Bass is maternal

[Des]

What's with the kids and their music coming outta their phones? It sounds like a wasp in a jamjar. For music to have any effect at all it needs a good bass sound - even acoustic music needs the lower notes to make it listenable.

Kids today etc.

[Jonathan E.]

And they supposedly spend even more time online than us old codgers!

[Dayna]

I think bass sounds good, if it isn't ratteling everyone's windows. It's the part of music you can feel.

This is not really a question. I know.

[Des]

I think bass sounds good, if it isn't ratteling everyone's windows. It's the part of music you can feel.

This is not really a question. I know.

That's exactly it, Dayna - you kind of feel it rather than hear it!

[Dayna]

But it does sound good too! What about a bass guitar?

\

[Dayna]

What I really wanted to say here, is I have heard a few songs where you hear the bass & feel it both & it can be very good. Can't it?

[Adam Blake]

I think bass is actually healing in effect - and I know I'm not alone in this. I went to see Burning Spear at the Hammersmith Palais a couple of years ago and the bass was so deep and so loud I was initially quite alarmed and thought it would damage my hearing but then I thought, just relax and let it flow through you. So I did and after awhile I got used to it and it felt wonderful. Everybody in the audience was smiling and nodding to the music (except for a gaggle of public school type teenagers who talked through the whole thing.)

After the gig we all just floated out - and I wasn't high on pot, that was quite unnecessary. The bass in the place in your face put us all in the right space. Seen?

[Dayna]

I have the same effect when listening to good bass. Quite a few years ago, I had a freind I ran around with that liked going to see a local heavy metal band play at various places, so I just followed him there. This band was really good, & I can remember the bass in it being so good, I used to stand right up beside the speakers. It was so loud, but I loved letting the sound & the feeling of it go right through me. It made me feel like I was high on something, even though I wasn't. Those were exciting times I had & the bass player was pretty nice to look at too. Listening to good bass like that now has the same effect on me.

[Neil Foxlee]

The healing of the nation...

Whereas loud high and mid frequencies can hurt your ears, loud bass is felt through your body. One good thing about bass, when it hits you feel no pain....

As Luke Ehrlich put it in a section on 'The Reggae Arrangement' in Reggae International (1983, o/p):

"Physiologically, depending on its pitch and loudness, bass resonates the facial mask, the abdominal cavity and even the pelvic area. Riddims, being low in pitch and under the arrangement, tend to bypass the intellectual mind and communicate directly with the heart by actually massaging it in rhythm. It's no accident that all over the world reggae is proclaimed 'music of the heart'. In fact, the tempo of Jamaican records compares remarkably with the human pulse rate." (p. 53, italics in original)

I don't know how that fits with different reggae tempi, but notwithstanding the beep spoilers, I'm listening again to Road to Zion, track 16 at
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=1269 ... ght=126960

Vocal original Yabby You, Conquering Lion.

[Alannah]

this reminds me of an experiment conducted at Liverpool Cathedral some time back. Pregnant women were banned...


http://www.spacedog.biz/Infrasonic/back ... htm#PRIMER


there's another quite detailed report of an exhaustive experiment here...

http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/htdocs/Che ... asound.pdf

if you can't be bothered to read all of it, then may I suggest you have a look at the bottom of page 30 - boys, you have been warned!!!

[Neil Foxlee]

It's good to have some scientific input, but I would question whether infrasound (sub-20Hz) is what we're talking about in musical terms.

According to the diagram given by Ehrlich (1983), for example, reggae bass covers a spectrum of c.150 to 250 Hz. Though I stand to be corrected, I've never come across loudspeakers that go below 40 Hz.

[Ted]

According to the diagram given by Ehrlich (1983), for example, reggae bass covers a spectrum of c.150 to 250 Hz

It would hardly be bass at all if it only went down to 150Hz.
Bass guitar low E with 440Hz tuning has a frequency of 41.2 Hz.

Though I stand to be corrected, I've never come across loudspeakers that go below 40 Hz.

The low B on a 5 string bass is 30.9 Hz. So speakers definitely go down this low.

This is how low various instruments go.

http://www.contrabass.com/pages/frequency.html

[Neil Foxlee]

I stand corrected!

Here's Wikipedia on sub-bass:

"Sub-bass is a term used to describe audible sounds below 90Hz (sound in the range below this (under 16-17Hz) is called infrasound). Sound systems often feature a subwoofer that is dedicated solely to amplifying sounds in the lower bass and sub-bass range. Audio tracks known as bass tests use sub-bass, and in some cases, infrasonic frequencies which are used to test or show off audio equipment.

When reproduced at sufficient volume, the listener will feel sub-bass more than he hears it - for this reason, it is popular in dance music, where the sub-bass will often accompany the bass drum, as well as in dub reggae."

And see the article on sub-woofers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subwoofer

Note that "A subwoofer is a woofer, or a complete loudspeaker dedicated to the reproduction of bass audio frequencies, from perhaps 150 Hz down as far as 20 Hz, or in rare cases lower." and that "With the advent of the compact cassette and the compact disc in the 1980s, the reproduction of deep, loud bass was no longer limited by the ability of a phonograph record stylus to track a groove." So the bass on reggae sound-systems might be limited by the use of vinyl.

[Neil Foxlee]

Ha! Here's what an expert at Bose says:

"Many people think that a 5-string bass need a speaker with a frequency response down to 30 Hz or you wouldn’t be able to hear the low B “properlyâ€

[Dayna]

I really don't know how I did it. Standing so close to one of those speakers at a live concert & my hearing wasn't damaged but I did it & it felt good.
I do know that I have enjoyed both hearing it & feeling it in various ways.

Is it common there for kids to drive around in their cars with Rap music so loud that it rattles everyone's windows? Those are the ones I'm wondering about their hearing! They actually fill the entire rear part of the car with speakers!