Topic: Bassy recordings

[Biff]

Ok so here is the newest one.

There seems to be a "rumble" I can't get rid of... perhaps it is just my hearing??

Are my microphones overloading??? How do I prevent this?

This was recorded in a tiny club. I was in front of the soundboard.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WJWZ5T68

[admkrk]

i would call that the opposite of bassy, and say too tinny. the "rummble" is most likely just bad acoustics coupled with a limited dynamic range. it reminds me of my stereo with shot woofers, as in they didn't work.

that's entirely my opinion tho. 

[Shadow_7]

It could just be the noise floor.  Bass does build up in untreated rooms.  SPL levels can exceed mic specs.  If the waveform is flatlined and yet still not maxed, it's likely the mic.  You should at least look at the spectrum as it were.  Select a portion and Audacity -> Analyze -> Plot spectrum / sox wav.wav -n spectrogram, and other tools.  Mics have a natural proximity effect that boosts low end.  Maybe not your issue at your location, but the cheap stage mic, plus house system might amplify this tendency.  Is there a tile / wood floor / metal ceiling / concrete walls /   Not all venues are ideal.

[setboy]

I can't really hear any distortion on those recordings.

[bugg100]

So, what is the original posters playback system?

[fmaderjr]

As far what worked with your older deck not working now, input impedences on the recorder do have some effect on the bass rolloff settings on battery boxes. This is just part of learning new gear!

Good point. But depending on how different your recorder's input impedence is from the one the battery box is calibrated at, there can be a HUGE difference. Another reason why I never roll off with a battery box.

If battery boxes are still  calibrated for a 10 Kohm impedance (like my 10 year old SP's one), since the HR's line in impedance is 15 the roll off you get would be 10/15 of the amount listed in the battery boxes instructions for each setting. (For mic in on the HR which has an impedance of 30, you would get only 10/30 of the listed amounts, a really huge difference).

[Biff]

Sorry been away.

First the second file I posted was one I was messing with and I didn't realize. This is the master, untouched one.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J84P9FC9

So, what is the original posters playback system?

I am playing back on stereo with Mission speakers. I am quite sure it is not blown sub woofers

It could just be the noise floor.  Bass does build up in untreated rooms.  SPL levels can exceed mic specs.  If the waveform is flatlined and yet still not maxed, it's likely the mic.  You should at least look at the spectrum as it were.  Select a portion and Audacity -> Analyze -> Plot spectrum / sox wav.wav -n spectrogram, and other tools.  Mics have a natural proximity effect that boosts low end.  Maybe not your issue at your location, but the cheap stage mic, plus house system might amplify this tendency.  Is there a tile / wood floor / metal ceiling / concrete walls /   Not all venues are ideal.

I have seemed to have the same issues within a club venue and arena venue.

[admkrk]

i didn't mean to say there was something wrong with your speakers. 

it still sounds pretty much the same to me, just that maybe you eq'd some of the low end out of it. i'd chalk that up to the room and say that there isn't a lot you can do about. take this show for example. everything is just mudded together like in yours. in a different venue it could sound a whole lot better. like this one from a month earlier.