Trying to make some tekno/tribe but only sounds good on my headphones!

Elektron Gear Syntakt
1

Hi all!
I suppose this is a variation of something that’s been discussed many times (e.g. here) but I was wondering if anybody was kind enough to give some specific feedback?

So the issue is that I made a pattern on the ST; it sounds good on the monitor headphones I used to write it, but when I listen to it on the laptop speakers it sounds quite bad (very “muffled”, can’t really distinguish which bass note is playing etc.).

But what bothers me is that, although I’m a beginner with the ST, I am actually experienced with DAWs etc. and have been releasing music for years. And when I listen to that music on laptop speakers it actually sounds good (before mastering, just the Ableton export!).

So I’m wondering what I’m doing wrong.
One issue might be that I’m trying a different genre (I release trance, while this is ~tekno sort of thing).
Otherwise I’m not sure. I tried balancing the volumes, pan, using the ST base-width filter on each track to clean it up etc… I also looked at it with a spectrum analyzer and noticed there was a big gap around ~2k so I filled that a bit etc… But still sounds “weak”.

Here’s a short excerpt of the jam:

any feedback/advice welcome! Thanks :slight_smile:

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I peeked at your spectrum and you have a massive peak at 55Hz (where your laptop speakers probably have nothing) and then a big gap until over 100Hz.

Laptop speakers probably need a lot more at 80-90Hz and much less at 50Hz.

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To make it sound “bassy” on your headphones you probably want to put in something at 35Hz or so. The laptop will probably ignore that completely.

You can create peaks in the low end using high pass filters. Set filter cutoff to where you want the peak then turn up the resonance.

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Hey, thanks!! :slight_smile:

Actually yes, I had a high-pass on the kick with a pretty big resonance… That was the 55hz peak!
I reduced that by a lot now… Tweaked the kick here and there as well.

The bass also felt a bit too “bassy” with no mids, so I increased overdrive a little and also tweaked the instrument (SY TONE).

Small tweaks here and there…

Much better now I think:

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Yeah, big improvement.

Keep at it. Rome wasn’t built in a day!

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Thanks! What I’m finding useful is to use a reference track of a similar style and compare the spectrum, relative levels etc.

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