EQ or Flat?

[rockabilly1955]

not sure if this has been posted, couldnt find anything. When i mix my songs, should i master it to include all the EQ levels so i wouldnt have to use eq when playing back on other systems? in other words, the song would sound just like i like it on any system by putting the system's EQ at a flat level. Or should i master the songs to sound pretty flat so people can have room to use their EQ to their liking on their systems when listening to my songs? hope it makes sense

 

[SKYflyer]

I would definitely recommend making your mix sound the best that it can with no EQ adjustments on the music listeners system. Think about it: most people who listen to music never touch the EQ at all, and some music players don't even have an equalizer! Also, if your songs required one specific EQ setting and the person is listening to a playlist that they created with your song on it and songs by other people, when the next song begins playing, they will have to totally reconfigure the EQ because they had it sound good only for your song.

 

[Mistral]

mix your song to how you expect it to sound. play back some songs you know you like the sound of including all the EQ characteristics. then mix your song til you think it competes with those. your own playback system should always be as uncolored as possible, and you should play both your reference material and your own material back on as many different systems as possible just to make sure your mixing setup is not flawed. if the tune ends up sounding majorly different (worse) on other systems, chances are you are doing something wrong. Read up on the proper way to build a home studio and acoustic treating a room with no budget.. a bad room or bad monitoring setup will often be your enemy.

 

[NYMorningstar]

You should be trying to get your song to sound good on as many different systems as possible without them having to adjust to you.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

When i mix my songs, should i master it to include all the EQ levels so i wouldnt have to use eq when playing back on other systems? in other words, the song would sound just like i like it on any system by putting the system's EQ at a flat level. Or should i master the songs to sound pretty flat so people can have room to use their EQ to their liking on their systems when listening to my songs?

People with EQ's on their home systems are qoing to EQ your stuff not matter what you do to it. They are like people who automatically salt every food that's put in front of them even before they taste it. Some have good reasons in that they are trying to make up for bad rooms or bad loudspeakers or both. Most do it because they have tin ears and think that overboosted bass and overboosted treble sounds "awesome".

You can't worry about them. Just make your mixes to sound as good and as close to what you imagined them and let the public judge it for what it is and do with it what they will.

That said, you have to make sure you have an operation in place that insures your mixes soud the way you want them to on more than just your project studio system. Test your mixes on "real world" systems and make sure you're mixing to translate well to the real world and not just to sound good in your room.

Think of it this way. When Picasso or Warhol or Rembrandt painted their paintings, they didn't worry about what kind of room or what kind of light their painting would be viewed under and adjust the colors, brightness, etc. of their paintings to suit the viewer and viewing conditions. Today you will virtually never hear, "Hmmm, this won't look good under a florescent light, I'd better paint it different so it'll look good in Joe's garage."



G.

 

[slidey]

I have systems ranging from a CD/radio alarm, boom box, crap hifi all the way up to some damn good (I hesitate to say top line these days) studio monitors, I always find that a bog standard car stereo is a good test as well

& I tend to try & get it to sound right flat, but if it needs EQ then..............EQ IT

boing boing boing

byeeeeeeee