New Music Seems To Be Super Bass Heavy

[quiet]

Perhaps you meant bass and not base?

I did.

 

[Gibsonian]

I've also noticed modern recordings are bass heavy. It's nice when they mix it to sound right on a relatively flat system, which most of us aspire to have. With these heavy bass swings from old recordings, new recordings, am glad I can adjust tone. Otherwise I'm stuck with anemic or bloated bass and no recourse other than to stop play and find something recorded better.

Somewhere in between would be good, and luckily there are a lot of recordings done well.

 

[Powertech]

On my system I have a Behringer 15 band EQ equipped with a feedback killer display. What this really means (for those that haven't seen this) is that each frequency slider has a LED. When you are setting up these are all at full brightness. Switch on FBK and each LED behaves a bit like a spectrum analyser. More energy at that frequency - the brighter it gets.

Back to the thread - I'm inclined to agree with OP.

What I have found is that a lot of modern pop recordings tend to have what I would call 'mid bass' over emphasis. Put on an older bass heavy album such as Floyds - Another Brick in the Wall or Dire Straits - Brother in Arms and what I see/hear is very low bass down to 20Hz. It doesn't sound wrong, in fact it sounds real, perfectly natural and in balance with the overall sound. Turn this up loud and you feel the low bass rather than hearing it. The new 'bass heavy' music doesn't go down this far. The emphasis seems to be around 80 - 160Hz. IMO this sounds artificial and boomy. And I can tell you that getting transmission line bass units to sound boomy is going some.

 

[Gazdatronik]

All this talk reminds me how happy I am that the Baxandall EQ circuit was invented.

 

[hifitommy]

for some reason, the ipod generation wants to have the bass emphasized, perhaps due to the cheap ear buds supplied with many of those players. it has bled into the car as well, the last 3 cars i have owned had to have the bass dialed down to about minus four to sound natural.

my latest 2013 rav4 (the hifitommy mobile) has the deluxe JBL audio with sub and with it dialed down like that, the lowest bass notes still emerge as intended. i don't need to have a THUMPmobile that has trunk-farts.

things like beats headphones and similar also have the boost built in.

 

[SA-708]

Not counting rap/hip hop ... noticed a lot more bass on the Robert Plant Alison Kraus LP. T Bone Burnett does the mix and production and I have heard that same phat sound come from other new recordings and soundtracks that he has produced. Definitely a lots of bass and very deep wet drums. Seems to be the in vogue sound right now.

Jay Bellerose's bass drum sound has something to do with that. He uses some fantastic vintage drum kits, and has played on several of Burnett's sessions.

The last concert I went to, Crowder, had a bass sound that was rattling everything in the arena. Along with the trap set, there was a percussionist playing a concert bass drum with one hand,

 

[Auto Analog]

Perhaps you meant bass and not base?

 

[CT_Ohio]

In the 70s/80s, I was a metalhead. Then a wave of electronica came out in the 90s, and I bought a bunch of that. Looking back, the electronica has me more worried for the health of my speakers (on the low end) than the metal ever did. No physical instrument limits on the synthesizer-created 'drop' (as the guy from Prodigy calls that big bass thump). Listened to the Tron: Legacy soundtrack the other day, at volume, and it is a good test of the low end, both at home and for theater audio. Before THX, heavy bass was Sensurround lol, now people expect that thunder every time.

Is there more bass in pop? Yes. In country? No idea.

 

[Auto Analog]

Perhaps modern musicians have increased the bass levels to challenge the status quo, and the result is rebel bass.

 

[Extremesam]

Thanks to Spotify Premium I'm listening to lots of new music. Tuned into a browse option right now called "Nashville Stripped."
Lots of good tunes there, but I'm noticing that most of these songs carry a very strong and powerful bass element, almost to the point where I would consider it the major element of the music.
Make no mistake. I enjoy it. It sounds really good.
But, when did this become they way stuff gets mixed/recorded?
It almost seems like they are doing it just because they can.
If I were at a live concert and heard the same mix I would conclude that the bass it too loud!

Sure is. All vocals and no instrumental solos.

 

[Auto Analog]

In the 70s/80s, I was a metalhead. Then a wave of electronica came out in the 90s, and I bought a bunch of that. Looking back, the electronica has me more worried for the health of my speakers (on the low end) than the metal ever did. No physical instrument limits on the synthesizer-created 'drop' (as the guy from Prodigy calls that big bass thump). Listened to the Tron: Legacy soundtrack the other day, at volume, and it is a good test of the low end, both at home and for theater audio. Before THX, heavy bass was Sensurround lol, now people expect that thunder every time.

Is there more bass in pop? Yes. In country? No idea.

Regarding "Electronica," Amon Tobin will test the bass response of the the majority of systems.

 

[mjw21a]

I suspect part of it may be that many older playback systems weren't capable of deep and controlled bass. My dad's old B&W DM16 speakers were their top of the line speakers in 1981. They only go down to 60Hz. That's mid bass, not bass. The result is that music was made for what the playback systems were capable of at that time.

My current system on the other hand plays back bass details I previously never even knew existed in a lot of music. The gear has changed and due to this, so has the music

 

[z-adamson]

Um, yeah, that's not it. It has much more to do with the general decline of quality in music for the masses.

EDIT: Actually, for the most part, music for the masses has always sucked.

How exactly did you deduce that all this music for the masses has declined in quality and has always sucked ?

 

[darkblue94]

I suspect part of it may be that many older playback systems weren't capable of deep and controlled bass. My dad's old B&W DM16 speakers were their top of the line speakers in 1981. They only go down to 60Hz. That's mid bass, not bass. The result is that music was made for what the playback systems were capable of at that time.

My current system on the other hand plays back bass details I previously never even knew existed in a lot of music. The gear has changed and due to this, so has the music

There were plenty of playback systems capable of playing well below 60Hz long before 1981. 60Hz and below is sub-bass not bass.
Bass is basically 60Hz to approx 250Hz where mid-range takes over, mid-bass is somewhere in-between and subject to different peoples differing opinions.
The B&W DM16 were the top of the line in the DM series but they were not B&W's top of the line speaker. The 801 model loudspeaker was introduced in 1979.

 

[mjw21a]

There were plenty of playback systems capable of playing well below 60Hz long before 1981. 60Hz and below is sub-bass not bass.
Bass is basically 60Hz to approx 250Hz where mid-range takes over, mid-bass is somewhere in-between and subject to different peoples differing opinions.

I'd have thought it a good deal less common than it is now? Anyway , was just my guesstimate.

 

[imral3]

Perhaps you meant bass and not base?

I believe he meant big bass:

 

[musichal]

I am the final arbiter of "good" in music. So are you. We each are our own. I try to avoid words like "sucks' or "good" or "bad." I either like something, or I don't (but tend to avoid "hate"), or am somewhat ambivalent, and that can and has changed over time, mostly in the direction of inclusion, for me. One man's meat is another man's poison.

Last night on an am ESPN radio show, one of the broadcasters remarked that Springsteen is "over-rated" which led to a tempest-in-a-teapot from listeners on both sides of the issue and a mini-flare on Twitter (so they said), which I consider the probable motivation for the statement. At four am radio guys like to be provocative to elicit response. I thought about it as I lay in bed longing for sleep which was slow in coming, and concluded that the term over-rated is pretty much meaningless. Someone will always think something or someone is over-rated, but it's always someone or thing that was already pretty highly rated - or wildly successful. All it really means, in this case, is that many people think more of Springsteen than does the broadcaster.

Rap is not my favorite genre, but there are some songs I like. Neither is opera, but I would never say it sucks, and there are, again, a few songs I like. Just as there are some relatively new artists and songs I enjoy. Why crap on someone else's taste in music?

 

[DaveVoorhis]

I am the final arbiter of "good" in music. So are you. We each are our own. I try to avoid words like "sucks' or "good" or "bad." I either like something, or I don't (but tend to avoid "hate"), or am somewhat ambivalent, and that can and has changed over time, mostly in the direction of inclusion, for me. One man's meat is another man's poison.
[...]
Rap is not my favorite genre, but there are some songs I like. Neither is opera, but I would never say it sucks, and there are, again, a few songs I like. Just as there are some relatively new artists and songs I enjoy. Why crap on someone else's taste in music?

Because people expressing differences are not just sharing opinions, they're emitting wrongness, and wrongness is what is wrong with modern society and needs to be fixed. Rap isn't just music, it's insolence from people who should know their place and get back to serving people at the 7-11. Opera is the interminable shrieking of fat women. Furthermore, Blues is nowt but whinges from from unemployed deadbeats who should be paying their dues in the army. Country is a bunch of wife-beaters making excuses and Bluegrass is what you play if you aren't good enough to be a wife-beater. Electronica, EDM and New Age are the same thing and are the sound computers would make if they could fart. Don't get me started on "rock" and/or "roll", which is a bunch drug-addled delinquents fornicating into their instruments and defying their elders. More wrongness!

The only good music is my recording of vintage locomotive whistles. Everything else is wrong.

[Dave wanders off, still mumbling though now incoherent. Wipes snot on greasy sleeve; pisses self.]

 

[musichal]

Because people expressing differences are not just sharing opinions, they're emitting wrongness, and wrongness is what is wrong with modern society and needs to be fixed. Rap isn't just music, it's insolence from people who should know their place and get back to serving people at the 7-11. Opera is the interminable shrieking of fat women. Furthermore, Blues is nowt but whinges from from unemployed deadbeats who should be paying their dues in the army. Country is a bunch of wife-beaters making excuses and Bluegrass is what you play if you aren't good enough to be a wife-beater. Electronica, EDM and New Age are the same thing and are the sound computers would make if they could fart. Don't get me started on "rock" and/or "roll", which is a bunch drug-addled delinquents fornicating into their instruments and defying their elders. More wrongness!

The only good music is my recording of vintage locomotive whistles. Everything else is wrong.

[Dave wanders off, still mumbling though now incoherent. Wipes snot on greasy sleeve; pisses self.]

 

[mjw21a]

The difference between rap and crap is just one letter

Sorry, just stirring. Don't mind some Eminem though rap isn't really my cup of tea

Because people expressing differences are not just sharing opinions, they're emitting wrongness, and wrongness is what is wrong with modern society and needs to be fixed. Rap isn't just music, it's insolence from people who should know their place and get back to serving people at the 7-11. Opera is the interminable shrieking of fat women. Furthermore, Blues is nowt but whinges from from unemployed deadbeats who should be paying their dues in the army. Country is a bunch of wife-beaters making excuses and Bluegrass is what you play if you aren't good enough to be a wife-beater. Electronica, EDM and New Age are the same thing and are the sound computers would make if they could fart. Don't get me started on "rock" and/or "roll", which is a bunch drug-addled delinquents fornicating into their instruments and defying their elders. More wrongness!

The only good music is my recording of vintage locomotive whistles. Everything else is wrong.

[Dave wanders off, still mumbling though now incoherent. Wipes snot on greasy sleeve; pisses self.]

Lol, funniest thing I read all day