Jul 13, 2003 06:54 am what aspect of the songs sound weak...the vocals, the guitars, drums or what?
i notice that you're doing punky stuff, so i guess a strong mix is kinda crucial!
my songs sound great in my studio but muddy in the car or sterio
Posted on Jul 12, 2003 08:53 pm
DONE211
Member Since: Dec 05, 2002
K I usually use samplitude 7 or cubase sx to make waves.wavelab or sound forge em to clean and spice em up, t-racks to get em hot.everything back to forge or waves to make 16bit,evrything usually sounds full clear and hot on my m1 studiophile monitors,burn a cd and it sounds muddy in the car.weak in the boom box,or just bad on mp3.com
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Jul 13, 2003 06:54 am what aspect of the songs sound weak...the vocals, the guitars, drums or what?
i notice that you're doing punky stuff, so i guess a strong mix is kinda crucial!
Jul 13, 2003 10:56 am take that "muddy" mix and play it back *thru your studiophile monitors*. That way you can at least rule out the monitors.
i'm curious what sounds weak, the bass, or too much mids or what?
Jul 13, 2003 11:04 am I would guess that the room you mix in is not tuned very well, leaving you a bad mixing environment...therefore, what sounds good in there sound bad anywhere else.
It is very important to have a decent, relatively flat tuned room to mix in. It is also important to have a couple pairs of speakers in which to listen through. If your mixing room is pretty reflective and booms bass you will turn it down to "get a good mix" consequently in any other place it will sound thin and bassless. If your room emphasizes the highs you will turn those down or the bass up and get a muddy, thick sound everywhere else.
In the Do It Yourself section of the Recording Tips I have some articles about building your own studio, and part of the series of article is about tuning a room, maybe you should read those and then take a look at your room, you may look at it in a whole new way.
Jul 13, 2003 02:45 pm thanks for the feedbacks boys, specificlly the bass that is full and solid in my house is breakin apart in the car.the middlepickup guitar sound i use plays back with too much high in the car.if I t-rack or voxengo the whole thin at the end it clips in the car, so I dont smash it as much and find the result not as hot as Id like. in summery I suspect it may be my environment.this sound like a most logical assumption (thankx mr db)Im in a double wide on the beach so major remodeling may be impractal, i love my monitors but perhaps its time to get a set of lames or a boom box with aux in to audition.if only 32bit car sterios were the standard...thankx again gentlemen.I appriaciate input advice and criticism
Jul 13, 2003 03:35 pm Well remodeling isn't necessary...necessarily...you could consider just redecorating, such as getting some soft, suchy chairs in the room, hanging some heavy quilts on the wall, putting bookshelves or chair diagonally in the corner to stop the bass from being over emphasized by the corners of the room (which is VERY common). I dunno what you doublewide walls are, but if they are the typical thin panelling, maybe consider some good, solid sheetrock.
More expensive and effective options are some studio sound foam, for corners this Auralex stuff kicks butt service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear also, on the cheaper side is a box of Auralex Wedgies service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear and lastly, the Auralex "Roominator is a good collection of various types and shapes of foam service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear which is a little more expensive but very effective. All of these pieces are specifically designed for sound control, and work VERY well. As always, ya get what you pay for. However, heavy quilts and thick material wall hangings (ya know, like the dogs playing card and those type of things) can have a dramtic effect on the environment. But don't dampen everything, basic rule of thumb is to have half the walls reflective (solid, hard surfaces) and half absorping surfaces (soft, cushy stuff) for walls that run parallel have one reflect and one absorb. And never forget to put some interferance in the corners to keep those bass waves from bouncing and exaggerating themselves.
Jul 16, 2003 08:22 am All good stuff. Many of the "best" or most "known" production studios do exactly what you are doing. Mix in the studio and then take the CD and drive around with it for a while, listen to it for a bit via a boom box etc. Some studios will have multiple speaker set ups to emulate a car stereo, boom box etc. It is a real challange to get a mix that performs well on every player. I know one mastering house that masters for high end equipment only, e.g. "fine" home stereo equipment. Their mixes often are poor in the car depending on the quality of the audio system. You got the process down. Now follow through as you are.
This is where the fun is!
Jul 16, 2003 09:34 am I had similar problems. So I got hold of a speaker switch box from the local radio store. I have rigged up three alternative sets of speakers - A good sett of hifi speakers, a poor set of hifi speakers and a cheepo set of very poor quality lo-fi computer speakers.
When mixing I listen to the 'final' mix on all three prior to burning the mix to CD. The most useful speakers are the lo-fi computer ones, because you can instantly spot something obvious like the vocal being too low, or too much bass etc, which you often miss on the top quality speakers.
I have also rigged up a pair of speakers in the neighbouring room (the kitchen) by taking wires out under the floor boards. So at the flick of a switch I can also listen to the mix in an alternative setting.
I think its important to remember that people do not on the whole listen to (your) music on top quality speakers, they will be listening in the car, or walkman or cheap hifi speakers, etc, so you should mix with this in mind.
It could also be a case that you are listening to pro music on the car radio then playing your own music and comparing the two. The pro music has been mastered.
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