Why do bass notes harmonize so poorly?
Anyone know a physical reason why basslines need to be 'solo' in the low eq-bands (as opposed to attempting 'chords' of multiple bass sounds, which sounds awful) ? I realize there's a gray area on the upper bass regions where you can still get away with fifths and stuff... but in deep bass, you pretty much must either play only 1 note at once, or use whole octave intervals (double bass).
Is this a property of our ears? Of our brains? Of sound? If so, what?
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That's a very interesting question, I'm afraid I don't know the answer, but if I had to take a guess...
I'd say that it's because of mankind's inability to distinguish sound waves with very low wavelengths. If you go low enough, humans can't hear the sound at all (obviously these "notes" aren't playable on instruments...they wouldn't serve much purpose).
You can obviously hear notes from something like a bass guitar, so the wavelengths aren't that low, but I assume our brains are less apt at recognizing certain wavelengths once you go low enough. Again, I'm not sure, just taking a guess.
The same thing happens with extremely high wavelengths as low ones; we can't hear them. Perhaps if two octaves were to be added to a piano, those higher notes would have trouble harmonizing too?