Originally Posted By: rockstar_not
Paul,

Whether you do or do not purchase a subwoofer, a question to ask is:

How do recordings that you like sound on your current monitoring system? Do they also sound too bass heavy or bass-light?

Until you answer that question, the matter of purchase of a subwoofer should be delayed in my opinion.

If your reference recordings sound fine, and they also sound enjoyable to your ear on your home hi-fi system, whilst your own recordings may sound fine on your monitoring system, but seem too bass heavy or bass weak on your hi-fi with a sub, then you can begin the process of purchase of a subwoofer and the effort that goes along with it to properly cross-over content being fed to it vs. your KRKs.

Mixing while sitting in a corner is not normally recommended - that's where you will have the most low frequency room modes interacting. You MIGHT make the situation worse by adding a subwoofer. In most home studios (read: smaller spaces, bedrooms, even closets, etc.), the room cavity modes normally play a very large role interacting with your mixing location.

It's also really difficult to make the room mode interaction 'go away'. In other words, room acoustics play a large role here that should not be ignored in your decision.

You might consider forgoing a new subwoofer and using a local thrift shop purchase for it. You likely can nearly knock a zero off of the price. See if you can tune the cross-over frequency such that you make your reference recording sound properly balanced. Then proceed to your own mixing activities.


Hi rackstar_not

If you've ever listened to my tracks they've all been made in the corner of my room. Most were mixed with headphones and my stereo HiFi + sub.

Now that I'm using KRK VXT6's they are crystal clear but do lack bass because there's no sub. I can hear bass but it's not the speakers strength I don't think. I can see the downfall of a Sub = too much bass and mixes become bass light. Of course my mixing is always trial n error until I've tried enough times.

I can switch over to my HiFi + Sub anytime I want to mix with but I like the neutral sound of the KRK's to mix with instead. The idea was simply to add bass weight to my KRK sound to hear full depth of bass and to also enjoy listening more.

But with all that said, I do very little recording/mixing and I still use headphone a lot (sennheiser HD 280). I don't have the luxury of playing my songs over and over and over again through speakers cause my family get fed up with the songs then it loses impact when the song is finished.

Here's a song I heard to other day. I love it. It's jewish missianic praise and at 2min of the song playing (after a slow start) the full band and bass kicks in. THIS is the level of bass I like to have on my tracks but I am some what limited because most BIAB Real Tracks are bass light I think. Anyway take a listen...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QigSlkeDdMI