The importance of bass clarity in pop and rock venues

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2008-05, Vol.123 (5_Supplement), p.3090-3090
• Main Authors: Adelman-Larsen, Niels W., Thompson, Eric R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.2932922

High levels of bass sound have been shown to stimulate the part of the brain that controls such basic instincts as sexual desire and hunger [Todd, 2000]. In rock and pop music, the bass frequencies from 40-125 Hz get amplified to very loud levels. Easily half of the electrical power of the PA and monitor system goes to these 1.5 octaves. A recent survey [Adelman-Larsen et al., 2007] showed that the most important subjective parameter for a rock and pop music hall to score a high rating was 'bass clarity' which correlated with a coefficient of 0.74 to 'overall impression'. Informal discussions with audio engineers and bass players give the perspective that artificial reverberation is rarely, if ever, added to bass-frequencies. In fact the ideal hall should be as dry as possible at low-frequencies. In the mid-treble frequency range, sound absorption, and thereby 'clarity', is easily obtained through the presence of the audience that absorbs 4-6 times more mid/high frequency sound energy than bass sound energy. In the low-frequency range 'clarity' is not so easily obtained. This paper discusses the challenge in depth and proposes design solutions.