Subpac

I have the mk2 and love it. Not only for clearly monitoring the lows but also sticking on headphones and the subpac late at night and it’s like writing music sitting in front of a Function One rig and no one else hears a peep.

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One thing to consider if the s2 isn’t available the Mk2 can go on a seat as well you just turn the backpack straps backwards. I very rarely actually put the thing on my back.

I still love mine and use it all the time to check the low end of mixes and just to enjoy bass.

The subpac seems like a good item for people that are primarily writing music and mixing on headphones. Would this be a fair analysis? I primarily use headphones to write music because my monitors are crap and the room is not treated. Plus my music making is typically in the night time because my kiddos are sleeping. I feel this might be an excellent item to help my low end mix.

My main purpose to get a Subpac M2X was my listening environment at home.
I can´t turn up the volume, because my neighbors go nuts and this really sucks,
but bass is so important and fun. :wink: Even with the best headphones
you will always miss the impact which bass has on your body and that is what
this „ugly“ thing is about.

I never thought of getting one in the beginning, but once you experience the
benefits of it, it becomes a solid companion to hear and handle bass in your productions.
It seems expensive, but compared to what you get, it is not that much. Consider what you would need and how much it would cost to achieve that bass environment with some speakers.

I bought the portable one, which you can put on your back, because I tend to stay most of the time, instead of sitting, when tweaking knobs, etc…

I feed sound with a longer cable, from a second output of my mixer, into the supbpac. I personally like to have a level adjustment into the subpac, much better for a smoother control, combined with the volume knob on the subpac module, which I keep rather low.

I find it really impressive, but it took 2-3 days until my brain managed to know whats going on. In the beginning I was more like „So what?“, but once your brain understands whats going on, it is really mind-blowing. It brings the club to your home.

From my personal experience I start „wearing“ it when I have something going, a beat, some
main idea I want to jam on. When you start preparing your sets, searching sounds, I find it rather disturbing as it strikes you every time when you search, or work with bass sounds.

If you want club experience in terms of bass coming to your home the subpac is something everyone using headphones should consider checking.

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Cheers @rennweg. That’s really helpful feedback.

Thumbs up from me too. I don’t use mine all the time, but when working in headphones it’s great.

I do need a better pair of cans though…

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I also use mine when i listen to music on the speakers. Sometimes i come back from a jam with my friends and listen to the recorded session with the subpac and i can instantly say if the low end is okay or not.

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I had a subpac but sold it recently due to it collecting dust. If your speakers/headphones have decent low end frequency response, you do not need a subpac. I’m using Audeze LCD-X and Dynaudio LYD48 for my studio, so I decided to sell my subpac because it is basically useless for me.

With that said, if you can’t bump your speakers, don’t have a dedicated sub, or can’t afford high end monitors with low frequency response, then it is a pretty cool tool for sub monitoring that might give you more peace of mind than staring at a frequency analyzer when mixing. Though I personally found it to sometimes be a little strange at first because its like sitting in a massage chair that is set to react according to the audio coming from your audio source (which is basically what it really is).

It is also quite fun to show off to friends, though nobody cares after about 30 seconds and I did get a number of comments like “you spent that much money on a wearable massage chair!!!”. All from non-producer friends of course…

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Cool story

I find subpac an extremely useful tool, unless your mixing in a pro built studio there’s no way you can get anywhere near as accurate sub monitoring as you do with a subpac.

Unless you are trying to sell the product, I’m not sure why you would think a subpac is REQUIRED to monitor sub without a pro built studio. Its as if you are saying everyone that made music prior to the subpac was required to go to a pro-studio to do their sub mixing. That’s not true…they did it in their homes, or in their self-built studios.

Didn’t say required though did I… just that you won’t get anywhere near as accurate…

its not that hard to treat a room usually. And then you get actual sub rather than a vibrating chair. I’m not using a “pro-studio” but I get excellent sub with just a bit of room treatment adjusted through using sonarworks referencing.
I agree though that it can be useful in certain situations, if the original poster doesn’t want to treat their room, doesn’t have the means to purchase other monitors, or travels around a bit, the subpac is a nice way to get an idea of what is going on down below.

Different tech.
Still love mine, going on a couple years now. Thing is, it’s not just a mixing tool, it’s also a pretty physical experience. To get that same level of chest pounding thump, you’ve gotta turn your traditional sub up pretty f-ing loud. That’s not always what your hearing, or your neighbors want. But horses for courses, of course :grinning:

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Yes, definitely see your point. I guess I don’t mean to say it’s a vibrating chair, but rather if you have the means to produce good sub, you wouldn’t need it. It is a good piece of kit, for a lot of people. Especially since many living conditions don’t allow extremely loud volume etc.

I spent a lot of money treating my room, have and used the full sonarworks reference system with their measurement mic. Good monitors and a studio sub placed correctly.

Took tunes I’d written into a pro studio and sat with the owner/head engineer… bottom end was wrong big time… standing waves will get you every time.

Got subpac and it’s sorted the issues perfectly. I still use the room to write but I use the subpac to check the mix.

It’s indespensible.

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Plus in a small room as in standard bedroom or the like using a sub at a level you can feel the subbass… is a sure fire fast track to tinnitus trust me I know.

Fair enough. I do think it can be a useful tool, not trying to argue that. Just found it obsolete for my setup. That’s all really.

Lastly I did ask Sonarworks directly about using a studio sub with their software and mic…

Their answer at the time was that it did not yet have the ability to account for a sub only twin studio monitors focused on the listening position like in the instuctions to calibrate. That was over a year ago though.

So using a sub with sonarworks calibration could be counter intuitive.

Ah really? Weird cause their site says you can. This post is pretty recent, so its possible you had missed it? Could be beneficial for you to check again :wink:

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