Every now and then I receive songs for mastering that sound a bit too hollow in the beat department. Often, the problem lies in the beat that’s been high-pass filtered too high/steep.
The pics show how it’s roughly supposed to look if you have the necessary meat in there (good) or if it’s been high-passed too much (bad), ending up in a hollow-sounding beat. Both pics are from songs when there is no bassline happening; it’s good to check the beats without bass, too. The kick area will peak depending on where your kick hits, but regardless, you shouldn’t have that gap there (as in the bad pic).
Earlier I blogged about high-passing your song and getting your sub bass right, which both relate to the same matter as well and were essentially about how it’s supposed to look when you have bass going on.
Even though listening is key, tools such as Voxengo SPAN are great tools in this matter.