I have trouble hearing (the pitch of) bass notes...

[cardell]

I don't really understand why, but the lower the note, the harder time I have distinguishing the pitch (of that note).

While I'm working on a track, I will often raise the pitch of the bass line by an octave so I can hear if the bass notes are accurate. Obviously this is easy to do with MIDI, but I also do it with [audio] bass loops as well.

The time it's the biggest problem for me is when I'm playing the bass guitar. I'd be a nightmare on a fretless bass.

Is this a deficiency that I just have or is this common?

Stuart

[Len911]

How old are you? Everyone loses hearing to a certain degree just from age. I have noticed a loss in higher frequencies myself when singing to a track, it's hard to hear myself there. So what I have done is place a temporary eq on the music track and cut that area while I am singing. I have also sometimes put an eq with a highshelf boost on my vocal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbycusis

* I would think a temporary eq boosting the bass or cutting other frequencies might be better than changing octaves. If it's a midi track it might be better to render the midi to audio. I would think there might be problems if you moved the bass up an octave and didn't move the tenor, alto and soprano parts up by an octave also.

[cardell]

How old are you? Everyone loses hearing to a certain degree just from age.

I just turned 43, but the thing is: I've always had this problem.

I would think a temporary eq boosting the bass or cutting other frequencies might be better than changing octaves. If it's a midi track it might be better to render the midi to audio. I would think there might be problems if you moved the bass up an octave and didn't move the tenor, alto and soprano parts up by an octave also.

Thank-you very much Len. This hadn't occurred to me.

Stuart

[sedge]

Hey Stuart! I have been wrestling with Bass most of the day and learning quite a bit!

Jimrix forum member here telling me about mixing in Mono and quietly, proper good tip, it;s helping me look at BASS more clearly.

If you can hear something I'd say your hearing is fine

Thinking, is your room bouncing your Bass back to you? Table vibrating? These things might colour the pitch a tad when listening.

Also been learning about artififacts, think that is what they are called?

I have A D bass note here and I found it had some out of tune tones ringing out too, some vibration getting through on the recording , or something.. anyway been learning to find the lil offenders and make a cut to get rid, this brings out the pitch too better.

Len is good on the eq sweeping, yeah deffo have a sweep around with a cut till you can't hear anything anymore, then you find your hearing range, cool eh

BASS IS A BEAST .. today it won, tommorow it aint gonna be so lucky !!!!!!!!!

[cardell]

BASS IS A BEAST .. today it won, tommorow it aint gonna be so lucky !!!!!!!!!

I love that!

It had a very long winning streak throughout the '70's...I'm old enough to remember.

Stuart

[sedge]

you got me making an edit

just adding some stuff about "artefacts" .. might be relevant too

Ahhhh love and hate this music trip! Like a bunjee jump some days at the mixer!

[guitarhacker]

Sometimes it's hard to actually hear the notes accurately in the lower freqs.

On the keyboard or on the fretboard..... just watch the notes you play.

If you have melodyne, you can run that on the track and it is very accurate at determining that the notes are correct or not.


I had a song that I recorded and listened to for several weeks. One bass note didn't sound quite right to me but no one on the forum picked up on that note..... no one. I later decided to check it with melodyne and sure enough it was half a step flat. Melodyne raised it and now it's perfect.

But yeah, those low notes can be a bear at times.

[Len911]

Also been learning about artififacts, think that is what they are called?

I have A D bass note here and I found it had some out of tune tones ringing out too, some vibration getting through on the recording , or something.. anyway been learning to find the lil offenders and make a cut to get rid, this brings out the pitch too b

I believe the artifacts are called overtones. If it's a sampled bass, adjusting the adsr, should get rid of those. The release knob is the logical
one, but sometimes you have to decrease the sustain or delay also. The overtones will give your bass sample it's timbre, if it's a real bass and the overtones are dreadful, I guess you might have to shop for a different more pleasing one,lol? I'd probably try the adsr first, and any remaining overtones probably use a fade in the daw or slice the wave and do a gain lower for that portion. I wouldn't want to eq the whole bass and destroy the overtones (timbre) of the sample if that makes any sense.

[mojobone]

Some people hear bass better than others. I think those are called bass players.








Seriously, though, everybody has trouble with this sometimes, particularly in a busy mix. (you can mute other parts, when you need to hear the bass better) It's possible that room treatment could help; maybe your room is enhancing a frequency that masks the pitch of bass notes or it's sucking out a frequency/harmonic component of the bass sound that you need to hear in order to judge the pitch.

Sometimes you don't hear the bass well because your monitor speakers are lacking in low end extension; it's the fundamental frequency that makes up most of the pitch of bass notes. Interestingly, the ear often reconstructs a missing fundamental, even when the speakers are unable to reproduce the pitch. In that scenario, your brain uses the harmonics, or upper partials (aka harmonics) to do the reconstructing, so EQ-ing to bring out the sound of the windings can sometimes be helpful.

[cardell]

If you have melodyne, you can run that on the track and it is very accurate at determining that the notes are correct or not.

Yes, of course! I did't think of that.

I had a song that I recorded and listened to for several weeks. One bass note didn't sound quite right to me but no one on the forum picked up on that note..... no one. I later decided to check it with melodyne and sure enough it was half a step flat. Melodyne raised it and now it's perfect.

But yeah, those low notes can be a bear at times.

That's the EXACT thing that happens to me.

Stuart