Hi all,

I've been using a lot of sub-bass in my FM tracks lately. I've made some tunes in the past couple days for a jam, and the bass BUMPS in my headphones, but it's not passing the car test, and I just don't know why.

I can imagine some possibilities, starting with my earbuds probably being EQed, the actual proximity of the sound to my ears, maybe just how it sits in the final mix, but I'm wondering if there's any other auditory reasoning behind it that I can control from my end. For context, I've attached a link to the .fur module and the .wav. Both have bass heavily present in my headphones, but like I said, it feels comparatively weak in the car (which can most definitely handle it). Any thoughts are appreciated!

module and wav here

The bass sounds properly thicc here (listening with a 130W subwoofer whose limit is 35Hz). If anything, it's the high range that is somewhat neglected. Turn the cymbals up!

(Cool song by the way)

just opened the .fur!

rumbly bass guy's the bass; looked at the wave, heard thru cheapo speaker w decent-enough bass; alg 4, two bass sounds at once; the sub's doing op3 and op4, the standard wave's up top, and PC-98 volume mixes best ime with the bass running at alg4!

op3 and op4 are in tune w each other, op1 and op2 are in tune w each other; when I had this kinda alg4 setup where the 1/2 chunk and the 3/4 chunk are detuned from each other, it worked good for mid and top notes but kinda put holes in the bass bc the way the wave form goes? so I centered all the tunings

the sub bass has op3 double the frequency of op4 which does a clarinet texture? even harmonics only iirc? brought op3 to "0" to match op4's "0" for a round soft saw kinda thing to fill out more low mids

bass is delicate and can be fussy in FM; legatos and note cuts reduce pops! made the release for op2 and op4 "12" for a quick rounded release, op1 and op3 release "10" to let the carrier breathe

wanted to keep the character of the bass yet have volume; PC-98 fm levels are quiet in the tracker; doing alg4 in YM2612 I'll usually be at 8 and 8 for op2 and op4 volume; any more and the wave starts to max out and hard clips; for PC-98 I push them at full "0" max! 1:1 horn style waves are quieter than 2:1 clarinet style waves when made in fm

set op2 and op4 adsdr at 24, 16, 1, 0, 12. my go-to carrier settings. some times there's better options; 24, 16, 1, 0, 12 on the carrier just about always gets it done

swapped the op1/2 chunk with the op3/4 chunk, put feedback to "5", and adjusted smth to keep the character of the original irt the pluck at the start; forgot what I did, probably a decay thing on an upstream operator?

here

's what I got! only changed the bass; all else intact

@Max: glad to hear it's coming through -- I want the car rumbling! The hats get distracting to me so I have a tendency to turn them down. Good to know others might feel the opposite!

@cabbage: Holy heck, thanks for the investigation! Says I need go request access so gonna do that now.

yw + all systems go! I forgot Google Drive automatically barricades the download? access granted! also opened up the link from default "restricted" to anyone w link can access

cool stuff, it sounds fine imo