. In terms of instrument voicing, instruments played with a bow sound the most like a human voice, so I guess it makes sense that they would EQ the same. But it also means that strings will tend to overwhelm vocals if they’re in the same range. For example, a bari-bass singer will compete with the cello for the same auditory space. So you’ll want to be careful that you don’t accidentally make both of them sound too much alike. Otherwise you’ll run into the same trap of having them both occupy the same auditory space, and they’ll make each other sound muddy.

beyerdynamic engineers must be doing tons of coke

just give me more fucking bass

Whatever, as long as they're all there in some capacity. I feel like my brain is good at equalizing within reason. I had headphones that when unplugged a bit, they probably put the capacitive mic in series with the drivers, muting a mid frequency band, effectively making it sound like someone used a shitty "vocals removing" tool.

And of course, missing bass (tiny phone speaker) or anything over 5 kHz (MW band of AM radio) doesn't sound good either.

I like bass as long as it doesn't drown out mids and highs

My group needs you

https://lemmy.world/c/IndepthIndie

I really wish Grados werent made of thoughts and prayers. Never had a pair last longer than 6mo and the most recent set I bought were a pair of sr325x's

Just listen to dub and disco.

Why don't you hear for yourself.

Don't fuck with the eq. The track was already mastered with a specific eq for an intended listening experience. Just turn the volumn up so you can hear all of it better.

I'm generally listening for the bass. Most headphones do the mids and treble well enough, it's the bass that makes the difference.

I'm using two sets of ear buds now. One pair is pretty good for sound, but are excellent for phone calls. The other is mediocre for phone calls, but is great for music, with excellent low end response. They're some of the best earbuds I've ever owned, at any price.

I wish I could find a single pair that does both in my price range, but I haven't been able to.

In live performances I love when I can feel bass through my entire body. But personally I don't trust my deaf ass to mix music better than the artist

Fishin' season is pretty tough right now huh

Most headphones do the mids and treble well enough

I can't say I agree with you here at all, but I'm a snob.

There is no fucking way that anyone can sum this shit all up in a simple sentence like that, which would apply to every situation.

Different headphones and speakers have different frequency response. If you're using speakers, the acoustics of the room can have a large effect as well. Are we supposed to go out and buy the same equipment the person mastering used? Build a specific room layout for the specific acoustics intended per track? What if the person mastering already took responses of different equipment and rooms into account? It's not like you get "intended listening guidance" notes with most music.

Personally, if I can tune the EQ towards a flat response graph for my particular headphones I will (Poweramp for Android has these presets built in for a ton of headphones, but you have to apply them yourself), otherwise I don't fuck with it unless some section sounds particularly blown out. My car overenphasizes bass, which is fun most of the time, but I turn it down for some tracks where it drowns out finer details.

Ultimately there's a shit ton that is up to taste.

More treble gives me a fucking headache.

Hi, I'm Smeagol3000. I like the combination of lows and highs with the mids turned down, and I'm an alcoholic.

Unless the frequency response of one's hardware is perfect, it's advised to do the exact opposite and apply the eq bringing it closer to the ideal, e.g. with the AutoEq measurements for headphones.

if I can tune the EQ towards a flat response graph for my particular headphones I will

You might want to take a look at AutoEq and apps that support its exports (namely Wavelet for Android).

Great callout! That's where the audio player app I use, PowerAmp, gets its presets! I was blanking on the source of them when I made that comment.

All of it. Except for 14.5khz, that's where my tinnitus lives.

As an artist who mixes his own songs, definitely mid range, if I have to pick between the 3.

I had the hunch that it might be so. Anyway, Wavelet applies the eq systemwide, for free, and doesn't have any shady permissions. (It also switches between presets for different headphones automatically if you have several configured.)

I just use EQ to fix my speakers/headphones, so it depends.