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Making rap and hip hop music. I am a bass-head. Thinking of what to get as far as monitor and headphones.
Since I like bass, and want my music to have nice bass, would I create my final with what sounds good to my ears? Or do I make it a little bass-shy to my ears so that when played on a system (my audience's car and home speakers and headphones, probably mp3 and CD), so that the bass won't be way over-done?
My target audience is more for the average folk into my genre and not for audiophiles with expensive monitors.
Most of my audience would probably already have bass heavy speakers, but there are plenty with not-so bass heavy speakers. So.

Now, which monitors and headphones should I get for listening and creating the final product? Would I want the flattest response curve? Or ones with the low ends heavy?
I know they both go hand-in-hand depending on the first answer.

So which do you think would be my best route?

Comments

bouldersound Thu, 02/28/2013 - 20:52

If your monitors are as accurate as possible and you make your music sound the way you think it should then the only difference that the audience will hear will be the deficiencies of their own system, which they will generally be used to. Don't try to "fool" yourself into mixing bass heavy, just get accurate monitors and make it so.

anonymous Fri, 03/01/2013 - 03:42

See the thing is, I like bass heavy music, sooooo... if I make the final, bass heavy on accurate/flat monitors, then my audience most likely does not have flat speakers, and usually have a heavy low end already so the music might be too boomy or muddy when the audience listens on their speakers.
Pretty much answered my own question? Still want to hear what the pros think.
Thanks for the answer.

Main target audience is the average people listening on CD's, mp3 and youtube.

bouldersound Sun, 03/03/2013 - 00:12

I think it's a bit silly to try to trick yourself into mixing it right. Just mix it right and it will sound right on good systems and good on bass heavy systems. Maybe put an eq on your monitors so you can check it with boosted bass, but still mix it right with flat monitoring. Play some other similar music you like to get used to how the bass sounds and then match the tonal balance.

anonymous Sun, 03/03/2013 - 03:26

I agree with Boulder.

Mix it the way you'd normally mix, then either reference the mix afterwards using a bypassable EQ with a hyped-up low end,
or perhaps run it through a sub, to get an idea of how your average listener will likely be hearing it.

That being said, I wouldn't mix with a sub because then your mixes might come out actually sounding bass shy.

If you have good monitors and a decent acoustic environment, use your nearfields and then reference the low end on
playback only to get an idea of what it will sound like with your market's average listener, and tweak accordingly.

fwiw
-d.