How humans hear sub-bass?

Home page BLOG MIXING on HEADPHONES How humans hear sub-bass?

HOW HUMAN HEAR SUB-BASS?

When you are designing (or mixing) audio, you have to keep in mind the final consumer. Who's going to listen to this song? In what environment, what device, what file, etc. This is even more important when you are mixing bass-heavy track or genre.

Humans can hear from approx 20Hz up to 20kHz. The majority of the useful spectrum is somewhere along 40Hz to 12kHz. This is what early days of MP3 was based on. Just eliminate sound on the edges of our hearing.

Now that we have fast connections and lossless files this is no longer an issue. That opens the door to a great sounding mixes on streaming services.

If your mix is likely to be transferred via the internet and listened to on headphones, you have to be careful with how it sounds. It's even more important to stay balanced than ever before. People buy colored headphones to their liking. So forcing them to listen to too much bass because you think the mix needs it is not a favor to anyone. If they like bass, they'll have headphones with excellent bass reproduction. And vice versa. If they want the detailed sound, they'll have some precise audiophile like headphones. Both will color your mix to the user's liking. So no need for you to do that. This is of great importance to understand; if you mix it balanced, it will sound good to any consumer on their preferred system. Period.

So to keep this in mind. Majority of music is played on headphones, so it makes sense to mix on headphones due to leveling, panning, reverbs, etc., that sound different on headphones compared to speakers in a room. Another point is to mix on balanced headphones so that you can make a balanced mix. There are a few choices out there. Very popular is HD650 and DT770, but M50 is close behind.

Now to get back to the point. Humans hear low sub bass very poorly. From 20 to 80Hz we have a terrible judgment on where the sound is coming from and what frequency is dominant. We love this spectrum in a club because our body acts as a receiver of these low frequencies and gives us a unique experience. Another reason is the loudness on its own. We hear more balanced - linear style the louder the source is.

So, if you are a mix engineer, you need to take into consideration all these aspects when you mix. But you will find it very difficult to mix bass on headphones alone, especially with lower volumes.

You can double check your mix on a standard system, or you can get some tactile sound device. Yes, we recommend or Play2Me system. But there are others available with different purposes in mind.

For authentic mixing experience on headphones, our play2me systems provide the best results. How? Well, we spend two years on the development of headphones that work together with vibrations in your body. They have a unique acoustic chamber that takes the vibration of your skull and gives them a bit of resonance, so you get actually to hear the low bass. Other headphones will lock your ears and transfer none of the vibrations into the hearing spectrum. So you'll end up with tactile experience but no actual sound.

This is the main reason that we designed Play2me as a system. You need both, the headphones and BSE pillow to get into the full audio experience that you can trust. You can combine tactile sound only (for example BSE) with let's say HD650s. But the resonance will not be transferred, and you'll feel the bass but not hear it.

I know, I know. Sounds like magic but it's actually science :)

Feel free to test drive a system. We have a 30-day money back if you don't like it.

If you have questions, please send them to info@olloaudio.com, and we'll make another post answering them.

THANKS

The Godfather