There is something that I have not been able to achieve and that I am (as the old song goes) in need of some advice.
When mixing rock, folk-rock, country, that sort of thing, how does one get the bass (or low end in general) to sound loud and also good on small speakers- say some 2 inch ones that are part of a portable CD player- while at the same time not have the bass being over whelming on a full range hi-fi system?
My studio has speakers ranging from full range to really tiny. Of course, you do not hear the same low end in the tinys that you hear on the biggies. But if I play back, say, Abbey Road (“I Want You” is a good example for this) through the tinys, you can clearly hear McCartney’s bass lines. Not as deep, full, and present as in the biggies, but noticeable none-the-less. When I play back my mixes, the bass sounds fine through the biggies, but just is not present at all through the tinys.
I have long assumed that this was an EQ trick. You boost the upper harmonics (on electric bass, that’s usually somewhere around 700-1,000Hz, and maybe also around 300-400Hz; on upright it is somewhat lower- the 2 or 3 inch speakers used on the portables don’t go much below 150 so boosting there doesn’t help). Problem is, I have a very hard time getting that balance right. When I boost the harmonics so that I get a present bass on the tinys, the midrange of the bass sounds too artificial on the biggies. So, I have tended to sacrifice the tinys response (i.e., make them sound good on the biggies is first priority- actually, make them sound good on the biggies and the near fields). But the Abbey Road example still haunts me.