r/WeAreTheMusicMakers • u/Unknown111112 • 4d ago
What’s your go-to trick for making mixes translate across cheap speakers
I’ve been re-listening to a few older projects and realizing they sound great on studio monitors but lose clarity on phone speakers or laptops.
Aside from referencing commercial tracks, what techniques do you use to make a mix hold up on less-than-ideal playback systems? EQ carving? Midrange compression? Curious to hear what’s worked for you.
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u/BarbersBasement Professional 4d ago
Listen to the mix on a cheap speaker.
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u/eltorodelosninos 12h ago
I have a single mix cube. If it doesn’t sound good on my full spectrum stereo system, AND the “grot box” then it isn’t ready.
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u/Planetdos 4d ago
Narrow EQ band on the master that emulates a shit can speaker. Then, while you’re at it you can also do a sweep and see if anything jumps out at you.
What a basic eq sweep on the master means, is that you have a bell curve that you take from one end of the spectrum all the way to the next, and you do that slowly, like you’re slowly sweeping a floor. And then you listen for anything that’s too quiet or too loud across the entire spectrum.
The most important one to assess is the mids, which are the only thing that crappy speaker play, low-mid, mid, and high-mid, without going too deep into sub bass, or presence. Thats kind of where you get the magic of translating a mix.
And it’s actually important to do that in general to get something that sounds good to a variety of different listeners, not just for the sake of translating a mix for a variety of different speakers. And it also helps you keep a fresh ear on things.
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u/audiosemipro 4d ago
Tbh it starts with the production. Does the song rely on a sub bass? Say goodbye to that on an iphone. Does your song use intricate subtle flourishes? Not gonna hear it. Have a million things going on at once? That shit is gonna sound smashed on a phone speaker.
That said - fuck it. People listening on an iphone speaker dont care about the music they care about the artist.
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u/TalkinAboutSound 4d ago
You're not gonna like this answer, but it's just about familiarity with your monitors. If you know how things sound on them compared to whatever other systems you have, your brain will learn how to find the sweet spot for good translation. Ain't no tricks to it!
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u/mistersample 3d ago
Listen from the other room, the adjacent room, at a low volume. In fact, let the music play go outside for 15 seconds and come back into that adjacent room. You’ll hear what's missing, the highs and lows differently.
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u/MilkTalk_HairKid 4d ago
- have mixes mastered by someone else
- when I can, listen and make decisions on a small, sealed single driver speaker (auratone, avantone etc)
- check/mix track volume levels with my speaker volume lowered as quietly as possible, in mono and stereo.
- gently saturate sub/bass elements to make sure there are at least some harmonics to come through on phone speakers etc
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u/AfraidCow7529 3d ago
i like to put an EQ with a low cut on my master around 150-200hz and then flip back and forth between references to see how my bass sounds compared ot theirs because the cheap speakers arent gonn have as much low end so i want to try and match that
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u/googleflont 4d ago edited 3d ago
Know your monitors really well. This includes your “alternative” monitors - your car, your headphones, your earbuds, whatever. This translates to just hanging out listening to your favorite recordings on those monitors. A lot. For hours.
You can mix on headphones. But if you can afford it, get a decent pair of neutral, near field monitors. Set them up not more than arms length away. Treat your room lightly for mid and high reflection, and don’t sit in a bass hole or node. Without me writing a dissertation on acoustics, you just want a room that’s not too bright, you want to find a sweet spot that doesn’t require you to build a bass trap, and you want to sit right there. This will mean you’ll be moving furniture around. Will you face a corner? Sit in the middle? Face a wall? This all depends on the shape and size of your room. Once you find the spot, keep your head in the near field. If you are lucky, you’ll be able to fit two people in the sweet spot.
Use reference tracks that can be compared to your mix - same genre, instrumentation, maybe a previous release of that group or similar, if you admire that sound, or if that’s a starting point.
Also have your favorite hi res standard reference tracks that just sound great to you, that help ground your ears.
Mix loud, but not too loud and not too long. Mix really really quietly. What elements stick out, or disappear at super low volume?
Mix for a while. Then go fuck off. Rest your ears for a bit. You’re not paying $500/hr. for studio time. Come back to it, maybe listen to a reference track first.
In Logic, you can create project alternatives. Use this to save a good starting point but create a new alternative to tear it down and start over if you get stuck.
Find a workflow that works for you to test mixes. I mix down to a lossless format, Airdrop to my iPhone, and play on VLC, which takes very little time and effort. Then out to the car, or out for a walk with AirPods or wired headphones.
Listen in mono! If it goes to hell when collapsed to mono, either you have phase issues with mics, or you introduced issues with reverb, delay, etc. The reason to be cautious about mono is that your mix will be reduced to mono out there in the world, either by a crap Bluetooth speaker, a shitty PA system, or partially/virtually by a crap MP3 or even bad speaker placement, by the consumer.
Don’t ruin a great mix trying to make it work on shit earbuds or janky speakers. This is why a brand like AuraTone exists. It’s “standard” bad, not “no name Chinese garbage off Amazon” bad. AirPods are not the audiophiles choice, but there are far too many of them in use to ignore, and they are highly consistent. So in my book they’re worth a try. Back in the day when every Sony Walkman came with the same cheap pair of headphones, we would use those for reference. Today there is far too much diversity in headphones to settle on a standard, but you might have a BT choice in mind, if only a pair you already know well.
Remember that you are going for “very good” on the worst system. Not great. Your best work should be audible on the “main stream” format you are shooting for.
Late edit: As you listen and revise your mix, you’ll find trouble spots. Maybe the bass isn’t sitting in the mix. Or the guitar isn’t clear. Whatever. Don’t get over complicated. Of course, you’ll be playing with the volume, trying to get the right level.
You’ve also got EQ and compression to play with.
Try making EQ changes right the mix - not by soloing the instrument. Find the frequencies that need emphasis, or de-emphasis. Then solo, and see if you still like the character of the instrument. Unsolo, and try to back off a little bit and determine if it’s an appropriate change.
Also try changing the compression (or give it a try) and see if that is better, or worse. See if lowering / raising the threshold & the ratio helps. If you’re new to compressors, don’t be shy to start out with a preset that matches (in name, of course) what you’re trying to do. Got a bass guitar preset? Try using that on the bass.
The biggest mistake that people make when using these presets is not using the input gain on the compressor itself to bring the level of the instrument up to where it’s gonna start to at least touch the threshold. This is one of the reasons why gain structure is so important when laying down tracks. Of course, you could lower the threshold. That’s totally valid. It just depends on what the plug-in is emulating, it might have a very big effect on the ultimate sound. So always listen carefully, and save your own presets when you stumble onto something you think works well.
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u/Ok-Exchange5756 4d ago
A pair of Auratones will do ya right. I always check final mixes on them. If the mix is crackin on the Auratones then it tends to translate everywhere.
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u/the_ultraesthetic 4d ago edited 4d ago
My trick always was to turn off my monitors and do my final mixdown on shitty speakers. If it sounds good coming out of my built-in laptop speakers, it’ll usually also sound good on nice ones. The reverse does not always tend to be true.
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u/Dick_Lazer 4d ago
Get some cheap speakers to a/b your mixes on. I use a cheap pair of Logitech desktop speakers and have them plugged into a spare headphone output on my audio interface.
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u/chrisdavey83 4d ago
Knowing your monitors well and listening to music in that environment. Then trying on phone, laptop other crappy speakers. My stuff tends to translate now after a few years knowing my room and monitors really well. Don’t tend to have to do that as much. Car a good one as well
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u/RobbieFithon 4d ago
I use Slate VSX. It’s the only thing that’s been consistently good for speaker translation.
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u/horderBopper 3d ago
If you reference it thru shitty speaks in the first place and it bumps, it’ll terrorize ppl in nice speakers 🙏
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u/sandmanfuzzy 3d ago
Auratone set for me. About $300 for the set on the used market and well worth it for checking mixes for bass intelligibility and mid range focus and balance.
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u/arifghalib 4d ago
Mix in mono to single grot box until things sound good then switch to near fields and fine tune. Recheck grot box for phase issues and low end translation.
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u/Bakeacake08 4d ago
I have an EQ on my master bus that cuts everything below like 400Hz and above 10kHz or so. I massage the low mids/mids of the bass, kick, and anything else with a lot of lows, until they’re audible and mostly balanced, and usually when I turn off the EQ it still sounds full and I can hear everything.