I've been dealing with that sorta thing too, and have contemplated buying a sub.
I decided to hold off on the sub an train myself out of the bad habit.
I think that will go farther in making my mixes better in the long run.

Best trick, always compare to a reference cd on your monitors. Get a cd that has a close musical style and mix your kick accordingly. You can't go wrong like that. Just don't boost the low frequencies you don't hear on your monitors....cuz you might just get a big surprise in your car with the sub.

I dont think buying a sub is a good thing to mix. All the sound should be coming from the same place, your speakers. A Sub ads low end but it doesn't come from the same place so you mix differently...i dont recommend that.

My 2 cents
Cheers

I have a sub and there is no way you can learn to compensate for frequencies you can't hear unless it is to learn what excessive low mid and bass frequencies look like on a spectrum analyzer.

The other alternative is to run to the car or home stereo, hear what's wrong, come back and make tweaks, go back to the car or stereo, repeat until you like the results. A waste of time and effort when you can get this right in the first place with 8 inch front ported speakers or a sub.

Been there done that. Do yourself a favor (but treat your room first or the sub can drive you nuts) get a sub.

getting a sub with those speakers is a great idea but..........................................................................................................

DO NOT BUY SUBS WITHOUT TREATING YOUR ROOM FIRST..IT WILL CAUSE MORE PROBLEMS THEN YOU HAD BEFORE YOU STARTED.

:D I like to hear what is down there, but you only have to add a slight touch of the sub into the rest of the sound. It is very easy to over do it. In the 70's your mains may have been a 12" ported system or larger but then the sound was cross referenced on small boxy speakers with a single 4" or 5" driver.

--Rick

sub indeed. Problem being, most of today's low/mid quality monitors don't go down to 70 Hz and below. They frequently drop off harshly after 100 Hz. If they go fully to 40 Hz... it certainly isn't flat.

Unless you have a nice set of monitors with 8 inch drivers that are nicely ported, like tannoy's or mackie 842's, get a sub. Set the crossover somewhere 70-100 Hz depending on your speakers and enjoy the lows. Room treatment is a good idea. or if you can go trashing your room, atleast find the best placement for the sub and learn how a well mixed cd sounds on your system.

And as a previous reply stated... you can't mix what you can't hear. What more do you need? Get a sub.

I have to agree. You can't mix what you can't here. With much of today's music there is much much more bottom than there was just 10-15 years ago. Just for shits and giggles, when I was looking into buying a sub I emailed about 30 people I know and asked them if they had a subwoofer on thier home or car stereo. Only three did not and one of them didn't even have a stereo.

I´ve learned to check the low end on my Beyerdynamic DT-250 headphones. They go down to 10hz or something like that and they work in every room..