Get Low Frequencies To Cut Through Small Speakers

Today we’re talking about using saturation to help kick a bass translate on small speakers.

Now small speakers often lack low end, and this can really limit the overall sound of your mix. One solution to try is to raise the level of the bass in your mix, but this can result in a muddy sounding mix.

So our solution today is to use a plugin or effect known as saturation. Saturation is a way of adding warmth, harmonics, and color to your sound. It’s particularly important to use saturation when mixing on small speakers as it helps bring out the low-end frequencies of the bass.

So how do you know when to use saturation? The trick is to turn up the input gain on a saturated plugin or effect. This allows the low-end to stand out more and drives it with harmonics. When you drive the input with higher gain, you’ll start to hear it saturating the bass frequency and adding more punch to the track. It’s important not to overdrive it – keep it subtle so you don’t muddy up the track.

Where should you put the saturation plugin or effect in your mix? Generally, it’s best to apply it before your compressor or EQ. That will ensure that the saturation is affecting all of the frequencies and not just the ones you’re trying to boost with EQ.

And lastly, if you find that your mix is sounding a bit shrill or thin on small speakers, try applying a subtle high-pass filter on the saturation plugin - this will help to round out the sound and make it more pleasant.

So that’s how you can use saturation to help kick a bass translate on small speakers. Thanks for watching and we hope you found this helpful!