Kick drum and bass level

When producing tracks that need a good kick and bass balance (that would be most if not all tracks!) it is interesting to see what happens when monitoring on small monitors or headphones. If there is no sub in the system then it can be too easy to overdo the level of bass so that when the track is played over a big pa it distorts and overpowers the track. Many is the time that I have thrown together a new track for a live show that sounds great until I get to play it out live. Now my solution is to use a little 2.1 system with two little tops and a small sub. If it sounds good on here then it will sound good live. I have always wanted to have the luxury of a live pa set up in the studio just for checking mixes. Maybe one day…