Recordings sound great at home but horrible in cars

[combichristt]

just as the title says... i make a song and it sounds great on my monitors but when it comes to being in cars or cheap speakers it sounds horrible. but other music sounds perfectly fine. help?

[Rus]

It's most likely a mastering issue. I'm definitely not an expert on it, but from replies I've read on other forums, it all comes down to mastering. It takes years of serious dabbling to master it!

If anything, I'd look for someone who has mastering expertise.

The other songs that sound fine on other systems have been correctly mixed and mastered. Play those other songs on your monitors to see if you notice a difference. If mastered correctly, it should be near to completely unnoticeable; however, only a trained ear will be able to catch it.

The quality of the system makes a difference, but it is very little - especially if the projects sound the same across multiple systems. Cheap system may sound better than expensive ones, but again, it comes down to how the projects were mixed and mastered.

[Bill Melater]

This is where you get into spectral analysis and trying for flat curves, or flat for the genre. Voxengo Curve EQ can copy the eq curve of a recording that's similar to yours and apply it to your recording with often times good effect. Here's an article: http://www.harmonycentral.com/docs/DOC-1140/version/3


One thing I've noticed is that when I mix never have enough highs compared to the pro recordings. This really doesn't do justice, but most pro recordings are more like "/" low to high freq. (especially as to how you have to adjust the EQ to get a more flat curve) Mine more often resemble "~" That low mid end will kill you with mud and distortion that will drive a reference system crazy, yet sound great on boom box headphones.

[Ianpb]

I don't know if there's any truth in it, but there was a rumour that the Tamla Motown studios used to tweak their mix through transistor radio speakers to ensure it sounded reasonably good on small portable devices.

It could likely be that your PC speakers have a badly uneven frequency response, and that your ears have become accustomed to it. Being that it's unlikely you can afford a spectrum analyzer to correctly equalize your system, maybe you could just try playing some good quality (high bitrate) MP3s in order to get your bass level right, but don't use hip hop kind of stuff to do this. Try using some high quality full spectrum 60's or 70's pop or rock such as The Beatles and Beach Boys stuff to get it about right, but don't make it bass heavy.

You could also tweak your EQ using a graphic equalizer VST at the end mix-down stage. What I mean is, get it sounding as near as perfect on your PC speakers as normal, then add a graphic equalizer right at the end of the chain. After some trial and error tweaking the EQ and saving it to a rewriteable CD/DVD, and going back and forth to your car to check the result, once you're satisfied that the sound is good, save those EQ settings and introduce them every time at the last stage of all your mixes after you get it sounding right.

I would also suggest you get some good studio quality headphones with a flattish response as an extra check, something like Shure SRH440 or Sony MDR-V6, or better still (if you can afford it) the BeyerDynamic DT-800 or Denon AH-D7000 (megabucks), but definitely not DJ or cheap budget 'monitor' headphones.

Just a suggestion or three.

[Sungodv]

Your car stereo is your FRIEND! It will show deficiencies in your overall mix.
There is no easy answer, but if you study mixing you'll find that this can be fixed.
There's some good advice here in this thread if you pick and chose....and try.
Don't give up.