monitors vs laptop speakers - take a listen

M

mustardeer

New member
I'm so annoyed right now.
I recorded, sang and mixed this promo for a bar last night.
It sounded perfect on my DT 770 PRO headphones.
And on my Yamaha studio monitors. So I sent it out.
Then I head it on laptop speakers and I could barely hear the guitar, the vocals were kinda clipping or something and I couldn't hear the drums at all. WTF!

What's the point of these studio monitors if most will listen to it on laptop speakers anyway. How should I mix it in the future?? Can someone give me some feedback please I'm still new.

here's the promo:
http://vimeo.com/12936380
 
listened to it there,

to me the guitar is a little quiet,

the 'drums'?.. you could definitely miss them!!



it's one of those things.....


sure ,you need to know what sounds good, and how to get your mix there,

but you also need to know how that mix is gonna sound to the rest of the world...


people used to finish mixing, then run out to their cars with a cassette to 'check' it

some have a set of ns10s or hifi speakers for a final check in the studio

some people check it on their ipod or whatever....



for example, i've learned that my mackie 624s dont put out a lot of low frequencies.
this meant that whatever sounded good to me,basswise..was actually FAAAR too bass heavy on other systems.

so now i compensate for it without really thinking about it.

i suppose in the ideal world the monitors and the room's acoustics and stuff would be perfect, but we just make do :D:D:D



another thing worth noting,,,,,most laptop speakers are absolutely crap!!
how does other (commercial) music sound on your laptop?
 
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well, other music sounds like crap on laptop too but a well mixed crap.
I agree, I think the guitar needs to come up. Maybe the drums too.
The annoying thing is the reason I bought these yamahas is because everyone was raving about how accurate they were. Maybe I need to treat my room after all. The laptop is probably heavy on the mids and easy on the lows, so since the guitar track was a bit boomy it didn't come through on the laptop. Just a guess. But the difference is huge.
 
My laptop has "JBL SRS Premium Sound" speakers (lollerskates), and on almost any recording with loud bass, they buzz so much I'm afraid they might catch on fire. For some reason, electropop/rap/r&b recordings from about 2006 on sound just fine. Maybe engineers have begun to take powerful but crappy laptop bass into consideration when mixing/mastering.

I'm not sure which is worse, my old Macbook speakers, which had no discernible bass, or my new Dell speakers, which have buzzy, bothersome bass.

Oh, laptop speakers. How ye sucketh.
 
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i don't know what model your yamahas are but either way i'll admit,,,,they aren't going to be the best monitors in world.......BUT.....

to an extent, the best monitors in the world are the ones you know the best....


don't get all down the dumps about it so early....especially if they're pretty new to you...


everybody has to get to know their speakers and environment..and it does take time.

like anything, it's a learning curve and there's no magic gear that will instantly sound good.



the two things that are gona help you a lot (i think) are
1: mixing as much as you can, and listening to the mixes on a range of home systems. come back and make amendments, then see how they translate again.
2: listening to as much commercial music as possible on your monitors, to learn how professional mixes sound on them.


hope that's useful.
 
didnt read the replies so sorry if repeating the others but its your mix not your monitors...


you should have several playback systems to check your mix on...if your guitars are coming out way quieter on smaller speakers its because your guitars are too quiet period imo....


took me a while to realise that the monitors werent the end of my listening when it came to mixes, now they are more balanced on more systems
 
well generally I do like that low-fi sound but that was recorded with a

Neumann U87 (vocals) --> Apogee Ensemble --> Ableton Live --> and I went a little crazy with the plug ins.

The guitar was a 68 Gibson J50 miced with an AKG C414
Also miced a '53 Gretsch snare with a Shure SM7b.
My room is not treated though - so that might have something to do with it sounding crappy. In my humble opinion the recording is good the mixing is bad.
 
If the room is untreated and has something to do with it sounding crappy then the recording isn't good.
Listen on everything you can but rely on something you intimately know the bias of so that you can compensate accurately.
I don't use laptop speakers for anything. If I have to listen from a laptop I'll use h/phones or, preferably, a USB external soundcard/device to avoid the obvious bleeding or visa versa.
Where's the snare in the mix? Is that the thump in the background - it sounds a little like cassette tape revolution - must be that the snare is missing.
You're too close to the mic, too far from Tom Waites and too much on the duller bass strings of the guitar.
It's not the mix - it's the treatment or lack there of. Very little is clear and there's not much to make a balanced stereo image.
IF you want a lo fi '30's sound like Waites sometimes gets you need to try a few plug ins to help OR record to tape without the NR engaged.
Sing into a trad megaphone (not the electric ones) & use a bigger speace so that the room gives you a nice vibe rather than closet claustrophobia.
the song's not bad for a promo.
You've prpbably killed the thing off in conversion to what ever format you've used.
 
snare?


is it just me people?

i hear a 'kick' that kinda sounds like a heartbeat,

and a handful of times, i hear a noise that might, just might be a snare breakin through a badly used gate?
either that or a very snappy hit, played/mixed very very quietly?


don't get me wrong, i'm not here to poke fun. in fact,,,i kinda like this wee promo clip...it's quirky :)

you definitely need to sort out the sound of the percussion tho, in my opinion.
 
hmmmm i listened to it about 6 times bofore posting this...on decent genelec monitors and well i just dunno....not really working for me

guitar sounds ok... a little muddy i guess.... vox sound is ok for "that" sound you are going for... i know youre not going for a really "singy" style but the vox were just a bit to far off for me, to the point where it didnt feel like some nice character but just sloppy and out of tune.... slurry as well....if it wasnt for the lyrics on the screen i wouldnt have a clue what you were singing...

drums? not really.... if you didnt tell me they were there i pretty much wouldnt know... all i do is point a mic at a snare drum and hit record and it magically records crisp and clear... and my room is just a far from untreated attic room with lots of nasty corners and slopes.... the room doesnt really matter too much for me though as i like to close mic everything

I dont want to come accross as offensive but you have asked for feedback.... i think youre main problem is the recording and performance ...long before you start mixing
 
To be honest, it didn't sound very good on my monitors, either set.

So I pulled out my msi-wind "netbook" and gave it a listen, didn't sound very good there either.

I think for the reasons others have mentioned already, it's simply not a good mix to begin with and what you play it on won't change that result.

Felix, my cat, agreed by leaving the room in a snit with her tail fluffed.
 
Start over. Make sure you have a sonic model of what you're trying to accomplish. Find a recording that has the sound and make that your target.

The guitar is a mess frequency-wise. Not near enough definition >5k and way too much mud < 500k.
There was a snare in that?
Same problems.

I understand what you're going for here, but it's as if the entire mix is encased in thick syrup...there's just very little definition of any events.
I can't speculate on your room, but at what volume are you mixing? If you're mixing at high volumes, nearly everything sounds more distinct with volume until distortion sets in. I'm betting if you'd mixed this at lower levels, the mud would be much, much more apparent.

Great concept, and I like the slide show. But, you need a target to focus on. Find one.

As others have stated, keep a crappy boom box in your studio for a real world lab. Good luck.
 
If I figured out how to post dry tracks would someone be willing to mix them?
I promise raw tracks sound completely different from that video.

The snare was wrapped in a blanket, the "kick" is my leather shoe hitting a rug close miked by another AKG C414.

I'm really curious how a pro would mix this.
There's some good advice here.
And some hating of course :)
 
okay, I'll put it up.
As far as guitar goes, I don't like the tone of the 12th fret technique. So I miked it a few inches to the left of the bridge (away from the sound hole) I like a very "woody" sound, the low end can probably be eq'd out, i'm sure you'll find a solution..
 
awww come on :( it's obviously not meant to be a conventionally recorded commercial track...

it's nice to experiment,,,it's how we learn....and honestly? sure it's needs mixing guidance, but i liked the idea, and the sound,,,for it's intended purpose...


man,,,if your shoe and a rug is what does it for ya,,,,,,go nuts :):):):):)
 
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