My mix is hungry

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BLP

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I'm tending to have a problem that I can not solve at the moment. I can get great mixes using some decent AKG headphones. The mix sounds GREAT in the headphones, but when I take it to the car, it's not the same.

I feel like when I switch from my mix to another cd or radio their songs are more "up in the air" "full". Mine seem like it's at a lower level of listening. Not in volume but in position, if that makes sense.

I use Adobe Audition 3 and they have these "mastering" plugins that I tried to use but they left my mix ugly.

What should I be looking into learning to get that "lifted, full" sound you hear in professional recordings?
 
BLP said:
I'm tending to have a problem that I can not solve at the moment. I can get great mixes using some decent AKG headphones. The mix sounds GREAT in the headphones, but when I take it to the car, it's not the same.
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can you plug your headphones into your car stereo? i bet the mix would be equally great at that point. if not, i'm not really sure why your mix sounds great when two 1/2" speakers are pressed tightly to your eardrums yet sounds bad when you're listening to it on real speakers, in a room, with walls and other objects for the sound to reflect off of.

BLP said:
I feel like when I switch from my mix to another cd or radio their songs are more "up in the air" "full". Mine seem like it's at a lower level of listening. Not in volume but in position, if that makes sense.
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it doesn't to me, but i'm not a huge fan of describing sound with words like warm, colored, milky, creamy, fizzy, etc... there are people that are though, maybe one of them can help.
 
First of, stop mixing on headphones and get yer self a pair of decent monitors.:)
 
Using monitors would be a big help. Another thing is to try mixing songs to sound similar to another song.
 
i should probably go get a large cup of the best coffee i can find on this campus.
 
Ok I was using headphones because at this point I only have 2 dell speakers and a dell subwoofer on the ground. I figured I could get a better mix from the headphones but I'm assuming that was a horrible idea.

I'm looking into investing in some Wharfedales 8.2's or Rokit 5's. I think I'm going for the Wharfedales.


I'm new to this site and looks like a great amount of info around here I guess I'll go search around and never ask a dumb question again.
 
BLP said:
Ok I was using headphones because at this point I only have 2 dell speakers and a dell subwoofer on the ground. I figured I could get a better mix from the headphones but I'm assuming that was a horrible idea.

I'm looking into investing in some Wharfedales 8.2's or Rokit 5's. I think I'm going for the Wharfedales.


I'm new to this site and looks like a great amount of info around here I guess I'll go search around and never ask a dumb question again.
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it's not a dumb question if you've searched a bit and can't find an answer. ;)
 
mix on as many different systems as possible imo...I used monitors headphones, mp3 player, pc speakers and try to get a balance...

remember your monitors will pick up on things that nothing else will, and the same for your headphones, so its a balance between them all...as you get more experienced you'll know just be listening on one system how your song will sound on everything but at first there has to be a trade off I think until you reach that level of experience

i can mix just as well on my headphones as my monitors now...but thats not too high a level of mixing expertise anyway :D
 
Yes, this is true. I go from speakers to headphones. Unfortunately I've never used studio monitors. Now I'm not saying everyone of my mixes turns out bad I have came up with some really good mixes that sound good in car and club environment many times but i just can't comprehend why sometimes it sounds low in listening position. Like at the bottom of the sound system.


I know if I can hear it in it's true form I can mix it better.


And yes, I just been searching all over these forums on topics I've been wondering for a long time.
 
BLP said:
I'm tending to have a problem that I can not solve at the moment. I can get great mixes using some decent AKG headphones. The mix sounds GREAT in the headphones, but when I take it to the car, it's not the same.

I feel like when I switch from my mix to another cd or radio their songs are more "up in the air" "full". Mine seem like it's at a lower level of listening. Not in volume but in position, if that makes sense.
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Which AKG headphones? I have a pair of K240s headphones, and my mixes certainly tend to come out bass heavy on them. I also catch myself EQing out too much in the 2000 - 4000 Hz region.

If you've got the same headphones, that would make a ton of sense.
 
BLP said:
My mix is hungry
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Hmmmm...anybody here know anybody who is fluent in food analogies? ;) :D

BLP, I honestly have no idea what you mean when you say your mix is "at a lower level of listening. Not in volume but in position". I suspect that you may be wondering why your mix actually has some natural dynamics in it instead of being slammed against a brick wall like most of today's commercial mixes, but that's only a guess playing the percentages.

If your only real choice is those headphones, then I suggest that you try to adjust your mixing not so that it sounds best in the headphones, but rather so that they sound less than ideal in your headphones, but in a way where you know it''l sound better in the real world. You may have limited success, but it's better than what you have now. You may also find that maybe (only maybe) you can actually make such a "translation" better by comparing your headphone mix to how it sounds on your Dell PC speakers. It's certainly faster and easier than having to run out to your car every five minutes ;).

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Hmmmm...anybody here know anybody who is fluent in food analogies? ;) :D

What he wants to hear is a Chicken parmesan dinner from the Olive garden.
But what he's getting is a dried out chicken chunk with tomato sauce over Top Ramen noodles.
The Olive garden uses a lot of salt sugar and oil. It has a strong flavorful taste from the first bite.
The mixes you hear from cd's have music recorded with highly accurate mics picking up signals from expensive (usually tube) amps and then sent through high dollar preamps and finalized by well trained engineers.

The problem usually lies within the initial recorded tracks. If frequencies are missing, it is very difficult to tweak them out after the fact.
Monitoring is also crucial. You simply must get some decent monitors as a cross reference. You can go back and forth between the two and teach yourself what the headphone sound is lacking or accentuating.

good luck
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SouthSIDE Glen said:
Hmmmm...anybody here know anybody who is fluent in food analogies? ;) :D
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matttheaxe said:
What he wants to hear is a Chicken parmesan dinner from the Olive garden.
But what he's getting is a dried out chicken chunk with tomato sauce over Top Ramen noodles.
The Olive garden uses a lot of salt sugar and oil. It has a strong flavorful taste from the first bite.
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It was midnight in December, one October last July.....
 
noisewreck said:
Which AKG headphones? I have a pair of K240s headphones, and my mixes certainly tend to come out bass heavy on them. I also catch myself EQing out too much in the 2000 - 4000 Hz region.

If you've got the same headphones, that would make a ton of sense.
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Yep, the K240S


guitar center employee told me they would be "great for mixing" lol
 
BLP said:
What should I be looking into learning to get that "lifted, full" sound you hear in professional recordings?
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Listening. Almost the only learning we have to do is learning to listen. With well-recorded tracks, you can get full professional results with faders, panning, and the most basic EQ, dynamics, and delay/verb.

The only difference is how well a person can listen and adjust.






...And you can't do it on headphones for a whole list of reasons. Save $1500 for speakers and room treatment. Then the listening can begin.
 
and thats why the winner of the last mix contest here did it with cheapo speakers and an untreated room?




the best thing is to learn what you're meant to be listening for not shelling out $1500 on anything
 
If you knock yourself out and spend years in frustration...yes you can learn some work-around in a bad environment.

If you don't have a spare 6 years lying around, spend the money and do it right.
 
Chibi Nappa said:
If you knock yourself out and spend years in frustration...yes you can learn some work-around in a bad environment.

If you don't have a spare 6 years lying around, spend the money and do it right.
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i have more time than money.
 
ez_willis said:
i have more time than money.
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Seriously? Spend 14 days of free time doing overtime work to get the money instead of spending over a thousand days inching forward towards a semi-functional understanding of sound because you don't have accurate sound to work with.
 
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