Mix Frustrations

  • Thread starter Thread starter BigEZ
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BigEZ

The Devil Has Blue Eyes
So I get my mix all good in my home studio. Then I transfer to cd and play it in my car and it sounds like GARBAGE!!! I mean it's tinny, muddy and the vocal frequency truly hurts my ears. Any ideas what is happening here?

I am using Sonar x1 producer. I have Yamaha hs50m monitors. Any ideas?

ROK
 
Do you have access to a Frequency Spectrum Analyzer?

The Yamaha speakers are more likely to tell you the sonic truth than the car speakers, but there other ways to "test" your mix, I would not say for sure, that because something sounds like garbage in the car, that it truly is crap.

Can you post it for download somewhere? I can look at it with my analyzer if you want.
 
are you mixing down to mp3 if you burn the cd and playback in your monitors how does it sound?
 
What's your room like?? Your room is the single most important aspect of your monitoring environment. If it's not treated to yield a balanced acoustic response to your monitors, you're not going to get a great mix. This is because you are not hearing your mix properly. Without treatment to flatten the frequency repsonse of your room, it will have peaks and valleys across the audio sprectrum. Mostly in the lower freq's which are harder to control.

So, with a poor monitoring environment, you're going to adjust your mix so it will sound great in studio, but the adjustments are only compensating for a poor room. It will sound horrible on any other sound system.

There are tons of topics about room treatment in the Studio Build section of this site. Go browse through the threads and maybe go back a year or two.

have fun,
 
Thank you all for your responses.

Mewsician2, unfortunately I do not have a spectrum analyzer. Any ideas of a website where I can upload something for a temporary amount of time? And thanks for offering to help

One guy, the mp3 seems to sound fine thru my monitors with the exception of my acoustic guitar sounding warbled. I used the Channel Tools plug-in to widen the track hard right and left and never heard this in Sonar. But when I mix down to mp3 it almost sounds like the track has a really bad tremolo. So I panned 50 right and 50 left and this seemed to fix the issue.

Chili, I built acoustic panels from Owens Corning 703 and burlap to deal with first reflection. I also have bass traps in the corners. It's a very small room in my basement. Perhaps 8x8.

If only I could transfer my car stereo to the basement as its the stereo I am most used to hearing music thru.
 
Any ideas of a website where I can upload something for a temporary amount of time? And thanks for offering to help
Click to expand...

Try Soundcloud, or Soundclick for hosting, there are a lot of 'em, but I use Soundclick, it's free, and very easy to use.

Audacity has a spectrum analyzer; http://audacity.freewarevault.net/
 
RokZtaR said:
Mewsician2, unfortunately I do not have a spectrum analyzer. Any ideas of a website where I can upload something for a temporary amount of time? And thanks for offering to help
Click to expand...

Voxengo has a free sprectrum analyzer called Span

Real-time audio spectrum analyzer plugin (AU, VST) - SPAN - Voxengo

Chili, I built acoustic panels from Owens Corning 703 and burlap to deal with first reflection. I also have bass traps in the corners. It's a very small room in my basement. Perhaps 8x8.

If only I could transfer my car stereo to the basement as its the stereo I am most used to hearing music thru.
Click to expand...

Ah, good to hear about the bass traps. My room isn't much bigger than yours and I have about 14 panels in it. Small rooms need more, I think.

So, now you just need to work on "translation"; getting your mixes to translate from one sound system to another. This is a matter of teaching your ears; it takes practice and trial and error. Take a cd of your mix to the car, a home stereo, boombox, etc. Copy to mp3 for your ipod, laptop, etc... Take notes and learn what changes you are always making.

Listen to commercially released tunes, similar to what you're recording, on your studio monitors. Listen to them on other sound systems, too. Learn how they change from one box to another. It's all about teaching your ears. I don't think any sprectrum analyzer is going to help. You have to use your ears and not your eyes.

Good luck and have fun,
 
Will do. One last question...when I transfer to another source the vocals always make my ears pop. Any idea what they're missing? I.e. Mids, highs, etc.?
 
RokZtaR said:
Will do. One last question...when I transfer to another source the vocals always make my ears pop. Any idea what they're missing? I.e. Mids, highs, etc.?
Click to expand...

I seriously recommend that you post your songs in the MP3 Clinic for comments and critiques. It's near the top of the page when you click on the forum button above. Find a site to host your song and provide a link to it. Not sure if the mp3 upload feature is working anymore, it's been buggy.

To increase your chances of getting critiques on your mix, be sure to comment on other submissions. What goes around, comes around... kind of thing.

peace,
 
Chili said:
To increase your chances of getting critiques on your mix, be sure to comment on other submissions. What goes around, comes around... kind of thing.
Click to expand...

What Chili says ^^^^

But importantly, by listening to other material in the MP3 clinic, you will be listening to stuff recorded by people in similar circumstances and with similar equipment to you. You will get an idea of what is achievable, and maybe something to aim for.
 
RokZtaR said:
If only I could transfer my car stereo to the basement as its the stereo I am most used to hearing music thru.
Click to expand...

:D

I read a recent interview (Tape Op #82) with Jack White (White Stripes/Raconteurs) how he has an FM transmitter in his studio so he can actually transmit music to his car stereo outside in the parking lot. He then uses walkie-talkies to communicate with his engineer in the studio...that way he can sit in the car and listen in real-time while his engineer tweaks the mix based on what White is hearing and relating back to him.

:laughings:

I mean...it's a cool thing to mess with...but then, what's the point of a studio if you want to use your car as your "optimal" monitoring space???
A car stereo system...IMHO...totally sucks ass, and that goes even for the better cars.
You got L/R and Front/Back balance shit, and the EQ is directly influenced by the car chassis and seats, doors.

I understand wanting your mix to sound good in the car...but if you get it right in the studio, it WILL be right in the car (or as good as the car system is).
 
I find that the car stereo is a more common denominator to what most amateur listeners are actually listening to. Most stock car stereos sound like utter crap, though, well produced recordings seem to always sound near to ok. Badly mixed recordings on a system like this that one is used to, seem to show their weaknesses very quickly.
 
I just posted the mix on the mp3 mixing clinic. Hopefully I can get some insight as to all the areas I've gone wrong. Thx for all the responses.

ROK
 
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