What does a bass boost do?

[srb 10+ year member]

I have a Boston accoustics GTA-800M, and it says it has the Q-tue bass boost. is this better or different in some way, or is it just a marketing gimmick?

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Clipping, or compression? I know that pop music is compressed to keep the average level high, like broadcasters do with commercials. Hard clipping would produce odd harmonics that are painful to listen to. Soft clipping (compression) doesn't make dangerous square waves.
Semantics, perhaps. Thanks for the informative post.

Its common for electric guitarists to clip their amp/preamp for modern rock. It tends to give the sound an 'edge' that rock is known for.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

Clipping, or compression? I know that pop music is compressed to keep the average level high, like broadcasters do with commercials. Hard clipping would produce odd harmonics that are painful to listen to. Soft clipping (compression) doesn't make dangerous square waves.
Semantics, perhaps. Thanks for the informative post..

actual clipping is apparent in modern music. the sound engineers try so hard to maximize the signal they get clipping and just let it slide. i use a program called Goldwave to view audio files (voltage vs. time). i can show examples - just about anything popular in the last 10-15 years has been jacked up.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

look at the post times - that is how long it took to find a song.

Artist - Authority Zero

Album - Stories of Survival

Track - 02 The New Pollution

this is the entire track:

this is zoomed into one portion:

and a closer view:

that is clipping due to excessive signal amplification or just poor recording methods.

i used Goldwave to examine any track that i want to use for reference listening.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

don't ask why i have this track on my hard drive (i have 500+GB of music on it, many albums i've never heard)

Brittany Spears - for the most part, not overly maximized, but still some clipping

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

an example of what they used to do (granted, during the days of analog tape, the available dynamic range was 60dB. now with 24 bit recordings we have 100dB of dynamic range available - too bad it's usually wasted.

Eric Clapton:

zoom into the maximum peak for the left track (top) - note there is some head room

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

ok so. with this being said. would it hurt if i used a little bass boost? my peak is around 41 - 42hz. i can still go up a bit more on my gain actually now that i think about it. should the gain be left were it is and use the boost or just use the gain only?

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

This is a track from Focal JM Lab's demo CD

Note the good dynamic range

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

ok so. with this being said. would it hurt if i used a little bass boost? my peak is around 41 - 42hz. i can still go up a bit more on my gain actually now that i think about it. should the gain be left were it is and use the boost or just use the gain only?

i show the images above to illustrate what you are amplifying. can you use a little bass boost and be fine? depends. if you keep the head unit bass at zero or a bit negative then add some bass boost at the sub amp - it may be ok (this is a typical application of bass boost). it all depends on your gain setting and use of the volume knob.

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

my hu bass boost is set to 0. since bass boost makes that big a difference i think ima leave it 0 on amp and hu(like it is now) and just use the amp gain only. i still can turn up my amp gain a bit more, the gain on amp is not all the way up or nothing.