Hello,
The Title says it all. I spend hours mixing and mastering my simple song projects.  I have them where they sound pretty good (to me) through my Yamaha monitor speakers.  I then export them as an Mp3 file and play them back on my iPad or iPhone.  They just sound awful...poor definition/clarity.  The most accurate way to describe the sound (for you older lady and gents) is they sound like they are being played back on an old transistor radio from the 60's.  I will also say that when I burn them to a CD and play them in my car or home stereo, they sound fine (as I mixed and mastered them).  Anybody else run into this?  I know that an iPhone and iPad don't have very good speakers but still...Any suggestions/insights would be appreciated. 
Thanks,

Are you using high data compression in the MP3? A bit rate of 160 is usually plenty to make it sound ok/good on an iPhone.  It sounds from your description that you're only using 64 or so.
 
What does the MP3 sound like played back from your computer with iTunes or media player?

I have found that many mp3/apple players sound like crap when the player itself is turned up.  Try backing off the volume on the unit itself.  Of course, if other songs sound fine and it is just your work, something else is going on.  Besides Karyn's great suggestion, you might also want to leave a little more headroom on your master for mp3.  I haven't noticed it sounding substantially worse, but will you get overs when converting a -0.1 dB WAV file to mp3.  Use a master that has  -.3 dB headroom.
 
Another thing to consider is if the apple products are converting your mp3 file to aiff.  I'm not an apple guy but you can try a CD file instead of an mp3.  My old iPod seems to play back mp3s, but I don't know about newer stuff.
 
Finally, mixes that sound great in the studio and fine in the living room might not sound as good on mp3s or whatnot.  A great mix is a compromise.  It shouldn't sound bad on any system or exhibit any flaws.  It might not sound quite as deep etc. on $10,000 Barefoots in a treated mixing room, but it should sound good on everything.  however, that, again, doesn't seem to be your problem.  It sounds like a technical problem, not artistic.
 
@

Karyn and AT,
Thanks for sharing your ideas!  Karyn, I checked my bit rate and you were correct.  I had it set at 64.  I changed it to 256 and immediately noticed the improved clarity in my Mp3 file.  I also tried remixing the file leaving a little more headroom (less compression).  This too helped quite a lot.
Thanks again,

i rip mp3s at NO LESS......
than 320 kbps.
 
plus, if you are not going to listen to playback with good ear buds at the minimum,
then who cares what it sounds like?
 
 

Yup... use 320kbs on MP3's when you convert from waves. Converting to 128kbs can sound bad, so go as high as you can. Some free web sites have file size limits so on longer songs you may need to drop to 256kbs to make them fit. Others will reduce the file down. Soundclick I think is one that does that. STILL.... upload the highest KBS that will allow the song to fit their file size limits. Or.... use Box.com where there are no size limits and you can even load waves ... for internet listening.
 
You have to go back to the mix though. It sounds like the mix may not be properly balanced and eq'd and while it sounds good in the studio, when it gets played back on something else, it sounds not quite so good. We all tend to try to make things sound good in our studios..... ear candy.... but the trick is to learn to mix so that the song translates well across many other diverse speaker systems, including car stereo, home stereo, computer speakers, and the MP3 devices with ear buds.
 
One thing you can do is post your work in the songs forum. I haven't been in there much recently so I don't know if you've been doing this already.  By doing this, other folks can listen and they will be on cans or some other sort of speaker system. All the deficiencies will show up in that manner.  They can then give you the feedback you need so that you can learn the things you need to pay attention to in your studio setup.
 
Also, it may be that the song is coming straight out of the DAW... essentially raw tracks mixed with some eq and verb..... but not polished and "mastered" to get the most out of the song. You didn't say anything about the process you use to get to where you are, and that all matters. The lousy sound in a different player/speaker system is simply the end result of not finishing the process properly.
 
Using the songs forum in this manner, is a great way to get good ears on your music and production chops and find out what you're doing right, and what you're doing that needs work.

I was going to mention the bitrate thing too. I'm usually using 256 at the very least. If you'r uploading to a site such as Soundcloud  DONT use mp3's since Soundcloud makes your .wav into an mp3 file when you upload it...so you could be doing a double conversion and that's not a good thing.
 
Many smart phones have a built in equalizer. I would see what it's set for as they can be set for different kinds of music. Chances are if the mix sounds good everywhere but on the cell phone it could be the EQ setting.
 
A mix will always have a different personality on headphones compared to studio monitors. You might have a great mix one way and a sucky one the other way. This is where panning and certain effects can cause issues. So it's good to compare the two. A lot of people listen on headphones/earbuds nowadays.....so this is important. In almost every case I take a quality hit on my mixes on headphones compared to monitors. It's a totally different listening environment. Mixes usually seem to  sound better on monitors no matter what I do to the mix....so if a mixer still gets a bad sound after mixing an mp3 at higher bitrates it might not be the mp3.
 
Maybe someone else can comment on this- If you know what the conversion process does to your mix, you can maybe do something in the mix to compensate for it. I'm no expert in this area, but I'm pretty sure there are things you could do in the mix to help compensate for it.
 
I don't notice an enormous difference in a high bitrate mp3 and a 24/44/1 wav file but there is a difference.

One other mention...some people use the cheap crappy speaker on the iphone/ipad to listen to music. If you want to mix for that it would be similar to a laptop speaker. You need to include everything to some degree in the midrange and make it sound good in mono.