what level should sub bass peak at on average?

A

Arfeds

Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2008
basically just finished a mixdown and ive realised my sub bass is taking up allot of headroom.

im just trying to figure out what sorta level on average sub bass should peak at so i can figure if ive got mine right or not

cheers
 
Pretty sure with anything there isnt a given but if i get stuck i just listen to a similar style fully mastered track and see what the levels are like. Probably a better way tho
 
I've read a lot of different things from different people.

Some say that the bass can go over the -10db line (on the IXL freq analyzer)

Others say a 1-2 DB below the kick drum.

My advice would be to listen to how the sub sounds on a big system that can go all the way down to the 40hz range. Or just use a freq analyzer and compare to noisia tunes or whatever. Skrillex has nice sub levels too on the Scatta tune.
 
I personaly found the ideal peak DB of sub bass to be exactly 3db higher than kick drum when high energetic dancefloor tune is being made.



but I was in studio with one of world wide famous jump up dnb producent and he had digitaly emulated analog type distortion on sub bass that was -3db and kick that was hitting that 0db edge even when put down by 8 db,.... and it sounded incredibely fat
 
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depends on the tune and what i think sounds good in the overall mix. when i first start workings on the sub tho i usually stick on a compressor that will keep it at -10 db, this will probably change as the song progresses tho. i always find -10 is pretty loud tho, kinda dance floor level maybe.

if your subs taking up a lot of head room then just turn it down :P although if that sacrifices the power you need from it then side chainings always an option.
 
kinda of basic outline for my mixdowns, and it seems to work ok for me is have the drums hit at around -10db and the sub, depending on the context 1 to 2 db below that
 
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