Recordings damage car speakers

simulation said:
Thanks for the hate.
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Hate??? :confused:

This is not hate:
TimOBrien said:
You can't blame anyone but yourself for having the volume knob pegged...
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This is not hate:
Greg_L said:
I'm sorry but this is one of the funniest threads we've had in a while. :laughings:
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This is not hate:
Armistice said:
It could be a sign from God... not all of us are called to recording's altar... :p
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This is not hate:
jimmys69 said:
All good stuff! I'll bet it has more to do with lack of control over sub frequencies that have bludgeoned your speakers into submission. The reverb just made the sparks created sound farther away.....
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This is not hate:

mixsit said:
That's a good thing to keep in mind. A speaker has physical limits. Not just in general loudness, it's good to get familiar with a systems practical frequency limits.
You see lots of cone swing without a corresponding sound output, you may be asking it to pay lower than it can support.
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Where is the hate??
 
There are many volume knobs in the mixing process, no? So, I can blow my speakers just by playing music at full volume in the car? That's what I've done, and it has nothing to do with my recordings?

Also, I listened to some of your music. How do you get the guitars on Custard Pie to sound so thin but so full at the same time? You are cutting out a lot of the base in EQ?
 
simulation said:
There are many volume knobs in the mixing process, no? So, I can blow my speakers just by playing music at full volume in the car? That's what I've done, and it has nothing to do with my recordings?
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OK, I know there has been some sarcasm in this thread, which you mis-interpreted as "hate". There's no hate, we're all just a bunch of smart asses. But, seriously, this is just common sense, regardless of how much or how little one knows about recording. Of course you can blow your speakers by turning the volume on your stereo too loud. This isn't rocket surgery.

Also, I listened to some of your music. How do you get the guitars on Custard Pie to sound so thin but so full at the same time? You are cutting out a lot of the base in EQ?
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Honestly, I don't remember how I recorded the guitars to Custard Pie. I never take notes on what I do, I never document anything. I start each project from scratch, so I never refer to any kind of template or anything like that.

I think Custard Pie was the first song I recorded when I bought my Fender Super Champ amp, so I was probably still getting to know the amp. I couldn't even tell you what "sound" I used for it. But I would say there's a 99% chance that I hi-passed (low cut) the guitars somewhere around 100hz or so. I wish I could be more specific, but I don't remember.
 
Ok, thanks. I think I have a lot of mud or boom or whatever on my guitars. And I just assumed car stereos were designed to withstand their own maximum volume.
 
Naw, typical car stereo's do not have any kind of 'limiting' to stop you from blowing them. Like I stated in previous post, it is possible that you have excessive sub frequencies in your mix that your speakers just couldn't handle reproducing at a high volume. Or similar volume to a commercial mix that you have played at the same level.

BTW, no hate from here man. :)
 
simulation said:
There are many volume knobs in the mixing process, no? So, I can blow my speakers just by playing music at full volume in the car? That's what I've done, and it has nothing to do with my recordings?
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That's right. It's called exceeding the maximum power rating of your speakers and, with only a single exception that I can think of, has nothing to do with what is played through them. That exception is if you play a very high frequency tone continuously for, say 10 or 20 minutes. Tweeters can heat up and this would probably damage them. However, highs are transients and no one records a continuous high-frequency tone in their music.
 
simulation said:
And I just assumed car stereos were designed to withstand their own maximum volume.
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I agree with what the others are saying, and to add, it depends a lot on what you are listening to. The physics behind blowing speakers:

A speaker will "Blow" because the electric coil inside gets too hot. When it gets too hot, the enamel coating of the wire melts or breaks down and causes a short in the coil. The coil gets hot because it is getting more energy than it can dispel as either movement of the speaker cone or as heat. This excess energy comes in the form of distortion from the amplifier. The amplifier is either creating the distortion because it a cheap-ass amplifier; or it is getting the distortion from the content (music) it is amplifying. If your mixes have too much mud or boom then, yup, you can blow your speakers before reaching max volume on your car stereo.

On other hand; if your music has more pure tones, not much distortion, and your car stereo has some nice amps, you can probably crank it all the way up and it will sound good. I remember back in the 80's, my brother put a big-ass stereo system in his car. And would normally play all his head-banging 80's hair band music. But one time, to show off his stereo, he played Chuck Mangione (jazz musician) and he cranked it all the way up. And to this day, I like Chuck Mangione because of how his music sounded in that car. :)
 
Chili said:
On other hand; if your music has more pure tones, not much distortion, and your car stereo has some nice amps, you can probably crank it all the way up and it will sound good. I remember back in the 80's, my brother put a big-ass stereo system in his car. And would normally play all his head-banging 80's hair band music. But one time, to show off his stereo, he played Chuck Mangione (jazz musician) and he cranked it all the way up. And to this day, I like Chuck Mangione because of how his music sounded in that car. :)
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I'm lucky -- I've got a great stereo in my car (came with it). After I complete a mix using my near fields, I'll listen to it on my home stereo, on headphones on a CD player, and in my car, to get a sense of how it will sound under different conditions. My car stereo comes closest to reproducing the feel of the original mix (and I do listen loud). However, none of my music consists of 5 minutes of a 15 Khz sine wave. :)
 
When I get in my car, the last thing I want to hear is music. I always listen to talk radio AM sports shows. Or, if I'm writing a song in my head, the car is totally silent. But almost never music.
 
RAMI said:
When I get in my car, the last thing I want to hear is music. I always listen to talk radio AM sports shows. Or, if I'm writing a song in my head, the car is totally silent. But almost never music.
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I thought I was one of the few. I don't even listen to talk radio.... never mind music.

Once in a rare moment, when heading out on a longer trip, I'll bring a few of my favorite CDs....but otherwise, there's something about just driving the car and being in your own thoughts, that appeals to me.

If I'm in a songwriting period....I don't even listen to CDs. I find that it's too easy to subconsciously pick up on stuff you hear, and it also can interfere with my own ideas....you know, you get some melody stuck in your head...


....so my car speakers never run the risk of being damaged! :laughings:
 
miroslav said:
I thought I was one of the few. I don't even listen to talk radio.... never mind music.

Once in a rare moment, when heading out on a longer trip, I'll bring a few of my favorite CDs....but otherwise, there's something about just driving the car and being in your own thoughts, that appeals to me.
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I rarely listen to anything in the car anymore. I might plug in my iphone and listen once in a while, but I am like you, prefer to be with my thoughts. I drove up to Lubbock last week (6 hr drive) and brought along a bunch of cds I haven't heard in a while. I listened to half of one and that was it. :)

OTOH, when I'm traveling by air?? Yup, plug in and tune out the world for a few hours. But that's because I hate all the other passengers and I don't want to listen to them. :mad:
 
RAMI said:
When I get in my car, the last thing I want to hear is music. I always listen to talk radio AM sports shows. Or, if I'm writing a song in my head, the car is totally silent. But almost never music.
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Same here most of the time. I listen to sports radio or something I'm working on.

Or gangsta rap.
 
I drive for a living and although I do listen every now and then to talk radio, I do most of my music listening in my van. It's grand, I can rewind the tape as much as I like and have been known on a number of occasions to listen to the same song for 3 days, continuously.
I rarely listen to music at home unless I'm washing up, doing DIY or cooking. I've just been on two weeks leave and I haven't listened to anything. Back to work in a few hours and I'll be blasting away.
 
We have a standup comedy station out here in Denver. Only comedy and commercials. Gets repetitive and redundant just like so called music stations, but at least it is an alternative. That is about the only thing other than talk radio that I listen to.

I have already heard every song a radio station plays more times than I have pooped.
 
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