Golly, I love Strum Machine.
Aside from playing the hell out of all my favorite tunes, I am using it with my little band and we are without a bass player. I had thought to eliminate all the Strum Machine instruments except the bass to serve this purpose, but for some reason over here the bass is very quiet in the balance, both on my desktop computer and on my ipad/bluetooth setup (which I take to my jamming friends.)
Any advice on getting the bass to speak up more? Both at home and on the road? The guitar plays plenty loud so I don’t think it is my bluetooth speaker. And that the bass is quiet here on the desktop.
Also, looking forward to future bass lines for waltzes! In my little band, we rarely count beyond three.
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I had the same problem and I fixed it a little bit by adding a guitar with almost all Bass and no strum in the guitar settings
I can’t say for sure what’s going on here, but as much as I hate to blame your equipment, I think that the reason you’re not hearing the bass much is because your speakers aren’t reproducing the bass frequencies fully. Even if the guitar is sounding rich and full on a given set of speakers, that doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to pump out low frequencies, and the standup bass is mostly low frequencies.
On my larger Bluetooth speakers, my AirPods, and my studio monitors, the bass is prominent and lifelike. But on other speakers, such as smaller Bluetooth speakers or built-in device speakers, the bass isn’t nearly as audible because bass frequencies in general aren’t as audible. I don’t know any way around this. I think commercial tracks sometimes use tricks to make it seem like there’s more bass audible then there is, but I’m not sure I could make use of those in an app setting and anyway I like to “keep things real” as much as possible when it comes to the audio.
One test you could try is to connect your phone or iPad to your car’s speaker system, if your car supports Bluetooth. Car speakers often have a pretty good bass response, although this isn’t true across the board. I know some folks who practice in the car (with Strum Machine) because that’s where they can get the best sound.
Another thing you could do is test your speakers with a YouTube video (like this one) where I can confirm the bass is nice and audible. If you can’t hear it on a device, that means the device is having trouble with those lower frequencies.
What model of Bluetooth speaker are you using? Perhaps I can look up the specs and make a more educated guess as to whether that’s the culprit or not.
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Hi Diane, I use NOTABRICK Bluetooth Speakers, 15W Portable Speakers Bluetooth Wireless V5.0 with Stereo Sound, Active Extra Bass, IPX6 Waterproof Shower Speaker, Double Pairing, for Party, Home Theater, Game Theater. The pair can be panned, but the most interesting feature is the bass: it does have some kick! I put the bass on one side and the guitar on the other 6:1 ratio. You can do all of that through SM. It took a second to learn how to pair the pair of speakers, but it is definely worth the investment Amazon.com