« previous next »
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: Mixing for crappy speakers  (Read 8142 times)

Element Zero

  • Subsonic
  • Posts: 2
  • Honor: 0
    • element-zero-2
    • View Profile
Mixing for crappy speakers
« on: February 15, 2016, 06:32:10 pm »
A necessary evil I know but I'm having trouble getting my mixes to sound good on laptop and phone speakers. Particularly not being able to hear the bass at all and top end distortion/clipping.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in Advance.
Logged

Marrow Machines

  • Mid
  • ***
  • Posts: 788
  • Honor: 101
  • Electronic Music
    • marrow-machines
    • MarrowMachines
    • View Profile
Re: Mixing for crappy speakers
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2016, 09:53:41 pm »
Turn your volume down, might solve the distortion/clipping

Those speakers aren't meant to have the same capacity to replicate lower frequencies, but you should be able to hear the audible bass with in that spectrum pretty easily.

That being said, you might want to consider how you're staging the volume in relation to the frequencies each element in your track represents.
Logged
Josh Huval: Honestly, the guys who are making good art are spending their time making it.

Artless Venture

  • Sub Bass
  • *
  • Posts: 33
  • Honor: 8
  • ♢
    • artlessventure
    • artlessventure
    • View Profile
    • Facebook
Re: Mixing for crappy speakers
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2016, 09:57:10 am »
Hey Element Zero,

I wouldn't worry about getting your mixes to sound good especially on small speakers but instead just continue to improve your mix on your monitors which is the reference. Mixes that sound great on a high end set up with linear frequency response and all that tend to sound good on small speakers too. There is of course music that does not, like super high fidelity acoustic stuff but in general I'd say a good mix sounds good on various speakers.

The most crucial thing I've learned is to have monitors and an acoustic treated environment that represents truly what is in the mix. Otherwise you are just fiddling around and everything sounds different on different systems all the time.

Hope I could help!
Artless Venture ♢
Logged

baircave

  • Sub Bass
  • *
  • Posts: 27
  • Honor: 5
  • play me in smash 4 :)
    • baircave
    • baircave
    • View Profile
    • baircave
Re: Mixing for crappy speakers
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2016, 01:07:54 pm »
Well this is one of the conundrums for a mixing engineer--you can obviously mix a track to sound amazing on a specific system but is it really worth the song sounding off on other systems?

Obviously, due to the constraints of specific types of speakers your song will sound very strange if yo, for instance, try to get bass out of small laptop speakers. By boosting the low end you're missing you will get a CRAZY bassy mix when you switch over to something like a pair of Beats. (Not to mention there are frequencies that just can't be replicated on speakers that small). Like Artless Venture said, you have to trust your monitors and get the mix as perfect as you can there and it will hopefully translate to other systems.

Not sure about the high-end distortion? That sounds like it might be a playback issue or a mix imbalance or something
Logged

Atherton

  • Subsonic
  • Posts: 7
  • Honor: 0
    • AthertonOfficial
    • iwenttoatherton
    • View Profile
    • Atherton Music
Re: Mixing for crappy speakers
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2016, 12:11:59 pm »
I went to Icon Collective right as Jauz was starting to blow up and I saw the dude producing on apple headphones all the time, and I know for a fact he did most of his mixing down on either apple headphones or his laptop speakers. Most of the people that are going to be listening to your music are either going to be listening to it on apple headphones or their laptop speakers anyways. Think about it. If your shit is bangin through laptop speakers and apple headphones, chances are it is going to sound pretty good on monitors. Just listen to your mix on as many different speakers as possible. I always listen to my music on my rokits, my laptop speakers, my apple headphones, AND my car stereo system. If it sounds good on all of them, that's when I know I'm set. trust me you don't need fancy studio monitors to get a clean mix down. When it comes to your low end, that's when a nice set of speakers come in handy, but if your car has a sub woofer and you know it pretty well you can definitely get by on just listening to your low end in your car
« Last Edit: February 17, 2016, 12:15:01 pm by Atherton »
Logged

Gabe D

  • Sub Bass
  • *
  • Posts: 100
  • Honor: 19
    • https://soundcloud.com/gabe_d
    • https://twitter.com/Gabe_D_Music
    • View Profile
Re: Mixing for crappy speakers
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2016, 07:10:27 pm »
Quote from: Atherton on February 17, 2016, 12:11:59 pm
I went to Icon Collective right as Jauz was starting to blow up and I saw the dude producing on apple headphones all the time, and I know for a fact he did most of his mixing down on either apple headphones or his laptop speakers. Most of the people that are going to be listening to your music are either going to be listening to it on apple headphones or their laptop speakers anyways. Think about it. If your shit is bangin through laptop speakers and apple headphones, chances are it is going to sound pretty good on monitors. Just listen to your mix on as many different speakers as possible. I always listen to my music on my rokits, my laptop speakers, my apple headphones, AND my car stereo system. If it sounds good on all of them, that's when I know I'm set. trust me you don't need fancy studio monitors to get a clean mix down. When it comes to your low end, that's when a nice set of speakers come in handy, but if your car has a sub woofer and you know it pretty well you can definitely get by on just listening to your low end in your car

I went to an ableton class last night and Sage Armstrong was the producer/dj. He also does this. He said the exact same thing. So he will use his laptop speakers and see if he can get the bass sounding good on that because it will sound better on good speakers.

And the listen to it on different speakers is a great tip. It should sound good on all systems.
Logged
Ableton Live 9, Tascam US4x4 Audio Interface, Akai APC Key 25, JBL LSR305s, & Pioneer HRM-07s

Element Zero

  • Subsonic
  • Posts: 2
  • Honor: 0
    • element-zero-2
    • View Profile
Re: Mixing for crappy speakers
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2016, 12:33:19 am »
thank you all. very insightful. 
Logged

Heatcliff

  • Sub Bass
  • *
  • Posts: 45
  • Honor: 6
    • heatcliffmusic
    • heatcliffmusic
    • View Profile
    • Artist Homepage
Re: Mixing for crappy speakers
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2016, 02:56:10 pm »
Try Auratone cubes! (Or even one for mono only). Gives u a very "real life situation" feeling and they are cheap as well!
Logged

bryan

  • Sub Bass
  • *
  • Posts: 142
  • Honor: 28
    • View Profile
Re: Mixing for crappy speakers
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2016, 04:24:26 pm »
Also interesting: I heard the other day that younger people these days, when given the choice between compressed mp3s and lossless file formats (wav, aiff) actually PREFER the sound of mp3s.  The thinking behind this is that this is the way they've always heard music, and thus, think that's the way it's "supposed" to sound.  Crazy, eh?
Logged
Pages: [1]
« previous next »