I just finished some edits on a song on my studio computer with the Wharfedale monitors. Levels were great. Balance, vocals present, backup tracks just right. I brought it downstairs and played the wav file on my Chromebook through a Bose bluetooth speaker and it sounded like crap. Tracks that were just right upstairs were WAY too far out front on that little speaker. It sounded okay in my downstairs office with a Logitech 3 speaker system. That was as an RB file, as a wav file, and even as a 320 sampled MP3. But in here, nope.

HOW do you guys mix this stuff down and master it so it will sound the same through everything I can play it back on?

I am hoping Rog's magic touch will smooth it all out because it's a REALLY good tune! Should have it for you within a week or so.

Eddie, the Wharfdale speakers are likely Hi-Fi audio speakers, not the near field monitors you need to mix with.

Personally I use both head phones and stidio monitors to mix in my home studio. Then I will listen to it on a variety of different speakers and headphones to see how it sounds. My 2 main go tos though are mine and my wife's car sterios. I can usually take notes on what i hear there and adjust it in the studio so that it sounds better. For a serious project like the album I put out last month repeat those steps 3 or 4 times until you're satisfied. Good luck.

I do all of that too Sam. My problem is that when it sounds good "here" but not "there", when I change it for "there" I am then also making changes for "here". I can get one or the other to sound right, but not both.

No, Matt, they are definitely near fields. Got them from Sweetwater years ago.

Wharfedales

https://ask.audio/articles/heres-why-you-should-test-your-mixes-on-multiple-playback-devices

Eddie, I was like you going from the car to other devices trying to get my mix sounding good on everything. I mix with studio monitors, studio headphones and even IPhone ear buds to hear what it sounds like. But the one thing I found that has been working great for me is a iZotope Tonal Balance Control plug-in. It comes with Ozone 8 & Nuetron 2.
I have the advanced versions so I don't know if that is available as a single plug-in on not. There are tons of videos on youtube that show how this works. You might want to check it out.

Brian

Check this out https://shop.audified.com/products/mixchecker.

I had a boss that told me I should seek a high level of excellence and give up on perfection. Often a level of excellence is perfection in the eyes (or ears) of others.

Just a thought

Hi Eddie

When you say different speakers are the audio systems themselves different.
Say in EQ, loudness contours, tone settings bass and treble lift and cut, listening environment, etc.
Or are they all set flat, this will obviously effect what your hear.

Personally I try to make my recordings flat and not in favour of one particular sound system.
That way I or the listener can adjust to their liking at the playback stage to suit the equipment in use.
Mixing is a bit of a black art there is always a trade off, I well remember when each record label had its own EQ curve recorded in and some that were balanced to sound good on cheapo record players needed a lot of unpicking on a good Hi Fi .

Individual tone and level tweaking between the instruments in the song I guess is down to personal choice, and this again is where you may get in trouble at the playback stage if the playback gear has nasty peaks and poor speakers.

As I compromise I often make the final recording with a slight smiley face type EQ
Very similar to the old loudness control setting but not quite as boosted as some of them were. As well as turning the ends up a bit I may pull the mid down a couple of Db I find this helps to get rid of booming in some resonant speaker systems .
Basically I like to leave most of the final whole sound adjustment to the user and their personal sound preferences and for that It is best near to flat,
Just my rambling
Mike

That’s good about the Wharfdale monitors. The link went somewhere else though.

Can you identify what about your mixes is most problematic? For me, it’s always about the bass. Bass, and lower drums. Those are the first things to mix, and perhaps the hardest to get so they don’t boom and muddy a mix. When they are right, the rest falls together easily.

A good place for a mix discussion would be in the Recording forum here.

Well, whether or not I do it may be open to question but FWIW.

I mix (Logic Pro X) at a relatively low volume with small KRK’s. I have a host of Ozone tweaked presets but lately have favored Ozone 8’s master assist. Also and perhaps most importantly I use a reference song - something that is very close to or exactly what I’m aiming for. This gives me a product that to my ears sounds good on the monitors, the Yamaha sub/Polk Audio living room system and in my vehicle.

I don’t care what it sounds like on a mobile device unless, of course, the device is driving good speakers.

Bud

PS I have some very talented friends who are honest with opinions. I have no reticence to seek their opinion on a mix

The link should have been a picture of my desk.



Great example is the song I just wrote and am working with Rog on a master. When I listen to it on my music room computer in RB, it is fine. When I rendered it to a wav it still sounded good up there. When I came downstairs I also used Audition to make it an mp3. Now I expect the compression will take some luster off it, but what happened was that a backing horn section part is now suddenly WAY out front. So to experiment, I connected by bluetooth to my Bose speaker in the living room and played all 3, the SEQ, the wav, and the mp3. I never heard 3 more different outputs in my life. Now if I was a paying customer, I would be upset that the CD I just bought doesn't sound the same everywhere I play it. Someone else mentioned making it dead flat and then adjusting tone when I play it. No, that is absolutely unacceptable to me, because I don't want to have to boost treble for one song, then have to flatten the treble and boost bass for the next one. They should all be pretty much the same. Of course there are professional people who do that every day for a living so I don't have to, but man, we are fighting with this song to keep the tracks level with each other.

This song has been a battle because I have a sound in my head and I am trying to convey the sound using words. 5 different people may interpret words like "rich", "lush', "lavish", "tinny", "distant", "boxy", different. It's like trying to make someone who has never been able to see understand what red is using words. "Red. Like an apple." Well, he's never seen an apple....

Hi Eddie.


I don’t see how you can expect a CD any other recording to sound the same on any bit of gear.
It will sound a lot different on a Boom box than a HI FI system or a transistor radio.

I suspect that the system that is giving you the up front sound for the horns has a nasty peek or resonance somewhere within the Frequency range of the Horns
Either in the amps EQ or the speaker’s frequency response.

If you care to send email me a copy of the recording I will analyze it for you to see if there are any unusual frequency peeks in the recording I doubt it if it sounds good on other systems.
Best regards
Mike

This section confused me.
Listening to 3 different formats on the same Bose system does not mean the CD won't transfer to different systems.
Above, you are comparing how it will sound on iTunes compared to a CD or the original seq file (on that given system).

That was parenthetic. I just can't figure out why a horn or a string line is present and crisp at the perfect mixed level in the seq file, but not in the wav, and then BOOMING in the mp3. They are mixed the same, right? Why rendering to a wav and converting that wav to an MP3 should affect 2 selected tracks (out of 22) is beyond me. It's not THAT being of a deal. I am just being a nerd.

Eddie! The Lava lamp! That's got to be the problem. Where's the Lava lamp?

I saw the picture, but seriously, there were about 20 Facebook-type junk articles under it.

Not to mention the beaded door and tie-dye drapes!!

You mean all that stuff that was on my monitor at the time? Not following what "under it" means.

There was your picture, about an inch high on my iPhone, then two feet of images or ads. This is the URL where your link took me: https://m.imgur.com/qB7TXHE

Looks fine on a normal PC screen. Must not translate well on the phone.

Try a COMPUTER!!! You cell phone only people.....