Bass Volume

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Lighter Green Music

My bass sounds a lot louder through headphones than through the computer's speakers (where I can barely hear it). What should I do?

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    Zir0h

    It is more than likely the hardware you are using. without knowing anything about your hardware, most consumer grade headphones contain some sort of EQ boost, usually in the low end to make them sound "better". The other reason is that the drivers (the part producing sound) in your headphones are much closer to your ears than your computer speakers which allow for room reverberation are. You're naturally going to be able to hear more fine details on your headphones but naturally the sound will also be perceived as "louder". Another thing could be. depending on the reverb pollution in your listening environment, if you want to call it that, combined with 1). whether or not you have a subwoofer 2). how large your computer speakers are, and how many cones/drivers are being used 3). the size and shape of the room you are in could all affect the reproduction of sound, especially in the bass freq range...

    The TL;DR here essentially is that you may need bigger/higher quality equipment, at least as far as your computer speakers go. If you're using headphones, they should be over the head, and flat response if you are using them in the studio. a conservative budget can get a decent pair for 100-200 USD. As for speakers...well...you always want to go for quality overall, but in a decent budget range, rokkits and yamahas are in the perfect range imo.

    A question might be, does this only happen when you are mixing, or when you just listen to music in general? if it's the former, it could also have to do with your mix, but that's a whole other beast

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    Cal Lycus

    Your computer's speakers are not capable of producing those lower frequencies. I would also guess that the headphones you are using are consumer grade and therefore likely bass-boosted.

    There are other factors, but those will be the main culprit.

    What can you do? Nothing, except to get better monitoring equipment.

    It is possible to trick the ears/brain into thinking it can hear those frequencies through the use of harmonics: your brain assumes a fundamental note exists when the 3rd (for example) harmonic is present as well.