Lowest Frequency

L

Lucider

Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2011
Location
San Francisco, CA
I'm wondering what key people work in and what they consider to be the lowest frequency that they can utilize.

Any good club/rave system worth a damn should be able to broadcast 40Hz, that's just below the "lowest" F. So I used to go down there. Lately I've been staying up above working in A minor or even Bb cause it's more satisfying for your average listening experience especially for people using earbuds, heaven forbid.

Personally I'd love to go lower and lower though...I want to build these subs for the parties we throw around here that can manage 30Hz (see Bill Fitzmaurice's Tuba 60s). And my "monitoring system" can hit 35Hz not to mention that headphones can often push out 25Hz.

What's your thoughts? Keeping in mind that if you bounce a track above 180BPM it could get pitched down by a DJ, you bounce it at 165BPM it'll definitely be heard higher in a live set.

Some of you know pros, what do they have to say about it?

- J.P.
 
Octaves and frequencies are two different things. Sure, as you go down the keys, the frequency gets lower, but they are essentially different things.

As for headphones that push out 25hz? Is it even possible to hear that?
 
keep in mind the lower you go, the larger the amplitude the notes need to be perceived at the same level which in turn means less headroom. i frequently do stuff in the 30 to 35 hz range but more commonly work in a 40 - 55hz range.
the lowest i have ever gone with a simple sine wav was 27.5hz but that was for an ambient piece and got feedback from a couple people that it came out as distortion on their speakers.
 
Mr Fletch said:
Octaves and frequencies are two different things. Sure, as you go down the keys, the frequency gets lower, but they are essentially different things.
Click to expand...

It's the same thing tho. Like a ladder. Think of the outside bits as all the frequencies, continuous and unbroken. And notes are like the rungs or steps.

That low F or E around 38/40 hz is as low as I go but that's only because that's about as low as it sounds good in my headphones! which I use to hear the low end. Anything lower gets rumbly.

I'd love to make a sub go an octave lower to 20 hz, but it'd just be guesswork.

Sometimes I hear tunes posted that have clean sine subs down low and they get comments about there being no sub, which is just about what people listen to music on these days I suppose.
 
yeah theres no point going lower if 90% of club/rave/bedroom systems cant handle it. I mean, the best Funktion One sub can only go down to 40hz, any lower n u'll need their infrabass subs that go down to 25hz which ive never seen installed at raves
 
Mr Fletch said:
Octaves and frequencies are two different things. Sure, as you go down the keys, the frequency gets lower, but they are essentially different things.

As for headphones that push out 25hz? Is it even possible to hear that?
Click to expand...


well dont confuse people.. pitch = frequency, they are essentially the same just different scales... you know
 
Hutar said:
alllegedly I was listening 15hz sub bass. It wass really realy deep. So my oppinion is that we can hear 25hz.
Click to expand...

Nobody can hear 15HZ.
You could probably feel the dispersal of molecules if you was standing between 50-75 feet away from a speaker that was capable of emitting frequencies that low.
But yeah room ambience is around 10hz.
 
Yeah, that all sounds about right. "Bottom" line is that there's no point if the system it's being played on can't handle it.

Regarding octaves and freqs, it's kinda trippy, really. Each octave higher is a doubling of frequency. So you want fat octave sound you just isolate 50, 100, 200, 400 Hz, etc.

It also means that if you take the relatively low frequency of 80 Hz, you can add a bit of 40Hz (for kick drum perhaps...in deep house music...) and it will sound nice and harmonic with the higher octave.

More interesting is the harmonic content of a sawtooth wave. Say your tone is tuned to 40Hz - now there are lots of other frequencies present called the harmonics of that tone. Their frequencies are whole number multiples of 40Hz, so, 80, 120, 160, 200, 240, 280. etc... It's more interesting than useful but keep it in mind if you're trying to isolate frequencies or your finding the mid-lows to be muddy.

Another cool thing is that if you just played the frequencies 80, 120, 160, etc. above without the 40, it will clear up all that LOW headroom and your mind will "fill in the missing fundamental frequency 40Hz" It'd be TIGHT if that actually worked!
 
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