How do you mix music for different speakers

[Daniel13]

basically i'm having trouble getting my music to sound good on everything. sometimes a mix will sound good on computer speakers with a sub and on headphones but terrible on cell phones, laptop speakers, and ear buds

i put in a few weeks and got it to also sound good on my cell phone but even worse on laptop speakers and earbuds.

this is my soundcloud and the tracks i'm particularly working on is called 72 and there are 3 different versions
https://soundcloud.com/daniel-colvin-13

any pointers would be excellent and greatly appreciated but i'm sort of looking for someone with time to help me trouble shoot my issues since i'm working with outdated recording gear and i'm starting to think that might be one of the issues.

 

[pkgitar]

What are you mainly mixing on? Pretty much all three mixes sound incredibly muffled with no distinction, just rumble and gargle in every possible low to low-mid area.

Give your last mix a few days without listening to it, then go back and listen. Use reference tracks when you're mixing. Like the sound of a certain song or album that you feel would fit your track? Reference.

 

[Daniel13]

mainly using headphones then switching to a computer stereo thing with a subwoofer to double check. at that point i think it sounds pretty good. so i upload to sound cloud and check it on my phone. at that point the first two the drums sound super loud and way too much high end. so for the last mix i actually cut some of the highs and made the rest louder which messed the whole song up.

the last song sounds good on everything except earbuds and laptop speakers for me

also the software i record on is acid music studio (the $40 version of acid pro)

as far as reference goes i just don't know considering i'm in drop D1 and don't djent

 

[Daniel13]

also to clear up a few things, i am looking for a heavy sound similar to lets say rammstein or static-x and i'm thinking i need a more broad EQ vst so i can cut below 30hz

 

[RobbYoung]

All three sound really very dark, I mean rammstein's sound isn't based in the low end. You'll notice, despite the guitars sounding "heavy" they have plenty of clarity and punch to them. Try to separate your guitar and bass tracks, you don't want the guitar just being a glorified bass (despite you tuning below a bass )

For referencing, try Hell Below by periphery, it's a half-step lower tuned than your track, but has a LOT more clarity on the guitars and bass.

Edit: It sounds like the super overpowering low end isn't present on your older demos, could it be you've got some setting changed since then that cuts the bass in your preview, but leaves it for the exported file?

 

[Daniel13]

the older tracks are in drop B i believe and they are straight into the interface using it's distortion and post eq. very straightforward, drop D1 is a whole different beast apparently. my idea was to try to get heavier than most things out but it's looking to be next to impossible

also i already tried recording exactly that way and it sounds like garbage with this tuning. maybe a bigger low E string would clear it up a bit but i still don't think it should be this difficult to get a decent sound considering how amazing it sounds out of my amp

side note, some of my older songs i didn't even bother with mixing or even EQing it honestly, it was as thrown together as possible but still sounded better

 

[RobbYoung]

How are you getting the audio from your amp, is it Mic'd? It's possible the mic may be not well suited to picking up super low frequencies..

 

[col]

Work, work, work. Experience and time will give you that insight. And getting familiar with your gear and how it translates to other systems.

 

[shnizzle]

about the original question, this is where studio monitors would come in.
if you mix on speakers that have a certain sound to them, the mix might end up
really bad on most other systems. studio monitors have (or are supposed to have)
a very neutral representation of what´s going on. mixing on those makes the end
result more applicable to most other systems.

and of course don´t forget ear training and, as been said, use references.
studio monitors won´t do you much good when your ears don´t know what´s
going on and how things are supposed to sound.

 

[Duosphere]

about the original question, this is where studio monitors would come in.
if you mix on speakers that have a certain sound to them, the mix might end up
really bad on most other systems. studio monitors have (or are supposed to have)
a very neutral representation of what´s going on. mixing on those makes the end
result more applicable to most other systems..

That's the opposite.
Studio monitors are reference monitors, meaning you LISTEN to mixes you like and you want to get the same results.
Example:

Let's say you wanna make a song sounds like Beat It - Michael Jackson.
When you listen to Beat It through your reference monitors, you'll get used to how bass, mid and treble were mixed then you will apply them to your song so no matter in whatever system you listen to it, it'll sound like Beat It cause your song sounds close to it.
In other words, you listen to a REFERENCE song(mix) through your REFERENCE monitors then try to get the closest mix possible.

If in a nightclub you listened to the most amazing electronic music(cd) which made your heart almost stopped, you don't have to buy all those speakers the nightclub has, you just listen to that cd through your monitors then mix your song close to it, this way when people play it in that nightclub it'll sound the same as the REFERENCE song(cd).

That's it.

 

[Daniel13]

How are you getting the audio from your amp, is it Mic'd? It's possible the mic may be not well suited to picking up super low frequencies..

all those songs were ran through a distortion pedal into my interface. been kinda testing out mic'ing my amp but haven't had time since i work thirds and am rarely awake enough during the day to try it. maybe this weekend i can do a quick recording like that. (cause honestly through the amp it sounds incredibly beefy)


i think reference monitors might jump up on my wishlist now, i just wasn't sure if that'd help me but it really seems like they would. was worried my software was just too terrible to work with or maybe my interface was just garbage. working on an extremely limited budget so gotta get only what i need.

 

[Daniel13]

Work, work, work. Experience and time will give you that insight. And getting familiar with your gear and how it translates to other systems.

i was thinking that too, i mean i played normal guitar for way longer than my skills show, and was thinking this might just be that "different" of an instrument.

 

[The Reverend]

That's the opposite.
Studio monitors are reference monitors, meaning you LISTEN to mixes you like and you want to get the same results.
Example:

Let's say you wanna make a song sounds like Beat It - Michael Jackson.
When you listen to Beat It through your reference monitors, you'll get used to how bass, mid and treble were mixed then you will apply them to your song so no matter in whatever system you listen to it, it'll sound like Beat It cause your song sounds close to it.
In other words, you listen to a REFERENCE song(mix) through your REFERENCE monitors then try to get the closest mix possible.

If in a nightclub you listened to the most amazing electronic music(cd) which made your heart almost stopped, you don't have to buy all those speakers the nightclub has, you just listen to that cd through your monitors then mix your song close to it, this way when people play it in that nightclub it'll sound the same as the REFERENCE song(cd).

That's it.

Nah, fam. Studio monitors are not the same as reference monitors. Studio monitors are designed to be as transparent as possible, with as flat a response as possible along a huge range, like 24-24,000khz or whatever. Reference monitors are what you play your mixdown in to see if it stands up. You'll rarely go from mixing on your studio monitors, getting a solid mix, and plugging it into something a consumer would use and being surprised.

I'm a believer in mixing with what you have. I've found that if you listen to music via a certain speaker system, you'll naturally learn where it boosts and cuts. So if you listen to a mix that sounds great to you, and you're really familiar with your speaker setup, just go for that sound. You'll EQ .... until your ear tells you it's right. And odds are that your setup isn't making someone's bad mix sound good, so you can trust it a bit.

 

[pkgitar]

as far as reference goes i just don't know considering i'm in drop D1 and don't djent

That's not what I mean by reference. Doesn't have to be in your tuning or genre. Though preferably you'd find something in a similar genre.

also to clear up a few things, i am looking for a heavy sound similar to lets say rammstein or static-x

This is what I mean by reference A/B your track to some Rammstein or Static X. Listen to the levels and how the instruments are sitting in the mix with each other.

 

[Duosphere]

Nah, fam. Studio monitors are not the same as reference monitors. Studio monitors are designed to be as transparent as possible, with as flat a response as possible along a huge range, like 24-24,000khz or whatever. Reference monitors are what you play your mixdown in to see if it stands up. You'll rarely go from mixing on your studio monitors, getting a solid mix, and plugging it into something a consumer would use and being surprised.

I'm a believer in mixing with what you have. I've found that if you listen to music via a certain speaker system, you'll naturally learn where it boosts and cuts. So if you listen to a mix that sounds great to you, and you're really familiar with your speaker setup, just go for that sound. You'll EQ .... until your ear tells you it's right. And odds are that your setup isn't making someone's bad mix sound good, so you can trust it a bit.

I wasn't talking about studio/reference monitors, what I meant was use whatever you have as a reference, the same you said above "I'm a believer...", listen to cds you like through your monitors(whatever they are), they will be your reference to mix your songs.

 

[Daniel13]

I wasn't talking about studio/reference monitors, what I meant was use whatever you have as a reference, the same you said above "I'm a believer...", listen to cds you like through your monitors(whatever they are), they will be your reference to mix your songs.

i will at least try that this weekend too, never really tried using a reference song or anything, heck back when i first started recording i only listened to my music just to force myself to experiment more lol

i might be able to try testing on another set of headphones as well the ones i'm using are really cheap but i thought they sounded good, might not be well suited for mixing though.

 

[Duosphere]

i will at least try that this weekend too, never really tried using a reference song or anything, heck back when i first started recording i only listened to my music just to force myself to experiment more lol

i might be able to try testing on another set of headphones as well the ones i'm using are really cheap but i thought they sounded good, might not be well suited for mixing though.

NO headphone is suited for mixing.Never mix with headphones, they're used to check things like noises, delays, pans etc.

 

[illimmigrant]

i will at least try that this weekend too, never really tried using a reference song or anything, heck back when i first started recording i only listened to my music just to force myself to experiment more lol

i might be able to try testing on another set of headphones as well the ones i'm using are really cheap but i thought they sounded good, might not be well suited for mixing though.

Having a reference track makes all the difference. Keep in mind your ears get used to sounds very quickly. A mix that truly sounds terrible will start to seem not so bad if you've listening to it long enough without having a point of reference.
So stick in your DAW your favorite sounding track from a band who is playing something similar to what you got going on and reference it often while you mix and aim for that kind of quality.

 

[p0ke]

As far as the mix goes, the version that only says 72 sounds the best to me. But yeah, the drums are a bit overpowering, I'd especially lower the cymbals. And that guitar tone, it manages to sound both muffled and squishy at the same time. The bass sounds pretty good whenever it was audible, I really think you should cut the lowest frequencies on the guitar and let the bass handle them. You also need to find the freq's that cause the squishiness and EQ them out

As for monitors, I'm with The Reverend on mixing with whatever you have. I do all my mixing with headphones (pretty decent half closed studio ones, not some hifi rubish), which I realize isn't ideal, but since I can't afford monitors at the moment that just has to do. And I'm getting pretty decent results, IMO. Check the song in my signature, it's my latest work. I used At the Gates's Slaughter of the Soul as reference for mixing the drums, and I think I got decently close. The rest is still WIP, but I'm getting there.

Either way, don't give up

 

[Daniel13]

will definitely try the reference song idea and work on using more of these suggestions, unfortunately my weekend is getting a bit busy already and won't get to do much recording if any

thanks for all the replies