Car makers... Just stop it with the bass!

  • Thread starter Thread starter wmalan
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wmalan

wmalan

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I've been making a few simple mixes then run them through my old Subaru Outback plain-Jane stereo for a second (third?) opinion. Sort of helps fine tune. Now I'm the proud owner of a Mazda3 with the plain sound system. The bass is over the top! I set it to -3 or -4 just to get existing commercial rock and blues to sound right. Treble must be up as well to remove the mud. I know these little cars may be for the younger market (I'm over 50) but what a change. Makes me rethink my mixes...
 
I guess it depends on the car. I own a 2008 Škoda Octavia which has stock stereo system and had to turn the bass up (+5! ...mids and highs @ 0) to get it to sound decent. ...and I don't even like heavy bass. :o
 
I'm not sure about this, but if I were putting in a stereo system into a car, I would want to be sure it was capable of a hefty amount of bass, because that's what disappears when you are driving along and whaever you are playing has to compete with engine rumble, tyre noise and so on.
 
What ever you have. it will be the medium of what you'll listening to.
Guess it's a bit like your studio monitors - if you know what a favorite piece of music sound best with your system then those settings are your marker for all other musical pieces.
 
Car systems also sound very different when the windows are wound down to when they are up, my theory is that when the windows are down you have a infinite bass trap?

Alan.
 
That's what the eq is for. All car systems are different and they are not meant to be reference monitors by design. The old school method of listening on a stock car stereo to get a "real world" reference worked when all stock stereos sucked. Now, you just have to set the eq so it sounds good to you and learn what things sound like through it. There is no such thing as a generic car stereo reference anymore.
 
The car stereo needs some work,

car stereo.webp
 
witzendoz said:
Car systems also sound very different when the windows are wound down to when they are up, my theory is that when the windows are down you have a infinite bass trap?

Alan.
Click to expand...

With the windoz down or in a convertable you have zero reflection or near zero. That's why you hung out under the overpass.
 
How well the stereo sounds is the last thing the engineers worry about when designing a small budget car. The speakers are just crammed in anywhere as an after-thought. All you can do is to set it so that the commercial music sounds acceptable and then keep it that way when checking your mixes.

All you are doing is getting a general idea of how your mix stands up on various systems anyway. I like to listen to my mixes on about 4 or 5 different stereo systems while taking notes on each about what sounds right and what sounds wrong. If, for example, the cymbals seem too loud on all 5 listening systems, then that's a real issue. On the other hand, if the cymbals sound fine on 4 systems, but too loud on 1 system, I would blame it on that system and not on my mix. Perhaps a very light tweak will do, but I wouldn't give the lame system too much weight in the decision making process.
 
gecko zzed said:
if I were putting in a stereo system into a car, I would want to be sure it was capable of a hefty amount of bass, because that's what disappears when you are driving along and whatever you are playing has to compete with engine rumble, tyre noise and so on.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I have my bass settings high. I want to hear that intricate part as I'm roaring up the M1 or A40 at 105 I mean 70 MPH.........
 
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