Totally lost

  • Thread starter Thread starter liquadia
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liquadia

liquadia

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Mastering mixing ugh. I have Senheiser headphones on at the moment and the sound coming from cubase 5 is great! Just finished writing a song for a game. sounds full, and nice channels are all mixed nicely with no effects what so ever.

Question is when i play this in the car! it doesnt sound nowhere near as good as it does on cubase 5 why?

People say add Parametric eqs and stuff but i added 1 and have ZERO clue on what to do with it, and to be honest reading these forums doesnt help! so much going on here and no where to start..

Anyone got any ideas how i should master my mix! I use plain straightforward VSTS with ZERO efffects it sounds great!

But when it hits the wav and plays back on my headphones also sounds great and I use cooledit pro to convert to mp3! stick it in the car and it doesnt sound as nice as it does on cubase 5.

Buddy of mine says once ur happy with the VSTS change all of the VSTS into wav format in cubase! i have no idea what he is on about

anyhow some help would be great!
 
Don't mix on headphones. Get decent monitors and put them in an acoustically decent space. Your mixes will translate better to other systems.

Judging your mix by an mp3 played on a car system isn't telling you much useful. Just encoding it to mp3 degrades the sound. Try playing a CD or other uncompressed format in the car.

No offense, but if you don't have the first clue how to use a parametric eq you have years of learning ahead before you can expect reliable results.
 
hmm i can learn very fast! believe me let me know what i have to do
 
You're not talking about mastering. You're talking about mixing.

Like Boulder said, mixing on headphones is not a good idea. You need good monitors in a good room and years of experience before you get decent mixes. I know that sounds discouraging, but it's the same as any other profession. Anyone can DO IT. But it takes lots of practice and experience to DO IT WELL.
 
ok i have a hi-fi would that be better than headphones?
 
Better than headphones but still not perfect.

The job of domestic hifis and headphones is to make music sound good. The job of proper studio monitors is to let you know what your music sounds like, warts and all.

Listening in a car adds another level of complexity to the situation. Cars are noisy places and anything subtle gets lost. Car stereos and MP3 players on the train are at least part of the reason for the "loudness wars" and over-compressed music with no dynamic range that is all too common. Even with great monitors, getting things to sound good in a noisy space like a car is a matter of compromise.

You mentioned that you mix is destined for use on a game, which implies compressed files via a TV or computer speakers (or maybe earbud headphones on something like a PSP) so this adds yet another layer.

Basically, yeah, you should be mixing on proper monitors but, even if you spend a bundle you have to learn to judge how the sound from these relates to all sorts of different playback systems. My best advice to you is to do your mix then listen on as many different systems as you can. Gradually you'll get to be able to judge how the "perfection" on your monitors and headphones relates to playback elsewhere.

Bob
 
liquadia said:
hmm i can learn very fast! believe me let me know what i have to do
Click to expand...

Read a lot, learn the terminology and some of the science behind acoustics and electronics. Then try a bunch of stuff. Insert all your plugins, one at a time, on a track and move the controls every which way just to hear what they do. Do this especially with eq as it will help you learn frequencies.
 
These guys aint jivin' you. I am just now getting to a point where I can hear what's really going on in mixes and I have been at it for roughly 7 years or so. It's like playing guitar. When you first start you gotta learn the scales and chords and picking techniques and could give a crap about how your guitar itself sounds. Then when you've been at it for a while you will start to notice that different pick-ups have different tones and different woods compliment different frequencies and such. Alot of newbies get gear obsessed and think that its just because they don't have a $100,000 budget to blow on gear but you'd be surprised how little you'll need as you get better. Basically spend 75% of your gear budget on monitors and listen mix repeat.
 
+10 to all of the above. I've NEVER been able to do a mix on headphones.
 
Liquidia ..... if your totally lost have you tried Hare Krishna? :D
 
I was in the same boat as OP...the advice in this thread is helping out quite a bit. Thanks all!
 
I thought I was getting decent mixes when I started in 2002, but listening now they are hideous. I thought I had mastered them pretty well too (L2 crushing the songs to the point they distort a bit in places, EQing the highs to the point where only dogs can hear them). 8 years later, they are better, but still not perfect.

It takes time, practice, commitment, ears, listening, practice, practice, practice...and a realistic expectation. Recording in your bedroom with guidance from a bunch of dorks on the internet, with gear your wife thinks is "within our budget", you shouldn't expect professional results for a while. That is not to say though that you can not get good results that you should be happy with and proud of. PRACTICE!!! Read up on here, try some of the tracking, mixing, mastering techniques you can get your hands on, and watch the results get better. PRACTICE!!!

Oh and get some real monitors!
 
Save all your mixes and craptastic mastering jobs. Then in three years, go back and listen to your first ones. You'll shake your head "what was I thinking?" I guarantee it.

I can do a fairly decent job of mixing. Mastering is still craptastic at this point. Ah, but like learning how to play an instrument it takes practice and dedication.

BTW, if you have a really good mixing job on a bunch of songs and want to sell them, pay the money for a pro mastering job, especially if this is your first foray. People use their first impressions. Home studios are fine, but if you have a shot go pro.
 
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