David Lee delves into the transformative impact of powerful low frequencies on the listening experience, exploring how deep bass can elevate audience enjoyment and engagement on an emotional level.
Part 01:
Javier: David, what is deep bass?
David: Deep refers to the wavelength. So the longer the wavelength, the deeper the bass. The wavelength is how far it is between peaks of the waves of the sound. And as they get, they get further apart. We perceive the waves is coming less frequently. That's frequency, right? So you have wave, wave, wave, wave versus wave, wave, wave, right? Deep bass is called deep because the waves are further apart.
Hi-Fi market, as well as physiological tests, have determined that humans perceive sound from approximately 20 cycles per second to 20,000 cycles per second wave frequency. And so that the lowest that we theoretically can hear is in that sort of 20 hertz range. So deep bass is, you know, 20 to 30, maybe 40, and that's still deep. I mean, relatively speaking, people who hear a note at 40 that still is perceived as pretty deep, but it's not as deep as we want to target. 50 is can also be conceived of or perceived as deep, but it's not as deep as you can go.
Javier: Is a deep subwoofer the same thing as a subwoofer that hits really hard?
David: The nature of how human beings perceive sound comes into this, and that also comes into the nature of the rise time given the same amplitude, which is to say from peak to, you know, from center to peak versus the wavelength. If you have a center to peak distance of x right versus a center to peak distance of Y, your rise time to that higher frequency is faster.
So the pressure change is more rapid. So it feels more like an impact. If the pressure change is more gradual, it doesn't feel as much like an impact. It feels like a breeze more than an impact. So a punchy sound is usually related to a slightly higher frequency than a deep sound. You don't want one necessarily without the other, because if something hits but has no power behind it, has no weight behind it, it's like a slap. It's like pop, but it has no weight behind it. But if something hits like a, you know, very big, like a sumo wrestler hits somebody, there's power behind it. And so if you can provide the impact with the weight behind it, that's the combination that gives you the punch and the depth because there's just not as much air, there's not as much weight, there's not as much heft, you know, just literally volume in that shorter wavelength impact. But when you have that long wavelength with it, it it literally increases the amount of mass and amount of air that's following it.
Javier: How does a deep subwoofer impact people on the dance floor?
David: So human beings are less and less sensitive to lower and lower frequencies, but we react to them instinctively with greater emotional power. What happens is that as those low frequencies reach us, our bodies respond to our pituitary respond, our adrenals respond. And so it's a more involving and more exciting experience when those low frequencies are involved, because we just biologically react to it differently from the upper frequencies, partly because we are more familiar with those upper frequencies, and so they don't excite us as much.
It's like the difference, the change, the unfamiliarity of that deeper experience, that deeper bass experience involves us more. The other thing is that the upper bass frequencies start to enter into where our ears are more sensitive, and so we can tolerate less sound pressure level there comfortably. The very low stuff can be louder without it bothering us, without it reaching a pain threshold everybody's familiar with the most. A lot of people, if you're not into something, look up is the Fletcher Munson curves. They basically show how our ears are more and less sensitive at different frequencies. Now that Fletcher Munson data was done a long time ago and doesn't extend into the super low frequencies because the headphones that they were using didn't go that low. But nevertheless, bunch of experience were done with how sounds are, how different frequencies are perceived as relative to the level, and how as the level increases, our sensitivity to the frequencies shifts as well.
So we're less sensitive to some frequencies than others across the entire band. But the louder the sound gets, that relative sensitivity also changes. So when we experience bass, really low bass, it's not causing us discomfort in terms of the threshold of pain kind of thing, but it's really involving our physical, our bodies and it and it elevates the sort of the endonomic system response. Our pituitary and our glands and stuff. We actually react to these frequencies differently because they're unfamiliar. And so when you can actually provide that to an audience, you can you can amplify the experience beyond just making it louder.
Javier: Does deep bass make the party more enjoyable for people? Does it make them dance more?
David: Anecdotally, yes. The people are more comfortable in the sense that the if it's a multigenerational party, the deep bass isn't hurting people's ears as much, but it is involving them and they feel the sound and they are drawn into that experience. And dancing is a physical activity. Dancing is a tactile experience. It's not just an auditory experience. You're not sitting there listening and with your eyes closed and just zoning out on the music, you're moving to it.
And so if the music itself is contributing to that and it's not that you're just hearing it and then converting that into your own movement, I believe that there is a a greater ability for that for for people to be involved or a greater strength for people to be involved and drawn in to that physical experience. If that experience is reaching out to them and pulling them in rather than not.
Javier: So is it better to have deep bass than not have deep bass?
David: If there's deep bass in your music, then you should be able to play it. If you're not playing music with deep bass in it, then doesn't really matter. But from a point of view of if you want to be the leading edge, if you want to do stuff that your competitors are not going to be able to do, deep bass is that's where it's at. If you're if you're willing to settle for not, then you're just in the masses with everybody else.
Javier: Is deep bass needed for live music?
David: You need to know what you're doing. But if you have instruments that go into those low frequencies... You know, if you ever had the experience where you've been watching a band and you didn't see somebody on stage and they're doing all this stuff and you can see them there, but you can't hear whatever it is that they're doing. Hey, I mean, the mics guy turned them down or something, hadn't turn them off is like he's making all the effort. But I'm not getting the benefit of that and he's not getting better for that or she's not getting the better for that. That's what happens if you don't have the deep bass. Understand that deep bass is in the instrument. It means that it's trying to come out, but the audience isn't getting the benefit of it. So if you have instruments that no electronic keyboards or, you know, keyboard based instruments, that would be like keyboard tubas and stuff like that, they can make the sound really, really big. And so that's that's where that's necessary.
Javier: If I don't have a deep subwoofer, does that mean I'm missing out on some of the deep notes that the song might have, but my subwoofer is not able to reproduce?
David: Definitely. Yeah, That's exactly what's happening. You'll even hear it if you if you have a song, even a recorded song and you hear this this progression of notes or a roll down or something like that, and it just tapers off if it does and you know that you're not tapering it off deliberately, that's because your speakers aren't doing it. So it really, really is something that happens and I feel like it happens so much with a lot of the mass market products that are out there. I've measured a lot of them. I'm like, there's nothing there. And, you know, we would switch back and forth between one that was brand and brand B, so we'd just turning em on and off and so switch back and forth and it didn't sound like the customer was listening to it, said, That doesn't sound like you're turning one on and then the other one on. It sounds like you're turning one on and then turning it off because it's just nothing coming out of the other box at that frequency. So that's that's exactly what's happening. You're just not getting some of the notes.
Javier: So if I buy a BASSBOSS product now, I have a deep subwoofer. Should I go back and listen to all my songs? Because I will experience I will feel and I will hear the song differently.
David: Yes, but it's more than that. We've had customers who have bought systems and gone back through massive amounts of stuff and they just call us up and they said we were just sitting there crying and listening to this music. It sounded so good. And you know, the whole system and these are people who've been doing this for a while, you know? So it definitely is something to experience what that low end is. What have you been missing? But it's more than that as well.
Javier: How does a deep subwoofer affect the memory of an event that someone attends?
David: When people go to an event, they remember moments. You don't remember the whole thing in continuity. You remember moments, peak moments. And of course, not every song has this, you know, deep bass and not the entire even it even the songs that do not the entire song will have it in there. But the reason why people remember things is they remember things that are new. Human beings are sensitive to change. They're sensitive to differences. We don't do experiments. You put something like whether it's your clothes or balance something on your arm. 5 minutes later you won't notice it's there. If you remove it, you'll notice that it's gone. People notice things that are different, so they will notice musical notes and stuff that they've never heard before. And if if this deep bass is outside their normal, everyday experience, that's definitely going to be something that's going to trigger their memory. It's going to trigger the retention of that memory. And so they're going to remember the moments when those when that music is powerfully stimulated them in ways that that's not familiar to them. And so that's going to make them go, wow, new experiences. That's the key. You remember the first time you do something, You remember the first time you had that happen. You from the first time you heard it that way. Those are the kind of things that trigger us to to remember those things. And there's a there's a key to that that has to do with the people who are running the system, whether it's a DJ or the band or whatever, that they manage that process. And that is a whole, you know, instructional thing. But essentially remember that people remember moments. And if you plan your night, whether it's whether you're a band, whether you're a mix engineer, whether you're a deejay, whether you're a, you know, just just controlling the system, You've heard this stuff before in terms of the music. Certainly as a band, you know, you know, you can you can well-practiced bands. They will start a song slowly. They'll all build together and pace and they'll they'll slow it down at the end and it'll have the crescendos and everybody will know where everything is. And they do that as, as a, as a deejay, as a mix engineer, or, you know, in produced music, they tend to saturate it and just have it at a flat level. But that's not the best way for you to create that experience. And at the same time, as a mix engineer, it's not the best way for you to create that memorable experience. You want to realize that it's about the highlights and that's what people remember.
Javier: So deep bass is more fun for me. It is, I think so. I think that people generally will tend to find that. I mean, you can enjoy it more, even if it's not really your thing. You can enjoy it more because it's not going to push you away. I like to think that the deeper bass reaches around and these wavelengths are huge, but it kind of reaches around. It moves your clothes, it moves your friends and everybody. You can feel it. You can put your fingers on your chest. You can feel it moving you not just in a sort of a brutal way, in a violent way, which is fun in another way, but it kind of reaches around it and you feel like this experience is everybody in the crowd is having the same one because it's so big and that's what's so cool about it. It it shouldn't seem like it's all about the bass and it's all about the deep bass, but it is one of those things where it gives you that that additional power. I mean, that, that whole octave below thing, it shakes the structure of the building. It moves people's clothes. They feel different. And, you know, you can be a very good DJ and have and create a wonderful environment and wonderful occasion for people. Similarly with anything else in terms of a band or whatever, but but if you want to bring that something extra, if you want to be unique, you want to stand out, you want to be just a cut above or below the other market options, then you know, you got to pick what you're going to, what you're going to do. This is an easy one. You do this, you're going to stand out is people going to notice. And even if they don't necessarily notice, sometimes consciously, they're there. It's like one of the things that there's something there's something there. They may not even know what it is. You'll know a couple of people know you might not know, but that's the mystery. And so them not knowing, they associate that to you, you as the DJ, take the benefit of that. You don't have to explain it. You don't have to tell them, Oh yeah, it's because of my subwoofers. Now that's your magic. You bought that. We gave it to you to do that, you know. Yeah, we, we provided this thing that you then take and then you use and they go, Wow, that deejay was awesome.