Wish i could mix in my car...

[ambi]

Don't any of you ever wish you could mix in your car? I've read it being discussed before that music always sounds best in your car. Something to do with the accoustics, and how there are so many odd shaped angles, and the seats act as bass traps, etc.. I know exactly how things should sound in my car. If i could mix in my car i could get my mixes way better! Can't i just drag my computer in there and some how wire it into the cd deck?

Anyone else find this?

 

[Track Rat]

I've thought about it too. But with CD-Rs so cheap now, I burn a mix, run out to my van to listen, go back and remix, burn another CD-R, run back to the van for a listen....

 

[Light]

The other issue with cars is that they (usually) have sealed (or infinite baffle) speaker enclosures. While infinite baffle enclosures are very inefficient (they have less than 50% efficiency), they are usually considered to be the best sounding enclosures.

Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[acidrock]

I do the same thing as track rat.I have some low end Hafler monitors so before I get to commited to a mix I make sure and listen to it on every stereo at my disposal,including boom boxes.I have a sedan and a truck and the sound varies between the two.I just keep on tweaking until I find a fairly happy middle ground.

 

[Camphead]

How about a laptop with one of those 1/4 inch to cassette tape adapters used for discman players? Might not be the best sound but at least you could make some changes.

Let me know if it works.

-Scott

 

[Robert D]

I don't know if I'd want to mix there, but it sure is where I check my mixes. I often burn a CD in the middle of the night, grab it out of the burner, grab a music appreciation device, and head out to my listening room in the driveway. It would look pretty strange to the neighbors, if I had any.
RD

 

[ambi]

I burn cds and take them in there as well, but if i could just do some tweaking in there in REAL time, i'm sure i could make a lot more improvements.

 

[scottboyher]

I've thought about it too. But with CD-Rs so cheap now, I burn a mix, run out to my van to listen, go back and remix, burn another CD-R, run back to the van for a listen....

HHAA sounds like we all do that.. Bet the neighbors wonder why I run out of the house at 11pm and get in my car by myself and turn up my stereo... Then I go back in and then back out.... What the!

 

[c9-2001]

a friend of mine has mixed in his car before... in his garage.. he hooked up his mbox to the dvd input on his alpine indash tv... had his laptop with him and mixed in car.. it sounded good in the car, but not in the studio..bad pans,eq's, to much compression..

 

[camn]

you could get an old car... put it in your house... and build in a mixing booth with good speakers....flat amps, and cupholders.

xoxo

 

[Bigus Dickus]

Wait... music is supposed to sound best in your car? You mean even with the horribly sub-optimal speaker placements, near impossible to acheive true centered stereo field, inadequate power supply unless you have a farad or more of capacitors, and not nearly enough air volume in the listening environment? That's assuming the car is sitting in your driveway turned off, otherwise there's the road and wind noise, abundant sources of EMI and RFI, etc.

Just trying to insert a bit of reality here before everyone starts installing mixerboards where their dashboards used to be! Cars can sound pretty damn good, but of all the mega-thousands of dollar car audio systems I've heard, none can hold a candle to a good pair of audiophile speakers and complementary electronics.

 

[Ethan Winer]

ambi,

> Something to do with the accoustics, and how there are so many odd shaped angles, and the seats act as bass traps, etc.. <

The real reason is that a car has thin walls and bass frequencies pass right through them. In a room, low frequency waves bounce off the walls, floor, and ceiling, and create standing waves in the room giving a very skewed low end frequency response.

So it's not that the car seats acts as a bass trap. Rather, the walls do the same thing as a "trap" by not reflecting the waves back into the car's interior.

--Ethan

 

[Robert D]

Just trying to insert a bit of reality here before everyone starts installing mixerboards where their dashboards used to be! Cars can sound pretty damn good, but of all the mega-thousands of dollar car audio systems I've heard, none can hold a candle to a good pair of audiophile speakers and complementary electronics.

Agreed, but the car is also where a lot of music consumers do the largest percentage of their listening, so I think it's the ultimate set of auritones, and a hell of a lot better sounding in most cases. I also think it's important to actually drive the thing while you check mixes. I'm not sure what kind of weighting to give this factor, but road noise changes everything in terms of low level stuff and overall dynamics. I love a truely dynamic recording in a nice quiet listening environment, but it's annoying in most cars, and makes you reach for the volume control to hear one part, and then turn it down in the next. Does anyone consider this factor?
RD

 

[Track Rat]

Also Bigus, when I check a mix in a car it's for the ratio of drums to bass to guitar to vocal. Not the nuances of the mix that can only be appriciated on a great set of speakers.

 

[ambi]

We'll i guess i didn't elaborate really well. For me i know how a kick should sound on the speakers in my car. I know how the bass should sound. I know if the high's are too harsh, etc.. There are certain thing's in my car i can hear that i can't at home. So i if i could just tweak the eq on certain things, maybe some levels i could improve my mixes. But i agree not ALL mixing should be done with that. With compression and most other things i'm sure it would be impossible to judge. But if you've already mixed it at home and there are things you could tweak it would be nice.

And the thing about the seats acting as bass traps or whatever. Someone on this board posted that before in a discussion. It seemed to make sense so i said it. BUT i only thought it was something to do with that, and i wasn't sure. So thanks for clearing up my misunderstanding.

 

[Middleman]

You just gave me a great idea...

Put my LCD monitor on an extension to the garage along with my mouse and keyboard. Sit in the car and do my mixes!

Or not....

 

[c9-2001]

the stereo system that he has (which i installed) is top quality stuff.. worth close to $10,000, but he has eq's set in the far already so that could have been one reason it sounded like ass.. cuz he's trying to eq with the mbox/ptle and the speakers in the car are eq'd to sound great already...

who knows.. i mixed the song for him and it sounds so good..gotta love focal speakers.
i wish i had $10g's to blow on a stereo system

 

[Cyrokk]

I think too that everyone is used to the sound of music in their cars.. Does it ever occur to you that when you are driving, you are typically closer to the left speakers? Probably not. Still, you can't do objective panning if you aren't between both speakers. Also, your listening is a bit skewed if all the bass is in the woofers in the back.

Still, I too use my car as a benchmark for basic mixes, and I usually listen while driving, even though the road noise masks some frequencies as was mentioned before. I'd actually like to try recording vocals in my car someday.. there seems to be a really good natural reverb bouncing off the front windshield of sedans.

Cy

 

[James Argo]

CAR WILL SOUND BEST MUSIC MIXED IN STUDIO.




Mixed ( and mastered) in studio, listen in the car.


James

 

[flatrockrecordin]

Wasn't this idea the basis behind Aurotone monitors? Maybe someone could design or knows of a design for some simple boxes for a pair of 6 1/2s or 6x9s that actually sound good. One can never have enough sets of speakers to spot check a mix on.