2017/05/03 18:02:27
highlandermak
So I've noticed I can mix and master where a project sounds great on lets say a home stereo but when played on a car stereo or smart device it is lacking. What methods or plugins do you use to get a mix that sound great on all devices? Thanks
2017/05/03 18:59:48
dcumpian
It's not, strictly speaking, about the plugins. It is about learning how to mix so that your mix translates well in multiple environments. So that, the bass/kick sounds good in headphones, and the car, and on a home stereo. It is an art that can take years to learn.
 
Regards,
Dan
2017/05/03 19:10:24
bapu
dcumpian
It is an art that can take years and ears to learn.
 

Fixed.
2017/05/03 19:10:47
Rob[at]Sound-Rehab
highlandermak
What methods or plugins do you use to get a mix that sound great on all devices?




My method is to employ a professional mastering engineer to take care of that. Costs money but so do plug-ins ;-)
2017/05/04 03:57:43
Jeff Evans
I can tell you what works for me. Getting the mix nicely balanced on a single mono small Auratone type speaker is the key for me. (at low volume as well) Once you do that you are set for almost any speaker you care to listen on. What is left is controlling the bottom end.  Get that into perspective and you will have a mix that sounds great in the car, your hifi and on laptops or iPads etc..
 
This is all mix stuff but it also does carry on into the mastering phase. The EQ in the mastering chain will control the bottom end and get a nice overall EQ balance going on. The compressor too can tighten things up a bit here and there. The limiter will make things louder.
 
It should start with the mix because no amount of mastering will cure a bad mix. But a good decent mix will flow on into good mastering stages rather well.
 
 
2017/05/04 07:41:17
Kalle Rantaaho
To me the most important step of learning was using several commercial songs as a reference. Comparing the frequency curves with Voxengo SPAN I learned how the project must sound in my modest monitor speakers and headphones to be somewhat in the same ballpark as the commercial ones that sound OK in all systems.
What I still find very difficult, though, is getting the low end be reasonably audible (=harmonics) also in poor computer loudspeakers and such.
 
The differences between reproduction gear can be unbelievably big for a beginner. My latest lesson of that was a song in which I tried to produce a Tom Petty-style shimmering rhythm guitar background with acoustic guitars.  It sounded quite ok  through my Behringer monitors, almost good through my DT-770 headphones, but totally, horribly untolerable through my Sony Hi-fi headphones. Through the Sonys it was like scratching a zinc plate with a fork + transposed an octave.  It was hard to believe I was listening to the same track.
I just had to cut down a lot of the (assumed) high freq air.
2017/05/04 13:45:14
dwardzala
+1 to Jeff's tip on mixing on a mono speaker
 
+1 to using reference material.  Remember that commercial reference material has been mastered and that you should level match it to your mix and not run it through any plug-ins.
2017/05/16 19:43:50
interpolated
Simply put you need neutrality between your mix output and your room. Headphone mixes tends to be inaccurate to speakers in a room or a car. However mastering is just the sound of a 30,000 dollar most people don't have.
2017/05/16 19:53:56
interpolated
https://www.har-bal.com
Izotope 0zone has a harmonic analysis.
Sonarworks reference 3
Cakewalks spectrum analysis
These can help give you scientific reference points. Once you get your head around it all.
2017/05/17 03:16:28
highlandermak
Awesome, thanks for all the great feedback. I did also get the arc 2 to calibrate my studio in hopes it might assist. The mono trick is a pretty solid tip which I've used on occasion. Thanks again :)
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