If you are putting together something that you want others to hear and enjoy, you want them to hear it how you are hearing it. This is made complicated through knowing that these others will be listening through a variety of devices of varying quality and characteristics. Trying to second-guess the gear your listener will be using is pointless.
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Top end studios invest heavily in acoustics to ensure the sonic neutrality of their systems. This is the way they can produce music that translates well on a wide variety of playback systems. That is what home recordists can aim to emulate if they wish to do the same.
Do you think in the early days of home stereo systems, they had this debate too?
"99% of our fans are listening on cheap, mono system. We should mix for them!"
Or other major sea changes in listening technology?
"People are mostly listening in their cars on FM radio, we should mix it in an inconsistent, noisy environment with lots of compression!"
"Kids these days are listening to music on their phonographs, make sure to arrange your symphony so that the highs and lows aren't that important"
So one should mix that way. Not as Miro said earlier, "mix for the lowest common denominator"
That would just be dumb.
Of course, I know you know that I was not actually saying people *should* mix that way......just commenting that it's what some people seem to want to do,
Simples. If you mix on decent monitors in a room with good acoustics, the finished product should sound good on any system. If you mix on earbuds you can get things sounding fine there but they will likely show problems on other types of headphone, car speakers, etc. etc.
Simples. If you mix on decent monitors in a room with good acoustics, the finished product should sound good on any system. If you mix on earbuds you can get things sounding fine there but they will likely show problems on other types of headphone, car speakers, etc. etc.
My point is this. I believe that true music fans realize the limitations of cheap format listening devices and compensate.
I don't agree.I'd argue that if you're trying to target "true music fans" at any point in your process, you've already failed. You're usually going to get the best results by creating to the best of your abilities and targeting almost everyone.
I think we might be saying similar things from different perspectives.
To me, targeting true music fans means that you only listen to your mix on high-end systems because you don't care what casual listeners thing.
Targeting everyone means trying to get it sound good on every system with the awareness that most people will listen on pretty cheap systems. Sometimes, this may even mean compromising the high-end sound.
I think we might be saying similar things from different perspectives.
To me, targeting true music fans means that you only listen to your mix on high-end systems because you don't care what casual listeners thing.
Targeting everyone means trying to get it sound good on every system with the awareness that most people will listen on pretty cheap systems. Sometimes, this may even mean compromising the high-end sound.
Do you think in the early days of home stereo systems, they had this debate too?
"99% of our fans are listening on cheap, mono system. We should mix for them!"
Or other major sea changes in listening technology?
"People are mostly listening in their cars on FM radio, we should mix it in an inconsistent, noisy environment with lots of compression!"
"Kids these days are listening to music on their phonographs, make sure to arrange your symphony so that the highs and lows aren't that important"