Boosting "dead" frequencies?

[zack5]

Found a good method of bass boosting songs. However, with some songs, the original song has more of the sub-bass frequencies, and the other bass frequencies are inaudible to my speaker (response of 65 hZ to 20 kHz), but not my headphones. An example of this is shown here. The time sample of the original and the final product are the same.

Original Song

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This is the EQ that I use, the reason I go so high is because using the same format of EQ at lower decibels benefits the treble more than bass, and it's already balanced by the time I'm done boosting the song. I also keep 40 to 75 hZ at the same level because I want it to sound good on both my headphones and speaker. Also notice how the filter length is 8191 instead of 4001.

EQ that I use

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This is the final product.

Final Product

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I tested bringing the (85 < x < 200 hZ) line up to -60 dB from -120 dB, and it lowered the 75 hZ to -29, whereas with -120 dB, 75 hZ is at -27 dB.

I do some high passing of 60 hZ at 6 dB per octave, repeated 6 times, then amplify it to 0 db, then do some limiting and loudness war compressing (threshold -1 dB, 5:1 ratio). I tested 60 hZ at 48 dB per octave repeated 6 times, then amplified to 0 db kills the 40 hZ, and boosts the 75 dB but still leaves the part of the song I want to make audible inaudible to my speakers and headphones.

I also understand frequencies can mess with others. Is there a chart for that? For example, boosting 240 hZ lowers the volume of 80 hZ (I don't know if that's actually true or not, just an example).

Thanks for reading

[DVDdoug]

Found a good method of bass boosting songs. However, with some songs, the original song has more of the sub-bass frequencies, and the other bass frequencies are inaudible to my speaker (response of 65 hZ to 20 kHz), but not my headphones.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say or what you're trying to do...

As a general rule, it's a bad idea to change the recording to match the playback system. If you want to EQ for your speakers or headphones, that's best done at playback time. But if you want to do it, you'll probably have to make different copies for your headphones & speakers, plus you'll probably want to keep a copy of the original in case you want to play it on a better system.

Also, you shouldn't be making drastic EQ changes unless you have drastic problems.

but still leaves the part of the song I want to make audible inaudible to my speakers and headphones.

It's a loosing battle trying to boost frequencies (especially bass) that your speakers can't reproduce. For example, +3dB requires double the power (Watts) and +12dB is 16 times the power. Bass already takes lots of power, so you need a big amplifier and if you don't drive the amplifier into distortion you end-up driving the speaker into distortion or burning-out the speaker.*

Deep bass is more felt in your body than heard with your ears so you don't experience bass the same with headphones although you may feel the headphones vibrate on your head. (But of course, you need big woofers/subwoofers and big amplifiers to feel deep-powerful bass in your body.)

I also understand frequencies can mess with others. Is there a chart for that? For example, boosting 240 hZ lowers the volume of 80 hZ (I don't know if that's actually true or not, just an example).

No, that's not true... But that can happen indirectly... If you boost some frequencies and then lower the overall volume (with the Amplify or Normalize effects, etc.) to prevent clipping you can end-up with a quieter-overall recording, especially if you're boosting frequencies that you can't hear or frequencies that are hard to reproduce (like deep bass).





* The same thing happens when you try to equalize for room acoustics. Standing wave antinodes (where the soundwaves increase the volume) can usually be fixed by cutting with EQ. But, at nodes where waves cancel at certain frequencies it can take an almost infinite amount of power and infinitely huge subwoofers... So EQ doesn't work and you have to treat the room acoustically with bass traps, etc.

[zack5]

Trying to achieve deep bass that sounds good on both my speaker and headphones through audacity. Through my headphones, it sounds nice and deep, but listening through my speaker, the frequencies above its frequency response (65 hZ to 20,000 hZ) are quiet in the original song and I can't boost them successfully to make it sound deep on my speaker. For example the original song has 75 hZ at -34 dB, and after all the boosting, it only went to 75 hZ at -27 dB.

After all the boosting, it is not distorted at all, nor does it sound distorted. I make sure any limiting or compressing I do is set to make up gain for 0 dB

[kozikowski]

it is not distorted at all, nor does it sound distorted.

You can turn on View > Show Clipping and Audacity will put red marks on the blue waves to indicate areas very likely to be distorted whether or not you can hear it.



See in the equalization display there is a light green line in addition to the blue line set by you? That's the action that Audacity is actually going to take, not the one you set. Also in that same display, everything higher than 300Hz is boosted by 57dB? That's really rough to believe. If that succeeds, it means your original song was microphone level.

See that little white area in the blue waves around 10 seconds? That's the area you're actually analyzing, not the whole song. To analyze the whole song, select it by clicking just right of the up arrow.



This is what happens when you actually boost a sound by 57dB. I did it at ten seconds. All the red area is overloaded trash.

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So I'm not sure what you're doing, but I think you have several tools fighting each other and you're trying to analyze the result of the fight. However, if it sounds good to you, that's what counts.

Koz