Listening Devices

M

metalj

New member
OK so it just dawned on me(sorry I'm slow). Literally every listening device I have from a boom box to my car stereo, mp3 player, phone, IPAD, computer has all those "EQ presets" You know like "Rock, metal, country, Jazz". The average listener probably doesnt really think about what it does other than it makes the music sound like they like it.

So what approach should I be taking when mastering? What I have found is that a nice well mixed, but somewhat flat frequency response on the final mix really produced GREAT results once you kick in those EQ pre-sets.

My worry is that if someone does not use those pre-sets they may think my music is underproduced but still sounds "pretty good" but if I pump it up from the get go to sound like say the "Rock" setting, then it will be overdone and blow out the listener if the listener then chooses that EQ preset.

What's a guy to do?

I am using Presonus Studio One 2 Pro and the mastering software that comes with it. Here is where I am at so far with it.

https://soundcloud.com/signs-of-reign/freedom-mixdown-8
 
I do think this is the reason for a flat mixing environment. Room treatment is your best friend to get your mixing room neutral, then go and do a check on a varied array of devices. It will never be perfect but you can get it reasonable across the spectrum.

Between the mixing clinic (sanity check) and doing a couple of checks on home, car ear buds, then adjust as you see fit is really the best you can do. If your mixing room is good, the mix should translate pretty decent.
 
A good, balanced mix will translate anywhere. I think too many people worry that their listeners will be listening on crappy earbuds or bluetooth speakers and they'll focus their mixing to sound good through those devices. I think that's putting the cart before the horse. Treat your mixing environment so it doesn't lie to you. Use decent monitors. Learn how your own mixing environment translates to other setups. Then you can just mix with confidence and know that it will sound fine everywhere it gets played. You can't control how people will EQ their own playback devices for their own preferences, so make a good mix in your good room and it will be fine everywhere.
 
you need very neutral and accurate monitors as well as room treatment, then get it sounding exactly how you want on those speakers, the rest will then fall into place.
 
Also, sound is (semi) genre specific. An EDM song would not sound good with the same eq as a jazz tune and vice-verse. Rap would not sound good with the drums running soft on the bass like Dead Kennedys and Dead Kennedys would not sound good with 60Hz kick boost and a pffft artificial snare. Mix to the audience, but as has been stated, "A good balanced mix will translate anywhere."
 
Make your mix sound right by an objective standard (as much as possible) so any deviation from that will typically be heard by the listener as an effect of the playback system and not a deficiency in the mix. People are used to how their playback systems sound.
 
By the same token, it's important to learn how your induvidual setup/room sounds. It's impractical in most cases to get a flat room and 'perfect' monitoring, but getting to a point where you know what your room/monitoring is doing to the sound is they key to making things translate.

I get my work to sound how I want it to sound, to where the musicians involved are happy with the sound (whatever their expectations) and then to hell with listeners and their EQ.
Half the time the EQ settings actually make things louder (iTunes 'Rock' EQ boosts every frequency apart from 1k, you can get the same results by turning the track up a little) so I pretend they don't exist when mastering.
 
Jake_JW said:
By the same token, it's important to learn how your induvidual setup/room sounds. It's impractical in most cases to get a flat room and 'perfect' monitoring, but getting to a point where you know what your room/monitoring is doing to the sound is they key to making things translate.

I get my work to sound how I want it to sound, to where the musicians involved are happy with the sound (whatever their expectations) and then to hell with listeners and their EQ.
Half the time the EQ settings actually make things louder (iTunes 'Rock' EQ boosts every frequency apart from 1k, you can get the same results by turning the track up a little) so I pretend they don't exist when mastering.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the comments. So, wondering if anyone had a chance to listen to the clip ?

Looking for feedback on your end of the rabbit hole. how would you rate this? Would you consider it to be a masterd track that stands up to an industry standard ? No looking for a pat on the back, just on a quest for independance. Thanks if you have time to listen.

I have done A/B comparisons to other international professional (whatever that means) releases and to me other than some classic big boy releases its sounds better than some and possibly in some respect not as good as others, but all in all just different.

I appreciate any feedback. Thanks.
 
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